And So It Begins

We are starting to see just what kind of people "The One" is going to surround himself with. This from IDB:

Another Brick In 'The Wall'?

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, November 11, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Transition: Jamie Gorelick may be back, this time as attorney general. It was her "wall of separation" that that left us blind pre-9/11. And let's not forget her admirable service at Fannie Mae.

"Not many people can claim to have been at the center of arguably the greatest financial disaster and greatest national security disaster in American history. But Gorelick, said to be on the short list for attorney general by the New York Times, can. Surely that qualifies her for further government service.

Gorelick earned an estimated $26 million serving as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003. In 1998, according to the Washington Post , Gorelick received a bonus of $779,625, despite a scandal in which employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions to manipulate books to meet 1998 earning targets.

In 2003, she got a "Friends of Angelo" sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide Financial for almost $1 million. Her $960,000 mortgage refinancing in 2003 was handled through a program reserved for influential figures and friends of Countrywide's chief executive at the time, Angelo Mozilo.

Countrywide's loans on preferential terms to influential figures are the subject of a federal grand jury investigation in Los Angeles, according to people involved in the inquiry. So Gorelick is in fact under investigation by the department she might soon be running.

On March 25, 2002, BusinessWeek quoted Gorelick as saying: "We believe we are managed safely. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions." One year later, government regulators accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses. This keen financial oversight set the stage for the financial meltdown to follow.

Before Fannie Mae, Gorelick was deputy attorney general in the Clinton Justice Department and architect of the policy that established a wall between intelligence and law enforcement, making "connecting the dots" before 9/11 a virtual impossibility.

Gorelick was the author of a 1995 memo that helped establish what former Attorney General John Ashcroft testified was the "single greatest structural cause" for Sept. 11, which was "the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents."

"Government erected this wall," Ashcroft said. "Government buttressed this wall. And before Sept. 11, government was blinded by this wall."

Gorelick later was a member of the 9/11 Commission, a participant in the very events being investigated. At the commission hearings, she pummeled Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not with questions but with accusations of malfeasance, asking Rice why her office failed to "connect the dots."

Gorelick made the accusations knowing that she herself issued the memo ordering the FBI to erect a legal wall between itself and the CIA, preventing them from sharing information, making it impossible to collect the dots, much less connect them. She should have been a witness, not a panel member.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who in 1998 brought an indictment against bin Laden and a deputy, Mohammed Atef, for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, wrote two scathing memos to Attorney General Janet Reno on the wall Gorelick built with Reno's approval.

On June 13, 1995, White wrote Reno: "The most effective way to combat terrorism is with as few labels and walls as possible so that whenever permissible, the right and left hands are communicating."

According to a New York Post report, White was so upset after Reno and Gorelick refused to tear down Gorelick's wall barring information-sharing between intelligence and law enforcement that she wrote a second, still-secret memo, saying their wall hindered law enforcement and could cost lives.

In this time of financial crisis and war on terror, it would be more than a little ironic if an old Clinton crony, someone who played a detrimental role in both, would be rewarded again with a key role in government. Maybe it's true that the more things "change" the more they remain the same."

If this is the kind of scum that "The One" is going to put in charge then what hope do we have?
I will say it again, we are all doomed.

Where Is The Outrage

This from the Wall Street Journal:

"Give Senator Christopher Dodd credit for nerve. On Tuesday, the very day he finally admitted knowing that Countrywide Financial regarded him as a "special" customer, the Connecticut Democrat also announced that he was bringing to the Senate floor a housing bailout sure to help lenders like Countrywide.


How much will Countrywide benefit from Mr. Dodd's rescue? The Senator's plan allows mortgage lenders to dump up to $300 billion of their worst loans on to taxpayers via a new Federal Housing Administration refinancing program, provided the lenders are willing to accept 87% of current market value. The program will be most attractive to lenders and investors holding subprime and slightly-less-risky Alt-A loans made during the height of the housing bubble in 2006 and 2007.

As the market leader during that period, Countrywide originated $167 billion of such loans, more than 11% of the nationwide total, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Analyst Fred Cannon of Keefe, Bruyette and Woods estimates that the company is still holding more than $30 billion in subprime and Alt-A loans on its books, based on the company's most recent quarterly financials.

Even for the loans Countrywide has already packaged and sold, the company would still benefit from the bailout. That's because Countrywide continues to service the loans, and every loan that goes bad means increased costs for the servicer.

Those mortgage loan sales also typically come with a guarantee that Countrywide will buy back the loans if it turns out they were fraudulent. The more loans that fail, absent a federal refinancing, the more investors will be digging into the details of these stinkers and tossing them back to Countrywide. Mindful of the looming danger, in the first quarter of this year Countrywide increased by 46% its reserves to cover these so-called "rep-and-warranty" agreements.

What's more, the company is holding $34 billion in home equity loans, which are even more risky than the mortgage loans, and typically result in 100% losses for the lender if a borrower defaults. The Dodd bailout will make it more likely that Countrywide gets some recovery from the worst of these loans because the mortgage holder will need to negotiate a settlement with the owner of the home equity loan before participating in the federal bailout.

If borrowers and lenders take full advantage of this new federal program, and Countrywide loans go south at roughly the same rate as those from other lenders, this suggests a potential taxpayer bailout of more than $25 billion for Countrywide-originated loans. Even if the losses turn out to be far less, why should taxpayers do anything to help a company that did so much to foment the mortgage mess?

Meanwhile, Mr. Dodd continues to insist that, though he knew he was a "special" Countrywide customer, he didn't think he was getting any special financial benefit. But a $75,000 reduction in mortgage payments is no small matter for anyone living on a Senate salary of $169,300. Why else would he be known around Countrywide as a "Friend of Angelo" – Angelo being Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.

Yesterday, nine Senate Republicans led by South Carolina's Jim DeMint sent a letter asking Majority Leader Harry Reid to delay consideration of Mr. Dodd's housing bailout bill in light of its benefits for Countrywide – and Countrywide's benefits for Mr. Dodd. That's an excellent idea, in addition to a Congressional and Justice Department probe of Countrywide, Fannie Mae and the favors they seem to have spread around Washington. American taxpayers need to understand more about who they're being asked to bail out here, and why."

Where is the outrage? Why isn't Harry Reid demanding hearings about this? Chris Dodd is in the pocket of "big mortgage" and he gets a pass?

I as an American citizen demand that all of Chris Dodds assests as well as his fameilys be frozen, his passport revoked, and he be incarcerated with out bail until such time when he can be put on trial and found guilty of excepting bribes in return for political favors. Outrageous. Harry Reid should resign his leadership post as well as his senate seat, and I mean yesterday. He and the rest of his ilk are scum who have absolutly no right to pass laws which effect the country.

When will the American people stand up and say enough is enough and demand an end to the corruption that seems to be running rampit on both side of the isle?

We Should Put Them Down Like Lame Dogs

I don't know if you have ever watched CSPAN-2 for more than say 5 hours, but if you have than you may have been like me last night and felt the urge to throw a brick through your TV. I was interested in the debate over the Warrner/Liberman tax increase bill currently trying to be railroaded through congress. What I got were the clerks of the Senate reading into the record the Boxer Amendment to the bill. All 500 or so pages. The republicans did this to emphasize the dragging of the judiciary committee’s feet on judicial nominations. I thought this was great. After the reading, (all 9 hours) Happy Harry and Mitch McConnell went back and forth like two little bitches, until the queen bitch came down and tried to scold and shame the republicans to no avail.

For those who are unaware this bill will increase the average persons tax liability by some $6000, and will not do a thing to help end the global warming. This bill was only designed to remove money from the private sector (meaning us) and place it in the firm hands of the government (meaning them).