Posted on 06/02/2005 1:57:39 PM PDT by hipaatwo
," said hard-working abortiondoctordean.
The problem we have in the Republican Party is we always seem to miss a golden opportunity, like this one, to let the other side have it. Historically, we are slow to respond and miss otherwise GREAT opportunities to use the Dems' own words & actions against them. (Plus, John McCain is out there screwing everything up). Is anyone out there in the RNC reading these comments? PLEEEEEEEZE get smart.
I fully expect Murphy Brown to be stunned at the stupidity...
Mandrake, have you ever heard of flouridation?
Maybe Marshall accepts me, but Debbie has fallen into the leftist trap of facile logic and quick blame and we are ordaining her as a leader soon.
"My mother?" (long pause) "Let me tell you about my mother"... KABOOM!!!
The greatest movie of all time (Blade Runner) - and I prefer the non-director's cut.
yep.
Lets see Kennedys wealth came from his great great grandfather selling Illegal booze across the border !
- On January 29, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified. It prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation, or importation of "intoxicating liquors" for "beverage purposes." For Joe, the law represented an opportunity to make huge profits.
- He formed alliances with crime bosses in major markets, among them Boston, New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. These would come in handy years later when his son was running for national office. Among his mob associates was Frank Costello, former boss of the Luciano crime family, who bragged, "I helped Joe Kennedy get rich." Sam Giancana, who would later figure prominently in Jack's presidency, called Joe "one of the biggest crooks who ever lived."
- Joe bought liquor from overseas distillers and supplied it to organized crime syndicates that picked up the liquor on the shore. Frank Costello would later confirm that Joe had approached him for help in smuggling liquor. Joe would have the liquor dumped at a so-called Rum Row - a transshipment point where police were paid to look the other way - and Costello and other mobsters would then take over. They distributed the liquor, fixed the prices, established quotas, and paid off law enforcement and politicians. They enforced their own law with machine guns, usually calling on experts who did bloody hits on contract.
-Columnist John Miller wrote, "The way Costello talked about Joe, you had the sense that they were very close during Prohibition."
- By the mid-1920s, Fortune estimated Joe's wealth at $2 million. Yet since Joe had left Hayden, Stone in 1922, he had had no visible job. While he made hundreds of thousands of dollars manipulating the market, only bootlegging on a sizable scale would account for such sudden and fabulous wealth.
- Joe used the profits from his bootlegging operations to fuel his continued stock market speculating, and finance his efforts in the film industry.
- By 1930 Joe had plenty to smile about. He had seen the Depression coming, and as Black Tuesday approached, Joe liquidated his longer-term investments while continuing to make money on the declining market by selling short.
Selling Short - Usually an investor purchases stock and later sells it, earning a profit if the stock has gone up. Selling short reverses the process. The investor who believes the price of a stock will go down borrows stock - say at $10 a share - from a broker for a fee. If the price falls to $8, he buys new shares at the lower price of $8 and gives them back to the broker to replace the shares he borrowed at $10. He then gets to keep the $2 difference as his profit.
- By selling short, Joe made sums estimated at more than $1 million and contributed to the eventual market crash by forcing prices down.
- The fact that the market was unregulated was largely responsible for the crash. Salesmen had made wild claims to a gullible public. Stock pools such as those perfected by Joe Kennedy had defrauded legitimate investors. Reporters and columnists had acted as shills for companies peddling stocks in return for payoffs.
- The crash set off a worldwide financial panic and depression that would last for years. By 1932, 12 million Americans were jobless. Governments responded with strict tariff restrictions that dried up world trade. In Germany, where 5.6 million people were out of work, the depression contributed to the rise of Adolph Hitler.
- Considerably richer because of his short selling, Joe Kennedy gleefully told friends that he had sold off his Wall Street holdings before the bottom dropped out of the stock market. He said he was now waiting to pick up the pieces left by "dumb people."
- Joe Kennedy's wealth was now estimated at over $100 million. By 1933, Joe was again manipulating the stock market to his advantage, even as federal investigators were swarming over Wall Street trying to expose the conditions that had led to the crash
-The stock market crash and resulting panic would eventually lead to the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to which Joe was named head.
- By 1933 the states had also begun repealing prohibition, and with his usual foresight, Joe could see it was only a matter of time before the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed and liquor flowed freely again.
- Kennedy used his connections in Washington to obtain permits to import ridiculously large quantities of Haig & Haig and Dewar's as "medicine." He stockpiled the liquor in warehouses so that when Prohibition ended, he would have more high-quality liquor in stock than anybody else.
- Joe also took steps to make sure he had cornered the market in Scotch. In September, Joe invited the President's son, James Roosevelt, to join him on a trip to England. Joe used young Roosevelt to get access to those who controlled Scotland's distilleries. Returning with distribution rights to brands such as Haig & Haig, Dewar's scotch, and Gordon's gin, Joe proceeded to build Somerset Importers into a force in the liquor business. On December 5, prohibition was repealed and Kennedy was ready.
- Joe took steps to protect his fortune and the future of his children. He moved to establish a series of trust funds that would eventually make all his children financially independent. These trust funds would eventually guarantee each of his children, and their mother, over twenty million dollars apiece.
"Howard Dean: Republicans "Have Never Made An Honest Living In Their Lives"
I'd invite this rapidly self destructing jackass to put in a day with me but there is no point to it--he wouldn't make lunchtime(if I took lunch that is, which I don't)
Physician, 'heel' thyself!
Yep. You're right, Howard. I'll just quit my job. I'll live on welfare (i.e. other people's money). Would that be an honest living in your eyes?
Absolutely! A great, GREAT movie!
Thanks for the ping!
"Unlike hard-working, salt-of-the-Earth Democrats, such as Ted Kennedy."
Marrying rich like John Kerry did is hard work ya know?
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Worked midnight till 9:00AM stocking grocery shelves. Earned my engineering degree during the day. Yup ... never worked a day in my life
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