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Thugocracy Whipsaws Capitalism - intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet
NRO ^ | March 27, 2010 | Andy McCarthy

Posted on 03/27/2010 11:03:39 AM PDT by opentalk

The notion that the pain of Obamacare would not really be felt for a few years has always been silly. It won't be fully felt, but he economy is dynamic. Corporations have to plan today for the conditions of tomorrow. More to the point, public corporations with disclosure obligations under the securities laws have to disclose today when developments change their outlook for tomorrow.

Hence, AT&T's announcement that Obamacare will force it to take a $1 billion dollar charge — the most alarming (but entirely predictable) bad news in a parade that, the Wall Street Journal's editors note, "includes Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million."

But here is the most frightful news yet about our new reality: People's Commissar Henry Waxman is now planning to haul the companies before his committee because their disclosures fail to play along with the our Leftist rulers' script that Obamacare "will expand coverage and bring down costs."

As the Journal's editors observe:

Black-letter financial accounting rules require that corporations immediately restate their earnings to reflect the present value of their long-term health liabilities, including a higher tax burden. Should these companies have played chicken with the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid this politically inconvenient reality? Democrats don't like what their bill is doing in the real world, so they now want to intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet.

Let me echo that. I worked for many years in the U.S. Attorney's Office in whose backyard was Wall Street. If a company like AT&T failed to make a legally mandated restatement of its financial position while continuing to participate in the capital markets, it would be investigated and the responsible management officials would likely find themselves prosecuted while the SEC, concurrently, went after the company and its officiallys in civil enforcement suits. There are prosecutors and investigators who would salivate at the prospect of doing such a career-making case.

If we are now under a system where disclosure gets you a public whipping and other threats by the Powers That Be while nondisclosure promises the ruinous expenses of defending against criminal investigations and civil enforcement, this is no longer anything but a thugocracy.


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aksteel; att; capitalismmarxism; catepillar; dere; dsa; manufacturing; obamacare; progressives; thugocracy; waxman
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To: opentalk

Don’t talk about it. Just lay off workers.


41 posted on 03/27/2010 5:04:40 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: mlocher

If it wins back control of the Congress, the GOP should conduct an investigation into these Dem tactics, and should put in place a bunch of new rules that preclude Congress from subpoenaing private persons.


42 posted on 03/27/2010 5:07:32 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Timeout

++good


43 posted on 03/27/2010 5:15:47 PM PDT by griswold3 (Repeal, Replace, and Reform . REAL Reform of health care!!!)
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To: Brilliant
Congressional Socialists


44 posted on 03/27/2010 5:22:06 PM PDT by opentalk
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To: opentalk

Nancy Pelosi, Barney Franks, Henry Waxman, John Conyers, and Maxine Waters among others are all very well pleased that this bailout bill passed. All above mentioned were registered members of the Democratic Socialists of America(Communist Party) in 2002.


45 posted on 03/27/2010 6:38:13 PM PDT by opentalk
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To: opentalk

This is a link to copies of the letter.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/03/025940.php


46 posted on 03/27/2010 8:39:38 PM PDT by lastchance (Hug your babies.)
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To: lastchance

Why can’t they just request copies of each company’s quarterly and annual report? Some companies even post them online.


47 posted on 03/27/2010 8:42:08 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: Common Sense 101

Does anyone doubt that Obama is a Communist from a very young age???


Shouldn’t everyone know this story???

The First Time I Heard of Barack Obama

By Tom Fife

11-20-2008

During the period of roughly February 1992 to mid 1994, I was making frequent trips to Moscow, Russia, in the process of starting a software development joint-venture company with some people from the Russian scientific community. One of the men in charge on the Russian side was named V. M.; he had a wife named T.M.

V. was a level-headed scientist while his wife was rather deeply committed to the losing Communist cause – a cause she obviously was not abandoning.

One evening, during a trip early in 1992, the American half of our venture were invited to V. & T.’s Moscow flat as we were about to return to the States. The party went well and we had the normal dinner discussions.

As the evening wore on, T. developed a decidedly rough anti-American edge – one her husband tried to quietly rein in.

The bottom line of the tirade she started against the United States went something like this:

“You Americans always like to think that you have the perfect government and your people are always so perfect. Well then, why haven’t you had a woman president by now? You had a chance to vote for a woman vice-president and you didn’t do it.”

The general response went something along the lines that you don’t vote for someone just because of their sex. Besides, you don’t vote for vice-president, but the president and vice-president as a ticket.

“Well, I think you are going to be surprised when you get a black president very soon.”

The consensus we expressed was that we didn’t think there was anything innately barring that. The right person at the right time and sure, America would try to vote for the right person, be he or she black or not.

“What if I told you that you will have a black president very soon and he will be a Communist?”

The out-of-the-blue remark was met by our stares. She continued, “Well, you will; and he will be a Communist.”

It was then that the husband unsuccessfully tried to change the subject; but she was on a roll and would have nothing of it. One of us asked, “It sounds like you know something we don’t know.”

“Yes, it is true. This is not some idle talk. He is already born and he is educated and being groomed to be president right now. You will be impressed to know that he has gone to the best schools of Presidents. He is what you call “Ivy League”. You don’t believe me, but he is real and I even know his name. His name is Barack. His mother is white and American and his father is black from Africa. That’s right, a chocolate baby! And he’s going to be your President.”

She became more and more smug as she presented her stream of detailed knowledge and predictions so matter-of-factly – as though all were foregone conclusions. “It’s all been thought out. His father is not an American black so he won’t have that social slave stigma. He is intelligent and he is half white and has been raised from the cradle to be an atheist and a Communist. He’s gone to the finest schools. He is being guided every step of the way and he will be irresistible to America.”

We sat there not knowing what to say. She was obviously very happy that the Communists were doing this and that it would somehow be a thumbing of their collective noses at America: they would give us a black president and he’d be a Communist to boot. She made it quite obvious that she thought that this was going to breathe new life into world Communism. From this and other conversations with her, she always asserted that Communism was far from dead.

She was full of little details about him that she was eager to relate. I thought that maybe she was trying to show off that this truly was a real person and not just hot air.

She rattled off a complete litany. He was from Hawaii. He went to school in California. He lived in Chicago. He was soon to be elected to the legislature. “Have no doubt: he is one of us, a Soviet.”

At one point, she related some sort of San Francisco connection, but I didn’t understand what the point was and don’t recall much about that. I was just left with the notion that she considered the city to be some sort of a center for their activity here.

Since I had dabbled in languages, I knew a smattering of Arabic. I made a comment: “If I remember correctly, ‘Barack’ comes from the Arabic word for ‘Blessing.’ That seems to be an odd name for an American.” She replied quickly, “Yes. It is ‘African’”, she insisted, “and he will be a blessing for world Communism. We will regain our strength and become the number one power in the world.”

She continued with something to the effect that America was at the same time the great hope and the great obstacle for Communism. America would have to be converted to Communism and Barack was going to pave the way.

So, what does this conversation from 1992 prove?

Well, it’s definitely anecdotal. It doesn’t prove that Obama has had Soviet Communist training nor that he was groomed to be the first black American president, but it does show one thing that I think is very important. It shows that Soviet Russian Communists knew of Barack from a very early date. It also shows that they truly believed among themselves that he was raised and groomed Communist to pave the way for their future. This report on Barack came personally to me from one of them long before America knew he existed.

Although I had never before heard of him, at the time of this conversation Obama was 30+ years old and was obviously tested enough that he was their anticipated rising star.


48 posted on 03/27/2010 11:02:24 PM PDT by DontTreadOnMe2009 (So stop treading on me already!)
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To: thecodont

Because this is not about information but about intimidation. The CEO’s are well within their rights to instruct Waxman to urinate in a vertical direction along the path of a linear object made of hemp or other raw materials used for securing items or for providing assistance in climbing certain surfaces, recreational activities, towing of vehicles and other uses.


49 posted on 03/28/2010 12:50:40 PM PDT by lastchance (Hug your babies.)
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