1.5% of The Population Control It All

I remember (in the not-so-distant past) an all hat, no cattle Yale graduate who surrounded himself with Zionist Jews in positions of vast control in our government. I even listed many of these criminals (many are/were “dual citizens” with Israel) in a blog post here. I have been assembling the current administration’s “Jewish List” and then saw a very good post at The Ether Zone which lays out a nice encompassing listing of Jews and/or Zionists that are in the Democratic Obama Administration.

Please read the entire article linked below:

Hollow Christianity

Death To Freedom

by: Al Cronkite

Besides the point made about evangelical Christians in America who fall all over themselves supporting a really stupid and erroneous theology and besides the similar experiences I have had with Mr Cronkite, it was the lists that I wanted to share with you.

My rant is not about religion, it is about the lies and control of Israel over our country and our sycophantic leaderships never-ending kowtowing to Zionism’s directives.

I want some sane person to explain to me how it is mathematically possible for 1.5% of the US population to hold so much power in a country? Is it simply the false meme that Jews are smarter than everyone else? If that were true, one must explain the idiotic shit we do as a nation. The point is that it doesn’t matter which “party” is in control, Zionism and blind allegiance to Israel and its Fascist directions will reign.

But is that good for America, as many Dispensationalist Christians seem to swallow from the likes of Hagey and other preachers, not to mention almost EVERY political congressperson alive? Just look at this list and realize that even your favorite “libertarian” is a supporter of Israel and Zionism, apparently, for they (at this point in time) are indistinguishable. It holds for EVERY Republican POTUS candidate:

They (Zionist Jews) control our media, they control our money, they are dominate in business circles, and will determine the identity of the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate.   Michele Bachman, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee are all fanatical Dispensational supporters of Israel, Mitt Romney is a Mormon, Barber, Giuliani and Gingrich are tired pragmatic politicians who would (and have) sell (or sold) the country down the drain for less than thirty pieces of silver.  All of these power seekers have been to Israel for conferences with Prime Minister Netanyahu.   Both Ron Paul and his son, Rand, support Israel. Gingrich, Romney, and Jon Huntsman have condemned Obama for “throwing Israel under the bus”, Gary Johnson has met with Netanyahu and supports Israel and Rick Santorum has called for a holy war.

Yes, even that radical, Gary Johnson, knows where the real butter is for his bread. Just look at those fools in that list and understand that they will have allegiance to Israel and Zionism, but they don’t give half a rat’s ass about you or even the country they hail from.

But, let’s not simply focus on “that side” of the monstrous false two-party paradigm system. The fact is that Obama’s administration and almost each and every democrat, too, is in bed with the Zionist Jew money bag machinery:

Rahm Emanuel – White House Chief of Staff; son of a Zionist terrorist; dual-citizen of Israel and America (Emanuel served in Israel’s military during the First Gulf War instead of the U.S. military)

Joe Biden – A self-proclaimed Zionist, Biden stated about Iran, “Israel can determine for itself—it’s a sovereign nation—what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

Ron Klain – Chief of Staff to the Vice President.

Mona Sutphen – Deputy White House Chief of Staff; 2nd behind Rahm Emanuel.

David Axelrod – Special Adviser to the President.

Tim Geithner – Treasury Secretary, former President of the New York Fed’.

Paul Volcker – Chair of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (and former Chairman of the Fed).

Lawrence (Larry) Summers (Samuelson) – Director of the White House National Economic Council, Wall Street executive, and World Banker… no conflict of interest here, eh?

Jared Bernstein – Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to the Vice President.

Gary Gensler – Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Elena Kagan – Solicitor General of the United States, Department of Justice – and Obama’s new Supreme Court Nominee.

Sally Katzen – Major legal adviser to Obama-Biden.

Eric Lander and Harold E. Varmus – Co-Chairs of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science/Technology.

Ellen Moran – White House Director of Communications… which is why we don’t communicate!

Peter Orszag – Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Penny Pritzker – Obama’s National Finance Chair during election, billionare of the Chicago crime boss family, the Pritzkers.

Robert Reich – Economic adviser to Obama-Biden.

Dennis Ross – Obama’s Ambassador-At-Large in the (entire) Middle East, Obama’s “top envoy” (so a Zionist Jew is in charge of the Arab/Israeli Conflict).

Robert Rubin – Economic adviser to Obama-Biden, former Treasury Secretary, and ultra-greedy Wall Street crook.

Daniel B. Shapiro – Head of the Middle East Desk at the National Security Council (another Jew involved in foreign policy matters involving the Middle East); also a major Washington lobbyist.

Mary Schapiro – Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, served in every Presidential administration since Reagan, also an executive for Duke Energy and Kraft Foods meaning she regulates Wall Street as a Wall Street executive (what ever happened to conflicts of interest?).

Barney Frank – Chairman, United States House Committee on Financial Services.

Phil Schiliro – Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, also Henry Waxman’s long-time Chief of Staff.

Neal Wolin – Deputy Secretary, U.S. Treasury Department.

Lael Brainard – Under Secretary, U.S. Treasury Department.

Richard C. Holbrooke – Special Envoy to Pakistan/Afghanistan.

Stuart Levey – Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Jason Furman – Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget.

Jeffrey Zeints – Chief Performance Officer to streamline government and cut costs as well as Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget.

Sheila Bair – Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Karen Mills – Administrator, Small Business Administration.

Jon Leibowitz – Chairman, Federal Trade Commission.

Douglas H. Shulman – Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Neil M. Barofsky – Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP).

James B. Steinberg – Deputy Secretary of State, second in rank only to Hillary Clinton in foreign policy matters.

Jacob Lew – Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, second in rank only to Hillary Clinton in foreign policy matters.

Jeffrey D. – Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (Includes Mideast).

Lee Feinstein – Foreign Policy Advisor.

Eric Lynn – Middle East Policy Advisor (again, a Zionist Jew advising on Arab affairs?).

Dennis Ross – Special Advisor for the Gulf (Iran) and Southwest Asia to the Secretary of State.

Steven L. Rattner – Director, Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry .

Kenneth R. Feinberg – Special Master for Compensation, U.S. Treasury Department.

Mara Rudman – Foreign Policy Advisor.

Julius Genachowski – Chair, Federal Communications Commission.

Dr. Margaret Hamburg – Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein – Deputy Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration.

Susan Sher – Chief of Staff for First Lady Michelle Obama.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden – Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Neal S. Wolin – Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.

Michael S. Barr – Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions.

David S. Cohen – Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing.

Christina D. Romer (white) – Married to Jewish husband David H. Romer, Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers.

Douglas W. Elmendorf - Director, Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Jon D. Leibowitz – Chairman, Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Sheila C. Bair – Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) .

John E. Bowman – Director, Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).

Karen G. Mills – Administrator, Small Business Administration (SBA).

Mary L. Schapiro – Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Gary G. Gensler - Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Daniel J. Roth – President and Chief Executive Officer, National Futures Association (NFA).

Duncan L. Niederauer – Chief Executive Officer & Director, NYSE Euronext.

Robert Greifeld – Chief Executive Officer, NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

Lloyd C. Blankfein – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Robert B. Zoellick – President, The World Bank.

Stephen Roach – Manageing Director and Economist of Morgan Stanley.

Martin Feldstein – Director of American International Group (AIG).

Alan Fishman - CEO of Washington Mutual.

George Soros – Major player in all things, Quantum (hedge) Fund.

Matthew Kabaker – Deputy Assistant Secretary, Counselor to the Secretary.

Lewis Alexander – Counselor to the Secretary.

Lee Sachs – Counselor to the Secretary.

Jake Siewert – Counselor to the Secretary.

Gene Sperling – Counselor to the Secretary.

Ben Shalom Bernanke – Chairman, Federal Reserve.

Donald L. Kohn – Vice Chairman.

Kevin M. Warsh – Married to Jewish wife Jane Lauder.

Eric S. Rosengren – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Charles I. Plosser – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Jeffrey M. Lacker – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

James B. Bullard – President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Gary H. Stern – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Thomas M. Hoenig – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Richard W. Fisher – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Janet L. Yellen – President, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Regulatory Czar – Cass Sunstein.

Pay Czar – Kenneth Feinberg.

Guantanomo/Military Czar – Daniel Fried.

Car Czar – Steven Rattner.

Border Czar – Alan Bersin.

Climate Czar - Todd Stern.

Global Warming Czar - Carol Browner – Socialist International, that advocates “global governance.” Not Jewish, but very supportive of Zionist and communist/socialist ideals —-this is only a partial list.   Read more here.

Obviously, these people are all over the leadership and administration, but look at who controls the money (as in Big Banks and the Federal Reserve offices). You can call me whatever name you so desire (anti-Semite or whatever), but for any legitimacy in that claim, you better explain how it is possible for such a small number of people (Zionists and Jews, or Zionist-Jews) to have so much control and to be in the halls of this country’s leadership. Frankly, the math doesn’t work. The odds are not there, which means the “fix” is in. In other words, these people are getting leadership roles (at the very least, they get the ears of those who ARE actual leaders) but there aren’t enough of them to support their numbers in any legitimate way.

But I’ll wait until someone can correct me and my math.

The work quoted was:

“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”

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My Favorite reTHUGlican Is Winning The 2012 POTUS Election Polls

About the first 10 seconds is all that is necessary:

I have said here and other places many times that I will never vote for an R or D ever again. I simply cannot back the false paradigm and lie that controls our country and the minds of so many totally ignorant Americans who still cannot make the connection that they are duped. Stupid is as stupid does.

But what if I HAD to vote R? Who could it be?

Could it be this idiot in a skirt?

Jesus Christ, people! Really? You would even take 2 seconds to consider her?

I mean, you could always choose Palin, right? If it is an attractive woman who is blatantly stupid and nothing more than a caricature to attract a dumbed down citizenry, then at least go for the babe.

You could go for Romney or that murder-loving preacher man who seems to think that prayer is in the shape of a missile.

You could possibly look to Ron Paul, who from a fiscal and military standpoint looks sort of promising (however from a social perspective, he isn’t much better than anyone else, I am afraid). My wish is that he would dump the R and I might consider him, but he isn’t likely to do so.

So who else? That dumbass and perpetually “broke” rich man, Trump?

I suppose that early on my favorite is Gary Johnson. Fiscally he is likely the soundest of all those running (if “conservatism” is actually what you appreciate about the false paradigm R Party). I like his ideas of looking at things from a cost plus benefit to see if what we are doing is actually worth the money spent to carry out the idiocy. Cannabis reform is a huge plank for him to use. One that could either make or totally break his campaign, depending on how brainwashed and stupid the voter remains.

I’d like to know more about is stance on the military, if we truly want to see how “fiscally conservative” he really is.

What do you think? Forget the R’s and vote for the imaginary “lesser of two evils” packaged as a demoRAT?

If you like what you see here at The Revolt, please subscribe via Email subscription or by the RSS Feed button found on the upper right hand corner of this page and/or hit the Share Button at the bottom of the post to share via various means.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

B’Man’s Redneck Watch: Remove Your Hat During Church

Praise God?

That’s What Alaska Gets, Electing A MILF Instead of a Stalin!

Now Romney is our only hope…

h/t Undeniable Liberalism

AIG’s Congressional Bonus Plan

The thievery is even bigger than I wrote about yesterday. Sure, The Obama Man is part of it, but it reaches deep, across both aisles (heavily Dem last election… imagine them picking the winner for us). Max Baucus and Chris Dodd (the two heaviest hitters chairing the two committees that oversee AIG) got the most. How convenient is that? Just a coincidence?

Massie Ritsch at Opensecrets has an article that addresses and breaks down the moneys sent to Congress from AIG. And the redneck Sheople said in unison, “Its just a coincidence.”

Amen?

Before the Fall, AIG Payouts Went to Washington

As long as everyone’s talking today about AIG’s payouts to its executives and foreign banks, let’s remember the payouts AIG has made over the years to politicians. In the last 20 years American International Group (AIG) has contributed more than $9 million to federal candidates and parties through PAC and individual contributions. That’s enough to rank AIG on OpenSecrets.org’s Heavy Hitters list, which profiles the top 100 contributors of all time.

Over time, AIG hasn’t shown an especially partisan streak, splitting evenly the $9.3 million it has contributed since 1989. In the last election cycle, though, 68 percent of contributions associated with the company went to Democrats. Two senators who chair committees charged with overseeing AIG and the insurance industry, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), are among the top recipients of AIG contributions. Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee and has collected more money from AIG in his congressional career than from any other company–$91,000. And with more than $280,000, AIG has been the fourth largest contributor to Dodd, who chairs the Senate’s banking committee. President Obama and his rival in last year’s election, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), are also high on the list of top recipients.

AIG has been a personal investment for lawmakers, too. Twenty-eight current members of Congress reported owning stock in AIG in 2007, worth between $2.5 million and $3.3 million. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), one of the richest members of Congress, was by far the biggest investor in AIG, with stock valued around $2 million.

Last year AIG and its subsidiaries spent about $9.7 million on federal lobbying, or about $53,000 for every day Congress was in session in 2008. The company’s spending on advocacy last year was down from an all-time high of $11.4 million spent on lobbying in 2007.

Let me ask you rednecks, at what point is it that you have had enough? What has to be done before you realize that they are ALL, including your beloved emotional investment, Barack Obama, complicit and a part of the scheme? When will you poor, ignorant rednecks realize that the reTHUGs and Dems are identical, except in the wedge issues that mean NOTHING in light of what is going on. That you pick fights over abortion and “Socialism” when they are robbing you and your dear little old mother blind?

When will you stupid city assholes who keep defending the Democrats finally wake up? When will you country fuckers understand that there has never been a right-winger who gives a fuck about you?

They do NOT care one iota about you, except to control and get (written as “steal”) your money. Aren’t you even mildly pissed, you ObamaManiacs who invested your soul into a man who is a part of the ravaging of your life’s savings and continues to implement a “plan” who’s goal is NOT to help you, but to help the rich (with the slight possibility that something will “trickle down” to your poor ass)?

How gullible and stupid are you people when it is this god damned obvious?

The only thing that has “trickled down” since RayGun’s acting performance is the shit. The money stays there, making less for you. But we sure as hell get the shit.

AIG’s bonus plan is only a minuscule part of the screwing we are getting. Its one of those shiny little objects to focus attention on, while the real thivery is going on in the vault. Things are much worse than you are believing right now. The MSM isn’t telling you and those Democratic sycophantic websites that you rely on so much aren’t giving you the whole truth, just the regurgitated bullshit from their heroes like Obama and any other crooked asshole that calls themselves a Democrat (but what about their attack on the Blue Dogs, B’Man?). There is no such thing.

The whole god damned group is right-wing, but you so called lefties apparently don’t know the difference between left and right. There is only corruption (sorry Dennis and Ron, your two lone voices mean so little at this point that you aren’t helping much). I respect them both but they sold out to Party in many ways. They had no choice.

But the real problem is you ignorant and sheople-like rednecks.

As long as you remain ignorant to what is happening, they are going to have a windfall. And when that is over, there will be nothing except government service, FEMA camps or poverty for you.

They are constructing these camps right now because they know what is coming. Thing is, it will be too late then. They will have a secure little place to put you when you finally get outraged and grab your gun. But what about now? Why wait till you are that pissed? Why not get verbal?

Because you are a bunch of clueless dumbasses if you believe everything is going to be all right and that they are looking out for you.

Thanks a lot, you ignorant assholes, for putting your fingers in your ears. Thanks for considering lip-sticked bulldogs vs Muslim Terroist Socialist Black men. Thanks for worrying so deeply about Christianity’s place in America, allthewhile ignoring the things Christ actually taught and represented. Thanks for becoming the blind lemmings who are herding me with you over the cliff.

Fucking Sheople.

To those who do understand and are fighting to show these idiots that they have been lined up in front of a firing squad, but they are so stupid that they think they are getting some chocolate government handout: Thank you! There aren’t many of you, but you have my support.

WTF Thursday: In Palin We Trust

Linked by Alternet, I read this blog post at Socialogical Images about a Palin Look-alike contest at a Nevada Strip Club. Funny and the ladies aren’t too bad.

There will be those who consider this sexist or whatever, but I believe all is fair in love and politics. The fact is that this woman has made her entire career using this very same sexual exploitation and you women know it. So don’t go there to defend her.

Speaking for myself, I do not think the woman is all that attractive. She is pretty, yes, but being attractive means more to me. Being “attractive” means that people want to be around or close to you. I wouldn’t spend 2 minutes with this maniac, Palin. And even if she isn’t a maniac, she is a calculating scurge that is simply playing a role that was thrust upon her. Her entire career, from what I have read has been nothing but lies and using other’s power and influence to go places (like the Governor’s mansion).

I am not fooled by it. I am not fooled into thinking that her hunting makes her anything special. An ability to shoot animals from a helicopter doesn’t show me anything attractive, but causes me to want to run the other way.

Yet, there are men who want to spend time with her (for whatever reason). I don’t get it, because I have had the luxury (if we could call it that) of spending ‘time’ with some of the most beautiful women around (there was a time I was considered a “catch”, myself) and what I inevitably found out is that they use whatever beauty they have to cover up shortfalls in other areas (usually intellect or passion).

To this old man, attractiveness is so much more than a pretty body and face. It is the actual desire to want to spend other, less physical time with the person that means more to me.

Grudge-f*cking is no longer a worthy goal for this old man. But it appears McBush has no qualms with it. Must be that 24 hour Levitra.

Surely your out after strike 4… right?

 Strike four for Palin on V.P. description

[there is a video of this entire thing but I can't get it uploaded...hint B'man]

The governor is still clueless about what the vice president does

CAMPAIGN COMMENT

By Keith Olbermann

Anchor, ‘Countdown’ msnbc.com updated 5:12 p.m. ET, Tues., Oct. 21, 2008

 

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27313586#27313586

I suggested last night that until the election, we could very easily wind up doing a Special Comment here every show.

It was in turn suggested to me that while events may warrant them, this would certainly render that word “Special” for two weeks anyway inoperative.

Good point. So tonight, as promised, a Campaign Comment on the continuing adventures of Governor Sarah Palin in the big leagues or “Are You Smarter Than A Third Grader.”

Q: Finally governor we’ve been trying to engage some local grade schoolers for the last few elections. We do a feature called ‘questions from the third grade.’ Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: Aw, that’s something that Piper would ask me, as a second grader, also. That’s a great question, Brandon, and a Vice President has a really great job, because not only are they there to support the President agenda, they’re like a team member, the teammate to that President. But also, they’re in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it’s a great job and I look forward to having that job.

Oh! I’m so sorry, Governor! The correct answer can be found in the Constitution of the United States.

Article One, Section Three— “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” So, the Vice President is not in charge of Jack, Governor, let alone in charge of the Senate. And you are not smarter than a third-grader.

On the one level it is hilarious and entertaining that the Republican nominee cannot correctly answer the question “What Does The Vice President Do?” I mean, that first reference to the Vice President comes not 600 words into the Constitution. And the other meaty references are pretty simple:

Article Two, Section One —”In case of the removal of the President from Office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President.”

There’s the 20th Amendment— you’re done on January 20th and the 25th Amendment —if the President’s incapacitated, you’re the acting Pres. It’s so simple, really, one could memorize those four points pretty easily wouldn’t take long.

Brandon Garcia could do it in the third grade. So, on the one level, this is pretty damn silly. The Sarah Palin material, as Tina Fey might be able to say, just writes itself. As it does, it makes stupid mistakes, but it still writes itself.

Except there are two very serious aspects to this. Governor, do you really think you’d be “in charge of the United States Senate?” Do you really want to suggest that you think if you “want to” you “can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes?”

We’re just wrapping up eight years of a Vice President who had no clue what his damned job consisted of, couldn’t even correctly find his governmental branch with both hands.

The last thing anybody in this country wants, Republican or Democrat, is another Buccaneer in there, making it up as they go along, and, in your case, presuming you can stride in to the Senate and change policy if you want to! Besides which, Governor, exactly how on earth could you not have the correct answer by now?

It’s not like this is the first time you’ve been asked about the Vice Presidency and gone all Miss South Carolina on us.

 

LARRY KUDLOW: Is this police-flap state investigation going to disqualify you from becoming Senator McCain’s vice presidential candidate?

PALIN: As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.

That was on the 31st of July on CNBC, Governor. Even giving you the biggest benefit of the doubt, that your later claim that that was just a lame attempt at a joke you couldn’t come up with the correct job description on the second try? What am I saying? The third try!

 

GWEN IFILL (OCTOBER 2, 2008): Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day.

PALIN: In my comment there, it was a lame attempt at a joke and yours was a lame attempt at a joke, too, I guess, because nobody got it…Of course we know what a vice president does. And that’s not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I’m thankful that the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president’s policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.

No! No, Governor, the Constitution does not allow “a bit more authority” “if the vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate…” You would not be some kind of Senatorial Hall Monitor. You would not be a Veto, or a Censor, or a Balance.

And even if you think you would somehow obtain those powers from somebody, don’t pretend the Constitution will give them to you!

PALIN: That thankfully, our founders were wise enough to say, we have this position and it’s Constitutional. Vice presidents will be able to be not only the position flexible, but it’s going to be sort of those other duties as assigned by the president. It’s a simple thing. I don’t think that was a gaff at all in stating what the truth is. And that is we’ve got flexibility in the position. The president will be directing in a lot of respects what the vice president does. The vice president, of course, is not a member—or a part of the legislative branch, except to oversee the Senate. That alone provides a tremendous amount of flexibility and authority if that vice president so chose to use it.

You’re wrong! You’ve memorized everything else, Governor. You couldn’t memorize the job description in three months? Four tries? I mean, I’d like my President and Vice President to have memorized the Constitution, and abide by it. Or at least, I’d like them to know more about the Constitution than I do. Or than Brandon Garcia does. Maybe I’m raising the bar too high but at least wait until you achieve office before trying to seize power extra-Constitutionally!

“The founders” were not George Bush and Dick Cheney! Gimme something to work with here, Governor or go home! And don’t forget to take your lovely parting gifts with you. Including the Home Version of The Vice President Game.

 

 

She stands before the powder keg with a match,,,

Chicago Sun-Times 10/08

Sarah’s Silent says much!

‘South Pacific” is a morality play for our time. Sarah Palin is the Ensign Nellie Forbush — an All-American girl as racist, this time a racist with her eye on the White House. She can stir up crowds to shout “Kill him!” at the mention of the presidential candidate of the other party a couple of weeks before the national election.

In the restaurant, before I walked over to the theater, all the conversations were about the election — New Yorkers speak loudly in their noisy city for fear they will not be heard. The common opinion was that they didn’t know enough about Barack Obama to make a decision about him — as if there were not two books about his life. That plea implies that they don’t know enough about him to accept his strange name or his skin color. It is, of course, impossible that they could ever know enough. He isn’t one of us.

It is all part of a plan cooked up by John McCain to turn the major issue in the election from the economy to the character of the Democratic candidate. At this stage of the contest, I don’t think “kitchen-sink strategy” (as in “we’ll throw the kitchen sink at him”) will change the outcome of the election. I don’t believe the polls that suggest a possible Obama landslide. Playing the race card explicitly merely guarantees what I have thought from the beginning — racism in this country precludes the possibility of a sepia-colored man becoming president. However, the last-ditch attack on him guarantees that McCain and Palin will be blamed as the candidates who were content to hear crowds calling for the death of Obama. Their silence regarding standing before people calling for the ‘death, lynching…of ”… and the calling Obama a “traitor”– tells much about them both internally.

Ensign Nellie Forbush (the incomparable Kelli O’Hara) finds redemption at the end of South Pacific. She turns to her true love and escapes the obligation to wait for the enchanted evening on which he might suddenly might appear across a crowded room. For Sarah Palin, such an easy escape hardly seems possible. How can she ever justify silence when she heard a cry for lynching? To provoke a racist– to allow the flame to be fanned– to be a part of what all America fears down deep because of the underbelly of our Nation, there are no words for her. No, none at all.

McCain increasingly acts like an angry, befuddled cancer survivor and treats his rival like a field n—– who is just barely human. He does not talk to him, will not shake hands with him, will not even look at him, walks behind him when he is speaking to distract the audience. Obama’s languid, legs-crossed security on the bar stool must infuriate McCain all the more. Who does he think he is? He has no right to run for president and McCain does. Has not he served his country all his life? Has not he traveled the whole world? Has not he been involved in every major event of the last four decades? Does he not know everyone who is worth knowing? And what does his rival have to offer besides intolerable arrogance? Black skin and glib language? Is not Obama the one who is playing the race card? Therefore he must be exposed as what he is — a pushy fellow with a glib tongue who has no right to challenge a great American like John McCain.

McCain has little time left. He has been been cheated in other elections. Troubled and distracted, he has forgotten his strong words about honor. When one is faced with a shallow man who is running on the basis of his skin color, one can hardly worry about personal honor.

Now the furies are gathering.

Palin Presidency

Let’s have a bit of fun, shall we. Click on everything in the Oval Office once you enter!!

http://palinaspresident.com/

The last 48 hours–

I’m not the first to say it, but who can contest the opinion that Sarah Palin is completely ill-equipped to be vice president of the United States. I wonder if she has ever spent time thinking about, or even reading about, any important national or international issues. Some think it is sexism that has encouraged the McCain camp to keep her under wraps, but more and more are realizing, Democrat and Republican alike, she’s not the person for the job. Sen. McCain you have frequently stated that you always put your country ahead of everything else. In this case, that is simply untrue.
We’ve seen how influential the Vice President can be; one has only to look to the past 8 years to know that.
Thursday evening in the nationally broadcast, prime-time debate, between the Vice Presidential choices, we met a woman who has been schooled and prepped these past few days, at the McCain estate in Sedona, on how to answer any and every question thrown her way. Or at least, smile, wink and just answer another question she knew the answer to.
What if they sincerely and pressingly questioned her about any of the many hugely complex issues facing this nation, which will likely be of prime concern for years?
Immigration, Social Security, Health-care costs and more. I noticed Biden just seemed to decide to hang-in at the rate and pace offered. Anything else– like answering with the opinions and knowledge he does have regarding what is going on within our countries government and also exactly how ‘John’ did vote–; would be mistaken my ‘Palin’ praisers as hurtful or something ridiculous. I agree with Newsweek’s Fareed Zacaria when he wrote “…for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible”.
Amen.

I’ve had the good fortune to read an interview by Professor Joseph E.Stiglitz., the Columbia University economist. It was shortly after his being awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001. He also served as Chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. He was able to get complex ideas across clearly, coherently and well enough for a simple soul like myself to understand. He made sense then and is doing so in his comments about the rescue package, bail out of the failings on Wall Street and Main Street. He wrote this morning, “The bailout package the House defeated on Monday was far better than the one originally proposed by the Bush administration. In many respects the rescue plan was better than nothing, and perhaps with a little extra time, our leader can tailor a plan to focus more on our economy than on Wall Street”. That’s easy to agree with. Most economists believe that the 700 billion dollar bailout could be focused more effectively to benefit America’s economy, America’s taxpayers, America’s workers and America’s homeowners. Stiglitz goes on to say “How all this plays out will depend on how the bill will be implemented: The devil is in the details – assuming that most of these same elements will be included in the compromise are left to an administration whose policies lead to the crisis.”So– The bail Out is passed and signed off on; and the vast majority of Americans have no real clue as to how this will impact them– much less what was given up– and given into.

I am confident the middle class is going to pay for a lifetime of someone elses greed.

Thursday debators– their style

 

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=ebfac2eaf3489d19fc07c79758598d8b02b3dcbb

The debate Thursday is going to have the highest ratings since the last episode of MASH! Their styles are different– and according to the above video report, Palin has been at McIsane’s ranch 99.9% of the time preparing for this.

O’Neil said…….

“When you violate fundamental principles of economics you can get away with it for a while, but eventually it’s going to get you.”

O’Neill: Bush Doesn’t Get Financial Crisis, ‘It Shows’
The President’s Former Treasury Secretary Speaks Out About $700 Billion Bailout

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said today that our nation’s leaders — especially President Bush — are “in a panic” and haven’t thought through the $700 billion bailout plan in a rush to pass it by the end of the week.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill today told ABC News that President Bush doesn’t understand or “knows much about any of this” crisis “and it shows.”
“I don’t think he understands or knows much about any of this and it shows,” O’Neill said, adding that current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “knows a lot of about this, and it’s good that he’s there.”

O’Neill, who served as Bush’s first treasury secretary until being fired over diverging views with the president about tax cuts and other issues, didn’t have favorable things to say about the economic policies of either presidential candidate, Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.

“I think most of what has been said by both campaigns about economic stuff is ill-informed and ill-advised,” he said. Asked for specific problems, O’Neill said: “Everything.”

“Hopefully, whichever one of these two people ends up being president, my prayer is that they will be better than what they have said in the campaign,” O’Neill said in an interview with ABC News this afternoon.

“We have spun ourselves into a position where intelligent people don’t believe they can tell the people the truth and still get elected, so they pander,” he added. “One can only hope that they understand the difference between campaigning and governing, and that their governing will be better than what their campaign said.”

The Bailout Plan
O’Neill said that “we do need to do something to avert a complete collapse of the credit system” but added the administration’s bailout plan shouldn’t be the only option.

“It is possible to re-liquefy the credit system without ‘We the People’ owning $700 billion worth of homes,” he said.

Instead, O’Neill would like for the government to calculate the present value of the mortgage-backed investments and then insure, rather than own, those assets.

Essentially, O’Neill said, we run the risk of become the largest owner of foreclosed properties in the world.

“We have notoriously no capability to do anything like that,” he said. “There is no agency of government that could actually do that job.”
O’Neill is pegging his hopes on Congressional leaders to investigate that option, because the Bush administration has the “door locked and they haven’t taken on any new ideas.”

So why is the president and his administration pushing so hard for this plan?

“I think it’s because they’re in a panic and they haven’t thought about it very well,” O’Neill said.

The bailout process risks being bogged down by a number of “sideshow issues,” O’Neill added, including executive pay and aid for homeowners.

“Not a lot of people are saying, ‘Slow down.’ They’ve actually done something a lot worse than say, ‘Slow down.’ They’ve introduced a whole bunch of sideshow issues like executive compensation and oversight committees,” O’Neill said. “All of that stuff is not relevant to the central problem of re-liquefying these financial instruments.”

He said there is “flagrant overcompensation” of CEOs but that is a separate issue that is not relevant to the crisis.

“This is a sideshow, and it’s frankly irritating as hell that the political process is so incompetent that it can’t differentiate the important from the trivial,” O’Neill said. “Right now, we have a kind of stay of execution, and workable, meaningful legislation is the only thing that is going to keep us from getting executed.”

Helping out homeowners is also a separate issue in O’Neill’s mind.

“It’s not to say that you don’t feel compassion and sorrow for people that have got financial problems,” he said. “But if your solution is to give them more money, then you’re going to have to take it away from somebody who’s got it.”

Having this crisis hit right before a key election is not helping.

“It complicates it because [Congress is] wanting to rush out of town &133; and get reelected,” O’Neill said. “So rather than doing this in a deliberate way and hearing from a lot of different, careful points of view, they desperately want to be able to leave town on Friday and not come back until the day after the election.”
Mortgage Meltdown Causes
O’Neill said we got into this mess because bankers were not making prudent decisions, because they believed that by reselling mortgages to Wall Street they weren’t going to be stuck with the problems.

“We suspended disbelief and said we can take people with no known source income or wealth generation and we can give them a $500,000 mortgage,” he said. “I think there’s a very important thing: When you violate fundamental principles of economics you can get away with it for a while, but eventually it’s going to get you.”

“I wish I was there two years ago became I think I would have blown the whistle on these unbelievable loan practices and we would never gotten to today,” he said. “That might be wishful thinking. It’s not possible to really know that. But I’m a detail guy and I think I would have been paying enough attention to the details that I would have stopped the music.”

O’Neill has been asked by the Obama campaign “on several occasions” to take part in conversations with the candidate on the economy with the understanding that his participation doesn’t represent an endorsement. He said he would be willing to offer the same help to McCain but hasn’t been asked.

Last Friday, he was on the telephone with an Obama meeting that involved the candidate, his running mate Sen. Joseph Biden, investor Warren Buffet, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former treasury secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, and the former chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Laura Tyson.

“I’m happy to be part of that kind of opportunity to talk about serious issues and bring the knowledge I have to bear on what people are thinking,” O’Neill said. “I’m happy to do that, and I’d do it for either party.”

Great article. I love the part where Obama’s campaign is listening to his advice, but McLame hasn’t the sense to do anything but showboat. I also love how he discusses alternatives to simply buying all these assets. Of course, the Congressional morons are in such a hurry to go home, they aren’t paying attention. If thgi is such an emergency, why aren’t they willing to stay and work out an intelligent fix.

Stop, Drop and Roll–

Let’s see– a war with losses that can not be calculated either humanly nor financially, recession/depression, our stock market gone to hell, the banking system crumbled, morale low, unemployment high, gas nearly rationed and out of sight per gallon— what healthcare we even had in the toilet. Humm– haven’t we been here before!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know about you, but I grew up at the knee of those who spoke about times like these… and how they endured, of those who didn’t… and the climb back up.

The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929. On Black Tuesday, October twenty-ninth, the market collapsed. In a single day, sixteen million shares were traded–a record–and thirty billion dollars vanished into thin air. Westinghouse lost two thirds of its September value. DuPont dropped seventy points. The “Era of Get Rich Quick” was over. Jack Dempsey, America’s first millionaire athlete, lost $3 million. Cynical New York hotel clerks asked incoming guests, “You want a room for sleeping or jumping?”

Police stand guard outside the entrance to New York’s closed World Exchange Bank, March 20, 1931. Not only did bank failures wipe out people’s savings, they also undermined the ideology of thrift.

Unemployed men vying for jobs at the American Legion Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great Depression.

World War I veterans block the steps of the Capital during the Bonus March, July 5, 1932 (Underwood and Underwood). In the summer of 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, World War I veterans seeking early payment of a bonus scheduled for 1945 assembled in Washington to pressure Congress and the White House. Hoover resisted the demand for an early bonus. Veterans benefits took up 25% of the 1932 federal budget. Even so, as the Bonus Expeditionary Force swelled to 60,000 men, the president secretly ordered that its members be given tents, cots, army rations and medical care.
In July, the Senate rejected the bonus 62 to 18. Most of the protesters went home, aided by Hoover’s offer of free passage on the rails. Ten thousand remained behind, among them a hard core of Communists and other organizers. On the morning of July 28, forty protesters tried to reclaim an evacuated building in downtown Washington scheduled for demolition. The city’s police chief, Pellham Glassford, sympathetic to the marchers, was knocked down by a brick. Glassford’s assistant suffered a fractured skull. When rushed by a crowd, two other policemen opened fire. Two of the marchers were killed.

Philipinos cutting lettuce, Salinas, California, 1935. Photographer: Dorothea Lange. In order to maximize their ability to exploit farm workers, California employers recruited from China, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the American south, and Europe.

Farmer and sons, dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936. Photographer: Arthur Rothstein.
The drought that helped cripple agriculture in the Great Depression was the worst in the climatological history of the country. By 1934 it had dessicated the Great Plains, from North Dakota to Texas, from the Mississippi River Valley to the Rockies. Vast dust storms swept the region.

The photograph that has become known as “Migrant Mother” is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month’s trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience:
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.


Dorothea Lange’s , now famous– “Migrant Mother,” destitute in a pea picker’s camp, because of the failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tent in order to buy food. Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were destitute. By the end of the decade there were still 4 million migrants on the road.

Part of an impoverished family of nine on a New Mexico highway. Depression refugees from Iowa. Left Iowa in 1932 because of father’s ill health. Father an auto mechanic laborer, painter by trade, tubercular. Family has been on relief in Arizona but refused entry on relief roles in Iowa to which state they wish to return. Nine children including a sick four-month-old baby. No money at all. About to sell their belongings and trailer for money to buy food. “We don’t want to go where we’ll be a nuisance to anybody.” Children of migrant workers typically had no way to attend school. By the end of 1930 some 3 million children had abandoned school. Thousands of schools had closed or were operating on reduced hours. At least 200,000 children took to the roads on their own.  Summer 1936. Photographer: Dorothea Lange.

During the Great Depression, unemployment was high. Many employers tried to get as much work as possible from their employees for the lowest possible wage. Workers were upset with the speedup of assembly lines, working conditions and the lack of job security. Seeking strength in unity, they formed unions. Automobile workers organized the U.A.W. (United Automobile Workers of America) in 1935. General Motors would not recognize the U.A.W. as the workers’ bargaining representative. Hearing rumors that G.M. was moving work to factories where the union was not as strong, workers in Flint began a sit-down strike on December 30, 1936. The sit-down was an effective way to strike. When workers walked off the job and picketed a plant, management could bring in new workers to break the strike. If the workers stayed in the plant, management could not replace them with other workers. This photograph shows the broken windows at General Motors’ Flint Fisher Body Plant during the Flint sit-down strike of 1936-37.

Waiting for the semimonthly , stipend relief checks at Calipatria, Imperial Valley, California. Typical story: fifteen years ago they owned farms in Oklahoma. Lost them through foreclosure when cotton prices fell after the war. Became tenants and sharecroppers. With the drought and dust they came West, 1934-1937. Never before left the county where they were born. Now although in California over a year they haven’t been continuously resident in any single county long enough to become a legal resident. Reason: migratory agricultural laborers. March 1937. Photographer: Dorothea Lange.


Lincoln Brigade Ambulance Corps. Group photo in New York of sixteen volunteers, American Medical Bureau. 125 American men and women served in the Spanish Civil War with the American Medical Bureau as nurses, doctors, and support staff. 1936-1939. The Spanish Civil War was the great international cause of the 1930s. Aided by Hitler and Mussolini, the Spanish military led a revolt against the progressive elected government. About 3,000 Americans volunteered to fight on behalf of the Spanish Republic. Spanish Civil War demonstration in New York. Press photo. They returned home with no funds, medical care… homes or jobs.

Members of the picket line at King Farm strike. Morrisville, Pennsylvania. August 1938. Photographer: John Vachon. In contrast to a frequently racist society, several unions were militantly integrationist.

Selling apples, Jacksonville, Texas. October, 1939. Photographer: Russell Lee. Many tried apple-selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City, there were over 5,000 apple sellers on the street. Durham, North Carolina, May 1940

I do not have the answers– BUT I know I do not want to bail out anything. I say let her fall!! It wasn’t built on anything ‘real’ to start with. I do not desire to bail out financial institutes that have a majority foreign interest. Too bad for their bad investments. — let the American and I mean AMERICAN PEOPLE,  100%–  hold the notes.
People are presenting many diverse plans, and that is a good thing– and I think we need to look at them with a sheer eye and mind– and not knee jerk ourselves quickly into Hades any further!! We can do this– I know the best of OUR COUNTRY can do this. We have made, or allowed to be made, too many fast, stupid and dangerous choices. Made quickly and made out of fear or exhaustion and confusion. Let us not do this again. We need to stop, drop and roll folks. Unite, stay focused, be patient… seek sound advice that has the 100% goal of making our country sound again, not lining the pockets of the few who have loyalties that reach beyond our shores and borders.

We can not dilude ourselves individually into thinking that these times can not impact us at these levels. All of us, no matter what are living daily on the slippery slope of crumbling system of foreign borrowed monies — and the note is due folks, the note is due. We, because of living on credit are all one or two pay checks from the street. Think about it.

Women, are you voting!!???

Just askin’…

This ever so short time until the historical November Election is a good reminder of the women’s suffrage movement–

[and if you haven't seen Iron-Jawed Angels yet, you should definitely see it-- I heard it's excellent! But I haven’t a clue where in Knoxville I would get to see it…. And I do not have HBO!]

Did you know that the movement was the first to picket the white house?  Did you know that it was inspired by the women’s suffrage movement in Great Britain, which taught and inspired Gandhi when he was studying law in Britain?  Definitely an amazing & inspiring tale–pass it on!

And really think about this—-
WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. Many shunned by their families and many lost their jobs.

During the first night in jail…………….

(Lucy Burns)

…………and by the end of that night, they were all barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’ They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms.

{Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, the men tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid in to her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections … soners.pdf

So, refresh my memory…. Some women won’t vote this year because–why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?… did you even register TO VOTE yet??? I guess we won’t talk about being an ‘informed voter’. That is another topic.

The articles about HBO’s new movie ‘Iron Jawed Angels‘… and it’s graphic depiction of the battle these women waged , just so I; all women– could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have our say… reminded me of Women’s History Class in College– and my own living history growing up in the DC area. I am ashamed to say I needed this reminder of how hard fought my right to vote was– and I didn’t bleed once, someone else did.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. It has never been just a right I have, it is also a responsibility and priviledge. Even if sometimes is inconvenient.

‘What would those women think of the way we use, or don’t use, our right to vote? All of us take it for granted seemingly, not just younger women. I am hoping your American right and obligation becomes valuable and priceless ‘all over again.’

It was also jarring to recall that Woodrow Wilson and his cronies had tried to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And thank God that doctor refused. Alice Paul was strong, the doctor said, and brave. That didn’t make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: ‘Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.’
It was also due to many courageous women like this– [women in your families pasts] — that contributed to another cause that needed addressing– The Civil Rights of ALL MANKIND! And their right to have a voice also!

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party – remember to vote.

History is being made. Set an example for your children and grandchildren. It is their future we are talking about.

A Radical Shift for Goldman and Morgan …

Actually it isn’t a shift at all–if you review Beaulmans previous post!!!! They were ready and waiting!
review:    Brasscheck TV: The Financial Meltdown Explained

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last big independent investment banks on Wall Street, will transform themselves into bank holding companies subject to far greater regulation, the Federal Reserve said Sunday night, a move that fundamentally reshapes an era of high finance that defined the modern Gilded Age.
The firms requested the change themselves, even as Congress and the Bush administration rushed to pass a $700 billion rescue of financial firms. It was a blunt acknowledgment that their model of finance and investing had become too risky and that they needed the cushion of bank deposits that had kept big commercial banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase relatively safe amid the recent turmoil.
It also is a turning point for the high-rolling culture of Wall Street, with its seven-figure bonuses and lavish perks for even midlevel executives. It effectively returns Wall Street to the way it was structured before Congress passed a law during the Great Depression separating investment banking from commercial banking, known as the Glass-Steagall Act.
By becoming bank holding companies, the firms are agreeing to significantly tighter regulations and much closer supervision by bank examiners from several government agencies rather than only the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, the firms will look more like commercial banks, with more disclosure, higher capital reserves and less risk-taking.
For decades, firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs thrived by taking bold bets with their own money, often using enormous amounts of debt to increase their profits, with little outside oversight.
They were the envy of Wall Street, dominating the industry’s most lucrative businesses, landing headline-grabbing deals and advising companies and governments around the world on mergers, stock offerings and restructurings.
But that brash model was torn apart over the last several weeks as investors lost confidence in the way they made those bets during the recent credit boom, when investment banks expanded with aplomb into esoteric securities, the risks of which were not easily understood.
Over several harrowing days, clients started pulling their money, share prices plunged and these banks’ entire enterprises were brought to the brink.
In exchange for subjecting themselves to more regulation, the companies will have access to the full array of the Federal Reserve’s lending facilities. It should help them avoid the fate of Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy last week, and Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch — both of which agreed to be acquired by big bank holding companies.
The decision also raises questions about whether the Federal Reserve will seek to regulate hedge funds, many of the largest of which closely resemble investment banks like Goldman.
Just a year ago investment banks, the titans of global finance, considered bank regulation a millstone to be avoided at all costs. Commercial banks have to subject themselves to restrictions on how much money they can borrow and what kinds of businesses they can be in. Lobbyists for firms like Goldman spent years fending off closer supervision of their business.
As bank holding companies, the two banks, whose shares have lost about half their value this year, will have to reduce the amount of money they can borrow relative to their capital.
That will make them more financially sound but will also significantly limit their profits. Today, Goldman Sachs has $1 of capital for every $22 of assets; Morgan Stanley has $1 for every $30. By contrast, Bank of America’s has less than $11 for every $1 of capital.
JPMorgan Chase acquired Bear Stearns this spring in a fire sale brokered by the federal government, while Bank of America has agreed to buy Merrill Lynch for $50 billion.
As bank holding companies, Morgan and Goldman will have greater access to the discount window of the Federal Reserve, which banks can use to borrow money from the central bank. While they were allowed to draw on temporary Fed lending facilities in recent months, they could not borrow against the same wide array of collateral that commercial banks could. The discount window access for investment banks is expected to be phased out in January.
It will take time for Goldman and Morgan to transform into fully regulated banks because they cannot quickly reduce how much money they borrow relative to their assets. The Fed and the Securities and Exchange Commission have had examiners at investment banks since March, giving regulators huge insight into their operations.
Both banks already have limited retail deposit-taking businesses, which they plan to expand over time. Morgan Stanley had $36 billion in retail deposits as of Aug. 31 and Goldman Sachs had $20 billion in deposits.
“We believe that Goldman Sachs, under Federal Reserve supervision, will be regarded as an even more secure institution with an exceptionally clean balance sheet and a greater diversity of funding sources,” Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chairman and chief executive of Goldman, said in a statement on Sunday night.
John J. Mack, the chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley, said: “This new bank holding structure will ensure that Morgan Stanley is in the strongest possible position — with the stability and flexibility to seize opportunities in the rapidly changing financial marketplace.”
In recent days, Morgan Stanley had sought other ways to bolster its capital and had been in advanced talks with China’s sovereign wealth fund and others about raising billions of dollars, people briefed on the matter said Sunday night. It had also been talking about a merger with Wachovia, a large commercial bank based in Charlotte, N.C.
With their transition to operating as bank holding companies, those talks are likely to take a different form, because now Morgan Stanley can buy a commercial bank.
Meeting the Big-Boys:
For decades, one investment bank in Lower Manhattan has churned out a golden list of corporate executives and statesmen, wealthy financiers and nonprofit managers.
In many ways, Goldman Sachs is seen as the financial world’s equivalent of General Electric, the corporate powerhouse, or McKinsey & Company, the management consulting firm. It is a training ground — and finishing school —from which other companies, along with quite a few governments, have frequently plucked their own top leaders.
And it has seeded some of the most successful private investment funds, many of them extending Goldman’s shadow from Greenwich, Conn., to London and beyond.

Goldman claims among its alumni Henry M. Paulson Jr., the current Treasury secretary; Robert E. Rubin, a Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and now Citigroup’s chairman; and Mario Draghi, the Bank of Italy’s governor. Jon S. Corzine, New Jersey’s governor, led Goldman for several years. Joshua B. Bolten, the current White House chief of staff, is a Goldman alum, and John A. Thain, the new chairman of Merrill Lynch, was Goldman’s president before he left to help rescue the New York Stock Exchange.
To insiders, all this is a result of Goldman’s elite culture, a sense of close-knit partnership that has endured despite the firm’s decision in 1999 to turn itself into a publicly owned corporation. To detractors, the firm is alternately a cult or a secretive fraternity like Skull and Bones at Yale, one focused on profits and power.
The bottom line on Goldman is that it is stocked with bright people who practically mint money. Even as the implosion of the subprime mortgage market forced many of its rivals to take multibillion-dollar write-downs in the summer of 2007, Goldman reported an increase in profit.
As 2008 progressed, Goldman avoided the deepening economic crisis that consumed two of its rivals – Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. In September, the company reported modest, though diminished, profits for the third quarter, beating expectations.
Morgan Stanley traces its roots back to the House of Morgan, the grandest name on Wall Street. But its last decade of operation has been one of recurrent turmoil.
In 1997, Morgan Stanley merged with Dean Witter, a retail brokerage firm, in the hopes that the reach of Dean Witter’s brokers and the sophisticated stock offerings of Morgan’s investment bankers would combine to create a nationwide powerhouse. The merged company was led by Philip J. Purcell, a Wall Street outsider whose leadership was been marked by a series of legal clashes and bitter internal dissent. Mr. Purcell was forced out in 2005; his place was taken by John J. Mack, a company veteran who had been unceremoniously dumped by Mr. Purcell.
Mr. Mack has revitalized a demoralized firm and achieved progress in weak areas like asset management and brokerage. But by encouraging a newly aggressive attitude toward trading — from his first days as chief executive, he said often and publicly that the firm would deploy its own capital more aggressively and enter higher-growth and riskier areas like mortgages and leveraged loans — he also laid the groundwork for the firm’s next round of trouble, which hit home when the subprime mortgage market melted down in 2007.
In two write-downs in late 2007, Morgan Stanley lowered the value of its subprime holdings by $9.4 billion, one of the largest devaluations on Wall Street. The investment bank announced on Dec. 19 that it would sell a $5 billion stake to the China Investment Corporation, that country’s sovereign wealth fund, to shore up its capital.

For God’s Sake Citizens!!! WAKE-UP!!!
Congress is on the brink of making a one-sided deal to give George W. Bush a blank check — offering nearly (or perhaps more than) a trillion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street to cover its bad debts. That works out to somewhere between $2000 and $5000 from every American family. So what do the taxpayers get in return?
Nothing. No new regulation or oversight to help avoid this kind of crisis in the future. No public interest givebacks to help people whose homes are in the hands of the banks. Perhaps most shockingly of all, the taxpayers get absolutely no share in the profits if and when these finance giants bounce back, even though we are now assuming a great deal of the risk.
This is worse than a bad deal — this isn’t a deal at all. This is a blank check to some of the richest companies in the world.
Congress doesn’t have to agree to a blank check. Instead, it can choose to impose a few sensible conditions on the bailout to ensure that it will be used responsibly. Here are a few suggestions
If the taxpayers are shouldering the risk, the taxpayers should reap any eventual benefits. We accomplish this by giving the government an equity stake in every company we bail out proportionate to the amount we give them.
If we’re paying (more than) our fair share, the CEOs and executives should have to, too. All of the fat cats who got us into this mess should relinquish their stock options and salaries until they start showing us, their investors, that they can once again be profitable. Future salaries should be linked to profitability.
No more campaign contributions from Wall Street executives and PACs. Taxpayer dollars should be used to get our nation out of a crisis. They cannot be used to fund giant, powerful lobby operations that will be used to strong arm Congress into making bad policy.
Better regulations start right now. Wall Street can’t expect to take thousands of dollars out of your paycheck without agreeing to increased transparency and more stringent oversight — the kind that might have helped avoid this mess to begin with.
Bankruptcy judges get broader leeway to help homeowners. Why should we lose our homes so the CEOs can keep theirs?
If Wall Street doesn’t like these conditions, then it is welcome to find private investors to help it out of this debacle. But if the American people are going to take this hit, then we must have a say in the terms of the deal — even if we don’t have an army of high-paid lobbyists at our disposal like they do.

Contact your Congressperson today! Make your voice heard.

TELL THEM–
I strongly urge you not to issue a blank check to the Wall Street giants who have steered our country into financial dire straits. You must address this crisis quickly and prudently. Do not give these companies a dime of taxpayer money unless they agree to the following conditions:
If the taxpayers are shouldering the risk, the taxpayers should reap any eventual benefits. We accomplish this by giving the government an equity stake in every company we bail out proportionate to the amount we give them.
If we’re paying (more than) our fair share, the CEOs and executives should have to, too. All of the fat cats who got us into this mess should relinquish their stock options and salaries until they start showing us, their investors, that they can once again be profitable. Future salaries should be linked to profitability.
No more campaign contributions from Wall Street executives and PACs. Taxpayer dollars should be used to get our nation out of a crisis. They cannot be used to fund giant, powerful lobby operations that will be used to strong arm Congress into making bad policy.
Better regulations start right now. Wall Street can’t expect to take thousands of dollars out of your paycheck without agreeing to increased transparency and more stringent oversight – the kind that might have helped avoid this mess to begin with.
Bankruptcy judges get broader leeway to help homeowners. Why should we lose our homes so the CEOs can keep theirs?
A blank check without these conditions would be nothing more than a reward for bad business practices. If the bailout does not include these conditions, you must oppose it.