Posted on 03/22/2009 3:39:39 AM PDT by Zakeet
A Charming visit with Jay Leno won’t fix it. A 90 percent tax on bankers’ bonuses won’t fix it. Firing Timothy Geithner won’t fix it. Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed. It would be foolish to dismiss as hyperbole the stark warning delivered by Paulette Altmaier of Cupertino, Calif., in a letter to the editor published by The Times last week: “President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived.”
[Snip]
To get ahead of the anger, Obama must do what he has repeatedly promised but not always done: make everything about his economic policies transparent and hold every player accountable. His administration must start actually answering the questions that officials like Geithner and Summers routinely duck.
Inquiring Americans have the right to know why it took six months for us to learn (some of) what A.I.G. did with our money. We need to understand why some of that money was used to bail out foreign banks. And why Goldman, which declared that its potential losses with A.I.G. were “immaterial,” nonetheless got the largest-known A.I.G. handout of taxpayers’ cash ($12.9 billion) while also receiving a TARP bailout. We need to be told why retention bonuses went to some 50 bankers who not only were in the toxic A.I.G. unit but who left despite the “retention” jackpots. We must be told why taxpayers have so little control of the bailed-out financial institutions that we now own some or most of. And where are the M.R.I.’s from those “stress tests” the Treasury Department is giving those banks?
That’s just a short list.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
WYSIWYG.
Every time I see this kind of slobbering it makes me crazy. What "gifts" and "smarts" are those? Reading from a teleprompter words written by others? How "gifted" or "smart" is that? Campaigning in 57 states? Going on national TV and making fun of handicapped kids in the Special Olympics? Really "smart" and "gifted", that.
Oh, I forgot, he apologized. That makes it all better and go away. I guess for slobbering sycophants like the NYT writers it does. For anyone with an ounce of brains, all it makes him is a stupid douche bag.
and Frank Rich, to boot.
> Can you explain the derivation of that term?
I’ve often wondered about that myself, to be truthful. If I had to speculate, it would perhaps have something to do with termites (”white ants”) quietly undermining a structure until eventually it collapses, full of holes.
I’ll ask around, tho’, because I don’t know authoritatively where the term comes from.
Gidday Ron!
> I’ve had those same thoughts for a while now. It’s their “ace in the hole” so to speak.
You know, when we ponder the possibilities, wouldn’t it be a great way for the Dems to keep Obama on the straight-and-narrow, implementing exactly what they tell him to implement and doing exactly what he’s told to do?
If he’s obedient, he gets to be POTUS and retire a wealthy and famous man. Step out of line and be the first POTUS to go to prison — because those would be the stakes without protection from the DEMs. Mess up too badly and, so long as it’s unintentional, he’d be allowed to resign due to ill health or something...
The DEMs could well have that kind of Leverage over him. Scary thought, ay! It could easily explain some of the wierd things we’re seeing these past few weeks.
> I think this is entirely likely, especially if Obama and his inner core of thugs get too big for their britches.
I think they’ve probably got that much on him. The DEMs aren’t stupid or blind: they’re only unprincipled. They’ll have wondered about the B/C at least once, but kept quiet about it because Obama was electable. But someone in the DEMs knows the truth.
It's good to see ya around these parts....been a while.
That quiver is empty, Frank. THAT'S the problem.
Likewise, mate! How are things in Las Vegas?
I have said from the start that the left and the Dems themselves will eventually become his biggest adversaries. The clock is ticking.
Surviving the storm...so far....
We’re sliding into Indian Summer here.
You must be shaking your head in disbelief of what's happening in this country.
A lot of us are too and preparing accordingly
Hey Frank. Let me know when you write an article saying how stupid you were for supporting this creep. Until then, STFU.
Even Frank Rich should be smart enough to know that if you pass a trillion dollar bill with less than a day of debate, the result will be ugly.
But he isn’t...
> You must be shaking your head in disbelief of what’s happening in this country.
And praying. When I say “God Bless America”, I really mean it these days. It is almost as if The Antichrist has paid a visit to the US. Could be that he has — tho’ I confess I didn’t quite imagine him to be like this. Still...
I met an Ethiopian just the other day while getting some work done on my car that came to this country about two years ago. He said Obama is an angry man living in the past and his mission was to get even and destroy our way of life.
He gets it. Even he couldn't believe that we were duped into electing an enemy of our own way of life, very sad indeed.
> He said Obama is an angry man living in the past and his mission was to get even and destroy our way of life.
That Ethiopian has deep insight — this entirely explains the context of Obama’s (ghost-written) books, and all the terrorist friends he has, and his ideologies, and his behaviors — everything. The Ethiopian “gets it”, like you say. There’s nothing dumb about Obama — he’s just plain Evil.
When idiots like Rich pretend that idiots like John Stewart know anything about anything, you know you can summarily dismiss their opinions. A one year drop in 401k’s does mean the 401k system is bunk, it means it’s a 1 year drop. When you invest in a 401k, you invest for decades, not a single year. This what nitwits like John Stewart and Frank Rich simply do not understand.
Still it is nice to see liberals eating their own.
Conservatives should welcome the anger on the AIG bonuses. Don’t let the press fool you, most people aren’t angry about CEO bonuses, they’re angry their money is being forcefully given to CEO’s. I know I am. I could care less if stockholder want to pay a CEO for running a company into the ground if it’s not my money.
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