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Date Sent: 2009-08-08
Freedom's Phoenix Global Edition for August 8, 2009, Saturday edition |
Government Rescue for Commercial Real Estate--TARP Inspector: Politicians Tried Influencing Payouts
Spike Coming in Commodities Prices: Goldman Sachs -- "Tax The Hell Out
Of It." Why? - by Christine Smith -- Warren Buffet is BO's "WELFARE
QUEEN" -- Media Forget Dissent Was Encouraged During Bush Years --
Billion-Dollar Mystery in Iraq -- Cash For Clunkers Is Selling More
Trucks, Not Small Cars -- Arizona's Commercial Real Estate Bloodbath --
Angry NH demonstrators denied access to "town hall" meeting -- What Are
the Birthers Really After? -- Dodd cleared from ethics probe on
Countrywide loans
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News Link • Bailouts
A US Government Rescue for Commercial Real Estate?
08/07/2009
•
Emacs Stock Watch
The $3.5 tn commercial real estate market is eroding, defaults are doubling on loans for apartment buildings, office buildings, housing complexes, strip malls, hotels, hospitals, and a staggering amount of loans must be rolled over this year into refinancings, or else go bellyup.
The problem now is, the US government, meaning taxpayers, may be called upon once again for even more bailout help for this struggling sector, beyond the $23.7 tn in gross exposures already in the bailout programs to date (gross exposures are an Armageddon scenario, although they do show what the government has committed, according to the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Neil Barofsky).
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News Link • Bailouts
TARP Inspector: Politicians Tried Influencing Payouts
08/07/2009
•
The Business Insider
The inspector general for TARP -- the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial industry -- says lawmakers asked regulators to fund certain banks, but found no evidence that outside lobbying influenced decisions.
The report doesn't name names, but Reps. Barney Frank and Maxine Waters have already been called out for helping get funds for banks they had ties to.
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News Link • Space Travel and Exploration
NASA Steps Closer to Nuclear Power for Moon Base
08-07-2009
•
Space
NASA has
made a series of critical strides in developing new nuclear reactors the size
of a trash can that could power a human outpost on the moon or Mars.
Three
recent tests at different NASA centers and a national lab have successfully demonstrated key
technologies required for compact fission-based nuclear power plants for human
settlements
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Reported by:
Powell Gammill
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Spike Coming in Commodities Prices: Goldman Sachs
08/07/2009
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Commodity Trade Alert
Goldman Sachs said it expects commodity prices to spike sharply higher next year, mimicking the moves in 2008 when oil almost hit $150 a barrel and other commodities touched a series of all-time highs.
The U.S. bank said potential supply shortages created by years of underinvestment have been exacerbated by the global financial crisis and tight credit conditions.
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News Link • Crony Capitalism
Warren Buffet BO's "WELFARE QUEEN"
08/07/09
•
BlueLoriBlogSpot
We have all heard plenty about Government Sachs but very little about BO supporter Warren Buffet. Since this WELFARE QUEEN just made another Fortune I thought you should see this. As a side note remember when Durbin said "Frankly the banks own the place?" He should know a thing or two about that on a personal level! The Omaha, Neb., conglomerate run by Warren Buffett posted net income of $3.3 billion, or $2,123 per Class A share in the quarter
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News Link • Techno Gadgets
2010 Porsche 911 Turbo Revealed
08-07-2009
•
Evan McCausland
If you
were wondering just when Porsche would unveil a revamped 911 Turbo,
your wait is over. The automaker revealed the new 2010 Turbo today,
well in advance of its September premiere.
While
the car receives a number of small visual tweaks first launched on the
2009 911, the biggest news is what lies underneath the hood. The new
911 Turbo ditches the 3.6-liter mill found in the current car, and
moves to a direct-injection, twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter flat-six.
Porsche says the new engine pumps out 500 hp (20 hp more than the
current 911 Turbo), all while improving both fuel economy and CO2 emissions.
A six-speed manual transmission is standard equipment, but the hallmark
of the latest 911 range--Porsche’s seven-speed PDK dual-clutch
transmission--is available as an option. We’re happy to hear buyers can
eschew Porsche’s standard PDK steering wheel for an optional wheel with
simplified shift paddles (the right paddle triggers an upsh
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Reported by:
Thomas Costanzo
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News Link • Healthcare
Tempers flare over health care plan
8/07/09
•
Freep
U.S. Rep. John Dingell was greeted with jeers and cheers Thursday as he tried to explain why changing the nation’s health care system " as he has advocated for more than a half century in Congress " makes sense.
Despite what some protesters said, “there will be no payment of taxpayer funds for abortion,” Dingell, 83, told the crowd.
As Dingell opened the forum, Mike Sola of Milan interrupted the congressman as he pushed his son, Scott, in a wheelchair, to the podium. He said proposed changes wouldn’t help Scott and called Dingell a fraud.
Even before the Romulus town hall began, opponents engaged backers.
“You may be dead in five years!” shouted Val Butsicaris, 60, of Taylor. “They may euthanize you!” She referred to concerns of government rationing of care for elderly people.
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Anonymous Watchman
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Geithner’s F-Bombs Don’t Scratch Goldman Sachs: David Reilly
08/07/2009
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Bloomberg
Political drama over how to regulate the financial industry, replete with an f-bomb-filled rant from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, has obscured a huge unresolved issue: what to do about too-big-to-fail financial institutions.
If anything, questions surrounding these institutions -- banks, insurers, brokers, and who knows what else -- have grown. This leaves a big question mark hanging over a vast swath of the financial system.
In the meantime, it’s Christmas every day for the too-big- to fail crowd, with taxpayers playing Santa Claus. Just look at interest expenses that have been halved at banks like Citigroup Inc., thanks to loan guarantees and zero-percent interest rates, or the 46 $100-million-plus trading days racked up by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in the second quarter.
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News Link • Revolutions, Rebellions & Uprisings
Media Forget Dissent Was Encouraged During Bush Years
08/072009
•
Newsbusters
As so-called journalists negatively depict town hall meeting protesters as an organized angry mob (or worse!), they seem to forget how throughout most of this decade while George W. Bush was president dissent was quite encouraged.
As an example, try to guess who said this in 2003?
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
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News Link • MEDIA (MainStreamMedia - aka MSM)
Did GE Stifle Keith Olbermann?
08/07/2009
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FAIR
In the wake of an August 1 expose in the New York Times, an agreement reportedly reached by executives at the parent companies of Fox News Channel and MSNBC to rein in the networks' two stars' criticism of each other seems to have fallen apart. The behind-the-scenes deal-making, though, still illustrates the corrosive effect on media of corporate ownership.
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Reported by:
Lola Flores
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News Link • Corruption
United State Senate Declares: Chris Dodd May Accept Bribes from Subprime Lenders
08/07/09
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CRIME & FEDERALISM
The Senate's deciding to clear Dodd comes just a couple of days after the SEC gave a sweet heart deal to Bank of America - which, according ot the SEC, had misled investors about a several-billion-dollar loss.
The Senate's decision comes just weeks after the Department of Justice took less than 48 hours to arrest and beging criminally proceedings a Goldman Sachs employee for theft of trade secrets.
Judges, are you paying attention? You are the only remaining protectors of individual rights. Congress and the Presidency has been purchsaed. Barack Obama accepted nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs. Larry Summers has accepted payments from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks.
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News Link • Propaganda
Cash For Clunkers Is Selling More Trucks, Not Small Cars
08/07/09
•
The Business Insider
The government's monster gift to automakers, cash for clunkers, is not pumping up the sales of small cars as it first said it was, instead it's increasing the sales of trucks according to an analysis by Edmunds.com:
The Ford Escape crossover SUV, instead of being the seventh-most popular vehicle under the program, as the government ranked it, was actually the best seller, according to Edmunds.com. The government pegged the Ford Focus as the top seller.
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Arizona's Commercial Real Estate Bloodbath
08.07.2009
•
The Business Insider
Two thousand foreclosures in just one county!
More than 2,000 commercial properties in Maricopa County, Arizona have received 90-day foreclosure notices since the beginning of the year. In total, that represents $6.3 billion in real-estate loans.
That foreclosure number is horrific. Arizona was one of the canaries in the coal mine of the housing bubble. If it’s playing that role for commercial real estate, we’re in for a lot of pain.
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News Link • Propaganda
Unemployment Report Distortions
08/07/2009
•
Chris Martenson
The release of the July unemployment report was filled with a wide array of distortions and inexplicable results (especially from the Birth-Death model), which have undoubtedly resulted in a better-than-warranted reported gain. In this post we'll explore these oddities in some detail
Wait, how can you lose jobs and have the rate of unemployment fall? This doesn't make sense, because it is the equivalent of saying, "I spent more than I earned and my savings went up." The key here is understanding the ways in which the government measures unemployment.
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News Link • Healthcare Industry
The Me-First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd
08/07/2009
•
truthdig
I know I should be mortified by the lobbyist-organized mobs of angry Brooks Brothers mannequins who are now making headlines by shutting down congressional town hall meetings. I know I should be despondent during this, the Khaki Pants Offensive in the Great American Health Care and Tax War. And yet, I’m euphorically repeating one word over and over again with a big grin on my face.
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Lola Flores
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News Link • Economic Stimulus
Stiglitz Wants More Stimulus
08/07/2009
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Economic Policy Journal
Apparently to prove he is the ultimate Keynesian, economist Joseph Stiglitz says he wants more economic stimulus:
Going on to prove he is hardcore, Stiglitz then turns anti-tax cut and anti-savings:
How does Stiglitz want to pay for his recommended stimulus package? I guess by increasing deficits. He has no concern at all for the increasing U.S. debt load:
Bottom line: The Stiglitz formula seems to be more injections at any cost. The last guy to try this formula was Michael Jackson
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News Link • Obama Administration
AARP and OBAMA-CARE are ENEMIES OF THE STATE and the ELDERLY
08-07-2009
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Freedom Fighter Radio
Senior citizens who went to a meeting
sponsored by AARP were left to themselves after the AARP hostess walked
out. The seniors were trying to get answers concerning ObamaCare and
why AARP would support a government controlled health system that many
believe would lead to euthanasia and rationing of health care.
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Reported by:
Jim Stachowiak
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News Link • Obama Administration
What Are the Birthers Really After?
08/05/2009
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Truthdig
On Aug. 4, President Barack Obama celebrated the anniversary of his birth, an event that occurred 48 years ago in the state of Hawaii. This is an indisputable fact, as sane critics on the right, such as the editors of the National Review and the veteran pundit Patrick Buchanan, acknowledge. And yet there is a significant minority, especially within the Republican Party, that fervently insists otherwise.
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Lola Flores
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News Link • Constitution
Guns are beautiful
08-07-2009
•
New Times
I am a lifetime law-abiding gun owner and avid shooter. In my life I have had many occasions to buy firearms for sporting purposes. I have not had a need to own an AK-47 nor an opportunity to try one. I am told it is the finest assault rifle ever made. If I am in a situation wherein the AK-47 is the best choice, then I need to get one and I believe that I have that right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Assuming that situation is in defense of my home or country, if an AK-47 makes the difference in my family’s survival, then so be it.
If I need an AK-47, then I would logically buy one now. When called to defense there will be no time to shop. I believe this is the logic that law-abiding people use when they buy assault rifles. I also believe this is the logic used in the writing of the Second Amendment. If ordinary citizens need to defend our nation at any level, then they not only need guns, they need the best. It is for this reason that bans are wrong: They are an infringement
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News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology
Telling EEStor Interview
08-07-2009
•
arclein
What should be clear here is that the production of the EEStor nano capacitors represents a remarkable technical achievement and the test results published show they are standing up. I can see from the cloud of commentary that a lot of impatience is been expressed that is seriously misplaced. They have the brick. Building from that brick is challenging but I certainly do not see it as a deal breaker.
What you cannot buy is time. Everything takes time to get right. The brick of the computer was the first miserable transistor. Yet that allowed us to immediately imagine today’s technology. The only catch was that our imaginations needed thousands of man years of time investment.
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robert klein
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News Link • Corruption
Dodd cleared from ethics probe on Countrywide loans
'Dodd could have exercised more vigilance**
08/07/09
•
Market Watch
The committee, however, did scold the senior lawmaker for not being more careful in his dealings.
Lawmakers have raised concerns about Dodd's participation in such a special program, in part, because he has a key role as chairman of the senate banking committee in overseeing regulations of mortgages, many of which were key contributors to the financial crisis. Dodd is also responsible for setting the Senate agenda for a major overhaul of bank regulation, a key component of which will be reform of the mortgage sector.
Countrywide ran an exclusive program for "Friends of Angelo," or F.O.A., named after the company's former chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, which provided "sweetheart" financial deals for special borrowers.
According to a letter to Dodd, the Connecticut senator told the ethics committee that he became aware that he had been placed in a V.I.P. pr
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