Dick Cheney's Bush-Era National Security Speech at AEI (American Enterprise Institute)

Government Foul Play? Shuttered Chrysler Dealers Heavily Anti-Obama In Election.

Analysis: Shuttered Chrysler Dealers Heavily Anti-Obama In Election Bucks Right — This thesis could be bogus, but if it holds up there will be hell to pay for the Democrats. I was personally baffled by some of the closures of successful dealerships in Washington State. Many needed rural dealers (generally Republican) were shuttered while multiple urban Seattle (Democrat) dealers were left alone. In other words the dealers were not being spread out. It made no sense to me.

An analysis of the list of Chrysler dealers closed down by the Obama-run auto maker show that many were donors to Republican candidates and Democrat rivals of Barack Obama during the 2008 election cycle.

Many observers were confused by the list of 789 Chrysler dealerships that were ordered to close their doors before June 9, as the closings seemed to follow no pattern based on sales volume or profitability. Two preliminary studies found on the Internet seem to have located a common thread: Donations to politicians and political causes at odds with Barack Obama.

A document outlining campaign contributions by various shuttered dealers is posted here.

The question remains. What was the exact criteria for shuttering one dealer over another? We have not been told.

GM drives toward bankruptcy – not in China

"As General Motors heads toward insolvency, the company that was once the biggest on the planet is still riding high in the world’s most populous country.

As the storied American company prepares to financially dismantle its operations between good and poor performing assets, GM China is becoming the crown jewel in the company’s operations.

“If there’s a good GM and a bad GM, China is definitely going to be in the good GM side,” said Michael Dunne, an auto analyst and managing director of J.D. Power and Associates China…

Industry analysts say the decision is a simple matter of dollars and cents: GM is now the third-biggest car manufacturer in China, which has recently overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest car market… More...

Biden Mocks His Boss

While VP Joe Biden was giving a commencement speech at the Air Force Academy on Wednesday, a gust of wind blew over his teleprompter. Biden went off-script and took a crack at Pres. Obama, who is famously reliant on teleprompters.

Quote of The Day

"Politics is about perception. Right now, the Republican party is perceived to be the domain of rich white guys. Of course, that's not entirely true, but very often perception trumps reality. America needs two, maybe three strong political parties so the country can have healthy debate. We also need voters to be open-minded, not ideological Kool-Aid drinkers. The Republicans can only get back in the game if they widen their appeal and appeal for common sense."

Review: Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid

Can Synthetic Fuels Give the Air Force Energy Independence

Synthetic Fuel

American Rules

Consumption > Production = America
Liabilities > Assets = American Banks
Spending > Revenue = American Government
Bills > Income = American

AIN’T NO REST FOR THE WICKED

"Money doesn’t grow on trees for most of America. We sit down at our kitchen tables and write out checks to the phone-company, electric company, credit card-company, mortgage-company, and auto finance company every month. We clip coupons and go to the grocery store every week to put food in the mouths of our children. This is what our parents did before us. We work 40 to 60 hours a week to pay these bills and feed those mouths. It’s not easy. We do it because that is what hard working American families do. We work hard, try to save some money for a rainy day and do the best we can. We had been taught that nothing in this world was free. We have been misled. If you were wicked, taking risks beyond the comprehension of average Americans and endangering the entire worldwide financial system, money does grow on trees and there is plenty for free. Money can be printed out of thin air by the wicked and doled out to the wicked. The definition of wicked is:

Evil in principle or practice; deviating from morality; contrary to the moral or divine law; addicted to vice or sin; sinful; immoral; profligate"

More...

Housing Is Not Just Bad, It’s Getting Worse

"The market’s reaction to the S&P Case Shiller data showing the home prices dropped almost 19% in March was that the data is old, so there is no point in giving it much attention. The market seemed to shrug it off by posting large gains.

But, the numbers from March are like canned vegetables. It takes them a long time to spoil. That point was driven home by a study Fitch, the credit ratings agency, is preparing that shows “that between 65% and 75% of modified subprime loans will fall 60-days or more delinquent within 12 months of the loan change.” In other words, even if homeowners are given a second chance to keep their homes and enjoy lower monthly payments, they are prepared to walk away". More...

Manufacturing accounts for 35 percent of April mass layoffs

"The manufacturing sector has continued to take a beating, according to government’s latest statistics on mass layoff actions during April.

A total of 271,226 workers lost their jobs last month, with the manufacturing sector accounting for 39 percent of that total.

A mass layoff is defined as a single employer causing at least 50 workers to lose their jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates mass-layoff data on a seasonally adjusted basis, using the number of new filings for unemployment insurance benefits to calculate the figures.

According to the report, the highest number of manufacturing claims came from areas in transportation equipment (19,246) and machinery (18,614). The transportation and warehousing industry accounted for 9 percent of mass layoff events and 11 percent of associated initial claims during the month". More...

2012 Economic Apocalypse

The time for O’s mettle test is here: North Korea prepares for war

Joe Biden said our unseasoned Dear Leader would soon be tested. The time is here and now. North Korea tonight has abandoned a 1953 ceasefire and is preparing the peninsula for war in the wake of South Korea’s decision to side with an anti-proliferation coalition led by the U.S.

Wonder if that red phone woke him and Hillary up yet. Brrrrrr–ing. Brrrr–ing:

North Korea’s military says it considers South Korea’s participation in a U.S.-led program to intercept ships suspected of spreading weapons of mass destruction tantamount to a declaration of war against the North.

The communist North’s military said in a statement Wednesday that it will respond with “immediate, strong military measures” if the South actually stops and searches any North Korean ships under the Proliferation Security Initiative.

The statement, carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, said North Korea no longer considers itself bound by the armistice that ended the Korean War, as a protest over the South’s participation.

Flashback October 2008:

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Flashback February 2008:

Obama announces his Supreme Court pick

Pres. Obama announced today that he would be picking Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be his nominee for the Supreme Court. Liberal groups hailed the pick, while conservative groups denounced her as an "activist judge."

Quote of The Day

"The president, as usual, tried to appeal to all sides on the Gitmo issue and, in so doing, laid out a confusing, contradictory approach for handling the detainees. On the one hand, he said he wouldn't release individuals who endanger the American people. On the other hand, he said we must recognize that 'detention policies cannot be unbounded.' Huh?"

Criss Angel removes ladies bra

Dick Cheney vs. the NY Times

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

Former VP Dick Cheney continued his farewell tour on Thursday, speaking at a conservative Washington DC think tank. While he reserved most of his ire for the Obama administration, he still took a shot at the New York Times, which he thinks hurt national security by publishing details of the terrorist wiretapping surveillance program.

Quote of Day

"In what might be the biggest financial political con in history, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, is under the Factor microscope. Who are they? ACORN is a far-left organization that signs up voters, lobbies for the poor and promotes low-income housing... How does ACORN get money? Congressman John Boehner says ACORN affiliates of just 11 states have received--are you ready--more than $31 million in taxpayer funding, at least $11 million last year alone... Obviously, ACORN employees were not talking, but they should be talking, to the FBI. With millions of dollars in place, some of it tax money, we don't know where the money is..."

The Stock Market's Riskiest ETFs

At a time when too much debt on the part of everyone from homeowners to hedge funds brought the world financial system to the brink, you'd think "leverage" would be a four-letter word. But if the explosive growth of leveraged exchange-traded funds is any indication, it seems like investors just can't get their hands on enough money in order to boost returns.

True, leveraged ETFs offer a cheap, liquid and transparent way to double- or even triple-down on the movements of their underlying indexes — both long and short — but they are unsuitable or even dangerous if you don't understand the product. More...

Cheney vs Obama

It’s the Obama-Cheney showdown this morning. I, for one, am gratified to see this White House forced to put national security on the front burner. If not for the forceful public defenses by Vice President Cheney of the aggressive, proactive measures the last administration took to keep us safe, the current commander-in-chief would be happily gabbling about solar panels and weatherization subsidies or somesuch.

National security is and always will be the Democrats’ soft spot. And they know it.

Which is why Team Obama scrambled to preempt Cheney’s AEI speech.

Which is why the same Senate Democrats who cheered so lustily when Obama declared his Gitmo closure date turned around and denied him the funds to implement it.

Which is why Obama is embracing the very same principles of preventive detention that the Left went bananas over for the past eight years.

And which is why you woke up this morning to news of one of countless terror busts whose results were, ahem, inherited by the Obama administration.

The men and women who worked tirelessly the past eight years to prevent and disrupt jihadist plots at home and abroad aren’t the ones who’ve “lost their way.”

It’s the unreality-grounded civil rights absolutists, grievance-mongers, and 9/10 juveniles who have been and remain, in Andrew McCarthy’s apt description, willfully blind.

***

Related thoughts from Meghan Clyne in the NYPost on national security and the SCOTUS wars:

A poll released this week shows Democrats have closed the gap with Republicans on national security. There are few media circuses like Supreme Court hearings — and if the GOP seizes the spotlight to focus attention on some of the left’s more bizarre and dangerous legal theories on the War on Terror, it can only work to its advantage.

After all, by placing terrorism center stage, they might just accomplish one more thing: reminding Washington, and the American people, that we are still at war. With a Democratic supermajority in the Senate, it’s unlikely that Republicans will be able to block Obama’s nominee, no matter how unappealing. Yet if they can use the Souter vacancy to show that the War on Terror isn’t just about preening lawyers, but a real battle fought by real Americans whom a lot of judges are endangering . . . well, there are worse things to get out of a confirmation hearing.
***

Update: Here is the text of Cheney’s speech.

Cliff Notes’ version of Obama’s speech: I blame Bush (but, uh, I will follow his “lost way” on preventive detention. Just in a kinder, gentler, more, uh, moral way).

Chopless Firewood

Powell to Rush, Cheney: Room for me among 'emerging' Republican Party

Colin Powell issued a sharp rebuke Tuesday night to Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for trying to exclude him from the backbiting Republican Party.

Before some 1,500 business leaders in Boston, as well as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen, the retired general and former secretary of state spoke openly of the dispute roiling the Grand Old Party after election setbacks and polls putting its popularity at roughly one of five Americans.

"Rush Limbaugh says, 'Get out of the Republican Party.' Dick Cheney says, 'He's already out.' I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there's another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again," Powell told the crowd. More...

Corus Bank ordered to submit capital plan

"Corus Bankshares, which has warned it could be placed into receivership, has now been given until Friday to submit a capital restoration plan to federal regulators.

The Chicago-based bank holding company (NASDAQ: CORS) disclosed the May 1 order in its first quarter report, filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in which it said it lost $285 million.

The news should come as no surprise, given that Corus Bank also disclosed in the report that just one of its condo development loans in South Florida is not at risk of foreclosure. More...

Gingrich Goes After Pelosi

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Newt Gingrich Pt. 1
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Newt Gingrich went after Nancy Pelosi, saying that she either needed to prove her allegations against the CIA, or step down as Speaker of the House.

Geithner Rigged

"Good morning.

Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Shelby, members of the Senate Banking Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.

On October 3, 2008, during a time of tremendous financial upheaval and economic uncertainty, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) with the specific goal of stabilizing the nation's financial system and preventing catastrophic collapse. Soon after taking office, this Administration rebuilt the EESA programs from the ground up with a new foundation. We also unveiled a financial stability plan to restore the flow of credit to consumers and businesses, tackle the foreclosure crisis in order to help millions of Americans stay in their homes, and comprehensively reform the nation's financial regulatory system so that a crisis like this one never happens again". More...

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, (Pub.L. 106-102, 113 Stat. 1338, enacted November 12, 1999) is an Act of the 106th United States Congress (1999-2001) which repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, opening up competition among banks, securities companies and insurance companies. The Glass-Steagall Act prohibited any one institution from acting as both an investment bank and a commercial bank, or as both a bank and an insurer.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate. For example, Citibank merged with Travelers Group, an insurance company, and in 1998 formed the conglomerate Citigroup, a corporation combining banking and insurance underwriting services under brands including Smith-Barney, Shearson, Primerica and Travelers Insurance Corporation. This combination, announced in 1993 and finalized in 1994, would have violated the Glass-Steagall Act and the Bank Holding Company Act by combining insurance and securities companies, if not for a temporary waiver process.[1] The law was passed to legalize these mergers on a permanent basis. Historically, the combined industry has been known as the financial services industry.

Community Reinvestment Act

The Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA, Pub.L. 95-128, title VIII, 91 Stat. 1147, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq.) is a United States federal law designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Congress passed the Act in 1977 to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining. The Act requires the appropriate federal financial supervisory agencies to encourage regulated financial institutions to meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered, consistent with safe and sound operation. (See full text of Act and current regulations. To enforce the statute, federal regulatory agencies examine banking institutions for CRA compliance, and take this information into consideration when approving applications for new bank branches or for mergers or acquisitions.

Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting

The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves.

“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

Ayers: Obama hasn't read my book

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

A reporter from the Washington Times confronted former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers at a book signing, and asked him if he'd gotten any feedback on his book from the President. A laughing Ayers deflected the question and slammed the Washington Times.

Taxinator: Rise Of The Taxes

Arnold Schwarzenegger was so preoccupied with lecturing the national GOP about the need to “rebrand” itself and move left that he forgot to mind California’s own business.

Today, his desperate tax-and-spend ballot measures are expected to all go down in flames at the polls. Tea Party activists of all political stripes have lambasted the deceptive initiatives. The intellectually and financially bankrupt state GOP is in full meltdown, having poured $650,000 into Schwarzenegger’s coffers to promote the phony spending cap measure before the state party waffled, then turned around and voted to oppose it and the other tax hikes.

So, where in the world is the Taxinator now? After making a last-ditch pitch for his $16 billion in tax increases at black churches in L.A. (hello, church/state separation activists?) and attempting to fear-monger voters into approving the measures, Arnie has fled to Washington, D.C. today for a pow-wow with Barack Obama to celebrate — what else? — new eco-regulations on cars that will result in massive new costs imposed on drivers:

Battling anger and indifference on the part of California voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implored them Sunday not to make the state “the poster child for dysfunction” by defeating a host of measures on Tuesday’s ballot that seek to restructure the state’s bleak finances.
After years of binge spending, open-borders welfare expansionism, environmental extremism, unchecked unionism (read: SEIU) and hostility to businesses, it’s a little late to try to prevent California from becoming “the poster child for dysfunction,” isn’t it?

You can run, but you can’t hide:

When the going gets tough, the tough get going and that’s what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing tonight: going out of town.

Although the governor has been arguing for months that Tuesday’s election features a package of ballot measures that are absolutely essential to California’s financial future, Schwarzenegger is leaving on a jet plane for Washington, where he’ll spend election day. And he’s not coming home in any hurry, either.

The governor will be in DC for what his staff is billing as a major announcement: California is expected to get its long-sought waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency, which will allow the state to set higher standards for car and truck exhaust emissions.

And Schwarzenegger plans to stay in Washington Wednesday to lobby the California congressional delegation for more budget help for the state.

Important stuff. The tougher emissions standards are something Schwarzenegger has been working on for years and is an important past of his plan for the greening of California. And since California is looking at a $15.4 billion budget deficit under the best — and currently unlikely — circumstances, a chance to smooze the DC-based pols isn’t a bad thing.

Still, would Schwarzenegger be making this trip if every poll wasn’t predicting an election night disaster for the governor’s budget reform package? Things are so ugly that Budget Reform Now, Schwarzenegger’s umbrella group for support of the ballot measures, hadn’t decided by this afternoon when, where or even if they were going to have an election night party.
It will be thanks in large part to both the old guard taxpayers’ rights groups (Howard Jarvis) and the new generation of anti-Evil&Stupid Party activists from the Tea Party movement that Schwarzenegger’s ill-conceived measures go down. But the fight is far from over.

The Taxinator is in D.C. with his hands out — and his figurative gun to the head of the rest of the country’s taxpayers. As I noted last week, California wants TARP money. They’ll argue, as every other successful bailout recipient has, that the state is Too Big Too Fail.

California did itself in. It deserves to suffer the consequences.

Tell your congressional representatives to tell the muscle man looking to pump up his puny state coffers with everyone else’s money:

Not one dime.

Quote of Day

"The New York Times simply wants another trumped up scandal (more prisoner photos) it can blame on Bush in order to further damage the Republican party. The loony paper could not care less about the safety of American forces. It is time for American vets to get involved here. You guys have power. You can confront organizations like the Times and NBC News, which are pushing to have the pictures released. I hope American veterans will stand up for their comrades in the field."

Whoopi's had enough

Quote of The Day

"...it is no accident that NBC News is promoting government-run health care as well as President Obama's policies in general. Now, if this were any other industry, anything else, there would be a federal investigation. But the press is largely above the law. There's no oversight on the press at all. We can do pretty much what we want to do. ...a major American news operation, NBC, giving favorable coverage to a president, while its parent company stands to profit dramatically if Mr. Obama's agenda succeeds. Corrupt? You make the call."

Moody's Lowers Japan AAA Foreign Currency Credit Rating To Aa2

Moody's is swinging the axe again, and in a move which could spell trouble for the rating for the US itself, it downgraded Japan's last triple-A foreign currency credit rating. Amusingly, Japan has almost no foreign currency debt exposure, so the action may be perceived as posturing by Moody's as it prepares for some sort of credit action on the US. In Moody's own words:

"We know there are challenges in Japan. That's why we don't think Japan is an Aaa," said Thomas Byrne, senior vice president for Moody's in Singapore.

"We think that the two-notch differential between the triple-As such as the U.S., France and Germany are warranted," he told a news conference in Tokyo.

The following is the language from the rating action itself providing justification for the rating event:

Japan's credit profile is Aa2

The unified rating of Aa2 reflects Japan's considerable strengths. These include Japan's large domestic savings, a strong home bias on the part of its domestic financial institutions and institutional investors, relatively low holdings of government debt by foreign investors, and Japan's $1 trillion of official foreign exchange holdings. Moody's believes the domestic market will absorb the record level of bond issuance this year to fund the government's economic stimulus program.

However, the rating also reflects the risks of Japan's high level of debt, which leaves the country's fiscal position vulnerable to shocks or imbalances that would cause a sharp rise in interest rates. The ratings also reflect the sizable but temporary increase in the government's budget deficit caused by the severe effects of the global collapse in trade and recession on the Japan's economy. Further, Japan's large foreign exchange reserves, although large compared to those of most other countries, are only a small fraction of its liabilities and could not alone eliminate refinancing risk at a time of severe stress.

For the government's bond rating to move higher, Japan's economy would need a sustained recovery and the government would need to shrink its budget deficit and lower its debt trajectory. Conversely, the bond rating would be under pressure if the trend in debt increases continues, which could result from demographic pressures on social welfare and pension expenditures, or if the market loses enthusiasm for the government's new debt issuances.

It is no secret that at the current inflection point, the threat of skyrocketing debt and "lack of appetite" for new debt issuance is much more severe at other sovereigns (hint: the US) is much higher than that of Japan. Thus, based just on this information, one should expect some adverse credit language focusing on either the U.K. or the U.S. relatively soon.

"The move to lower Japan's foreign currency bond rating from Aaa opens the way for speculation about whether Moody's will take similar actions on other triple-A ratings," said Kenro Kawano, senior rates strategist at Credit Suisse in Tokyo.

"Also, with Moody's citing as Japan's strengths its funding ability, it also fuels speculation about a cut to a triple-A rating on a country which cannot fund itself."

With US CDS having been hit by a massive short covering wave, and recently trading in the 30s, a downgrade would potentially have a catalytic event on this manifestation of risk, and as such the upside/downside of the US CDS, which had traded at 100 as recently as 2 months ago, may be a prudent analysis.

Inflation or deflation - GOLD WILL BE KING...

"From August 2007 when the world passed the tipping point it has been in the grip of massive deflationary forces that have already ravaged portfolios and pension plans and resulted in millions losing their jobs. This deflationary implosion had become structurally inevitable and it was only ever a question of when, rather than if, it occurred. It had to happen because debt and debt financed activities had ballooned to unsustainable levels. The wilful obstruction of the necessary corrective forces of recession over many years and the continued expansion of this huge debt bubble to unprecedented extremes via what is called financial engineering, in particular derivatives, led to it becoming critically unstable, so that when it burst a disastrous cascading deleveraging process set in. As we know, the event or crisis which burst the bubble was the sub-prime mortgage debacle" More....

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"U.S. President Barack Obama has named the Republican governor of Utah to be the next U.S. ambassador to China, a pivotal post in relations between the United States and a major emerging economic power.

Jon Huntsman Jr., 49, a Mandarin-speaking former U.S. trade official with deep personal and family business ties to China, takes on a delicate diplomatic role with a vital trading partner and one of the biggest sources of financing for the growing pile of U.S. government debt.

“This ambassadorship is as important as any in the world because the United States will best be able to deal effectively with the global challenges of the 21st century by working in concert with China,” Obama said at a White House ceremony with Huntsman at his side…

Huntsman quoted a Chinese aphorism as he accepted the nomination on Saturday, which he translated as, “Together we work, together we progress.”

“This more than anything else, I think, captures the spirit of our journey going forward,” he said".

The ‘Obama Man’ Song

Karl Rove On Wanda Sykes Performance At The Correspondents Dinner

Does Cheney Know Something Obama Doesn't

Aide Told Pelosi of Waterboarding Use

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was used on CIA terror detainee Abu Zubaydah, directly contradicting Pelosi's account that she had never been informed of the technique's use". more..

Atlantis visits Hubble: Flight Day 2 Highlights

Quote of The Day

"President Obama did the right thing yesterday by listening to his generals and refusing to release evidentiary photos of American military people abusing prisoners. Many of the abusers are now in prison themselves, as our justice system does not permit random violence against captives. But the ACLU is not satisfied with the convictions. It wants to damage America further and put the lives of American service people overseas in even more danger. That is the truth. The ACLU does not care about these brave men and women at all."

1,000 Miles on a Tank of Gas

The Obama Card

A Drunken Janice Dickinson Attacks A Cameraman

More:

Real Life Twitter

Top Ten Surprises In The Sarah Palin Memoir

Funny but when will we get some Obama material? Lettermen is a left wing nut.

In my pajamas

W.H. Press Sec. Gibbs Takes Ringing Phone From Reporter During Briefing

Miss California Press Conference

A Story About a Man Named Tom

"Tom in California has a $550,000 condo with a $4k payment a month.

Tom’s income drops, home value drops, 401k value drops.

Tom is not happy. Tom thinks about selling his Mercedes.

Tom stays up late at night thinking how can I save Tom’s A$$.

Tom devises a plan to legally work the system.

Tom stops paying his mortgage and property taxes.

Tom pockets $4k a month.

Tom’s lender doesn’t send out a default notice for 6 months because said lender is really overwhelmed with foreclosure notices, plus there has been a moratorium. Tom now has $24,000 under his mattress.

Tom’s credit has gone bad and Tom’s credit card limits have been cut down to their balances.

Tom is frustrated and spends some of his cash.

Tom now has $22,000.

Tom’s lender under California law has to wait 3 months for a Right of Redemption period before filing a 21 day notice to sell his property at auction.

Tom pockets another $12k from not paying his mortgage payment.

Tom now has $34,000.00.

Tom gets a notice on his door saying his home is going to auction. Tom calls lender to try for a loan modification under Obama’s new plan.

Lender postpones foreclosure for another month. Tom pockets $4k more ($38,000).

Lender offers Tom a reduced monthly payment starting 30 days later. Tom pockets $4k more. ($42,000)

Tom decides his condo is $100,000 underwater and doesn’t think he will recover his equity anytime soon because an REO next door has been on the market for 100+ days with no offers. Tom looks for a place to rent.

Tom finds a comparable place to live closer to work at $2k a month. Saving $2k a month.

Landlord doesn’t like Toms credit, so asks for 1st & last month’s rent plus a 2 month deposit. Tom now has $34,000 under his mattress.

Tom’s condo forecloses. Tom feels bad, but knows a lot of other people have foreclosed as well and is somewhat happy about his $34,000 under his mattress. Tom’s loan was a purchase money loan so the lender does nothing about his deficiency. Tom receives a 1099 from his lender but doesn’t have to pay thanks to the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act (through 2012).

3 years pass by and Tom sees values continue to drop and stay low. Tom saves $72,000 by renting. (Interactive foreclosure calculator)

Tom notices a much bigger & upgraded condo with a killer view for sale for only $500,000.

Tom finds out that even though he had a foreclosure, after 3 years the FHA will do a new loan for him with only 3.5% down and he is now considered a first-time home buyer with eligibility for a nice tax credit (currently only good through 2009, but may be extended).

Tom lifts up his mattress and grabs his down payment of $17,500, which leaves him with $88,500.

Tom gets his rental deposit back of $4k and the first-time home buyer tax credit of $8k (see below).

Tom puts it with his $88,500 and it becomes $100,500.

Tom buys stock in a real estate ETF.

4.5 years later the foreclosure falls off his credit report.

Tom worked the system.

The law defines first-time homebuyer as a buyer who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.

The FHA requires a minimum 3.5% down payment on loans backed by the agency, which means that buyers could put little or nothing down on homes up to $230,000. It is close to having nothing down, says Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist.

A borrower whose previous residence or other real property was foreclosed on or has given a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure within the previous three years is generally not eligible for an insured mortgage. However, if the foreclosure of the borrower’s principal residence was the result of extenuating circumstances beyond the borrower’s control and the borrower has since established good credit, an exception may be granted.

My Thoughts

Are Tom and the banks/lenders that much different?

*Disclaimer - Don’t try this at home"

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION

Industrial production decreased 0.5 percent in April after having fallen 1.7 percent in March. Production in manufacturing declined 0.3 percent in April and was 16.0 percent below its recent peak in December 2007. The decreases in manufacturing in April remained broadly based across industries. Outside of manufacturing, the output of mines fell 3.2 percent, as oil and gas field drilling and support activities continued to drop. The output of utilities moved up 0.4 percent. At 97.1 percent of its 2002 average, industrial output in April was 12.5 percent below its year-earlier level. The capacity utilization rate for total industry fell further in April, to 69.1 percent, a low over the history of this series, which begins in 1967.

Government’s Stimulus Programs Overwhelmed by Events

"On paper, recent legislation for government stimulus and bailout programs imply massive expenditures. But in practice, the actual flow of funds from Washington is often puny in comparison to the powerful events unfolding in the real economy". More

"The Worst Is Yet to Come": If You're Not Petrified, You're Not Paying Attention

"The green shoots story took a bit of hit this week between data on April retail sales, weekly jobless claims and foreclosures. But the whole concept of the economy finding its footing was "preposterous" to begin with, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates.
"We're in a complete mess and the consumer is smart enough to know it," says Davidowitz, whose firm does consulting for the retail industry. "If the consumer isn't petrified, he or she is a damn fool."

"Davidowitz, who is nothing if not opinionated (and colorful), paints a very grim picture: "The worst is yet to come with consumers and banks," he says. "This country is going into a 10-year decline. Living standards will never be the same." More:

Stop Al Gore and The Eco-Taxers

Al Gore wants to create his own green “1984.” CEI hurls a sledgehammer at the eco-tax-and-spenders with a new ad campaign. Watch and spread the word:

Stop Al Gore and the eco-taxers
By Michelle Malkin • May 13, 2009 10:16 AM Al Gore wants to create his own green “1984.” CEI hurls a sledgehammer at the eco-tax-and-spenders with a new ad campaign. Watch and spread the word:

NTU has a petition: Tell Congress to Oppose $2 Trillion Climate Tax!
"

"Carbon dioxide emissions pose less of a threat to our country than the energy tax policies now being considered by Congress. Cap-and-trade proposals, such as President Obama's blueprint and the Waxman-Markey bill, would pile a multi-trillion-dollar indirect tax onto the backs of consumers. Cap-and-trade would make energy prices unbearable and put millions more people out of work.

I strongly urge you to vote against the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill and any other energy-rationing legislation".

For Sale: Slightly Used California Maximum Security Prison

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will propose selling San Quentin Prison, the Los Angeles Coliseum and other state-owned properties in a bid to raise cash to counter the state’s daunting budget shortfall.

He also wants to accelerate the sale of Agnews Developmental Center, the 81-acre facility on the north edge of San Jose that closed its doors in March after 120 years. The proposal to sell off state assets is part of the governor’s revised budget plan being released today. Besides the Coliseum and San Quentin, the properties he’s eyeing for sale are the Cow Palace in Daly City, the Orange County Fairgrounds, Cal Expo in Sacramento, Del Mar Fairground, and the Ventura County Fair.

The sale of those properties would generate upward of $600 million and possibly more than $1 billion for the state, according to a copy of Schwarzenegger’s proposal. But proceeds from those sales would not arrive for another two to five years. Selling the Agnews property would be done within two years.

With its stunning views of the San Francisco Bay, San Quentin has long been eyed for a more lucrative use. Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Modesto, has proposed selling both San Quentin and the Coliseum to generate badly needed revenues for the state. If voters reject a slate of ballot propositions in a special election Tuesday, as polls indicate they will, the state will face a deficit of $21.3 billion through mid-2010.

Meet The Bilderbergers

From today until May 17, approximately 150 of the most influential members of the world’s elite will be meeting behind closed doors at a hotel in Greece. They are called the Bilderberg Group or the “Bilderbergers,” and you have probably never heard of them.

The group, co-founded by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, has been meeting in secret every year since 1954. This year, says the British broadsheet The Times, they are meeting at the Nafsika Astir Palace in Vouliagmeni.

The individuals at the meeting come from such power houses as Google and the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Senate and European royalty. Governments, the banking industry, big oil, media and even the world of academia are amongst the Bilderberg ranks.

Those reportedly in attendance at last year’s conference in Virginia include former U.S. senator Tom Daschle; Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and his predecessor Henry M. Paulson; former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice; Microsoft executive Craig Mundie; senior Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot; World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

There is no official list of who’s who in Bilderberg and there are no press conferences about the meetings. This is because the group operates under the “Chatham House Rule,” and no details of what goes on inside are released to the press.

This secrecy has led to many claims that the Bilderberg Group are the world’s real “kingmakers,” and, some even suggest, behind the global financial crisis.

25th Hour Broker Scene

Shorting These Stocks Is Now Verboten

"Due to significant increases in the cost of borrowing stock in the underlying market, along with a lack of available shares to borrow, we have been forced to restrict short selling on the following US Shares:"

"Clients are not allowed to open any new short positions or increase any short positions in these instruments. If you currently hold an open short position, you are not forced to close this and if you need to sell in order to close a long position your order will be accepted".

Haha this is scary can't even short an insolvent bank.

Marketwatch's Rex Nutting The Left Wing Nut

rex

"This whine about Pelosi gets tiresome.
1) Since 9/11, the Speaker of the House has flown on military jets. It's a rule.
2) Pelosi has flown back to her district less often than Republican Denny Hastert did".

To Rex Nutting: You never get tired of the Bush or Cheney bashing. You damn hypocrite, haha.

Cargo Ships Treading Water Off Singapore, Waiting for Work

So badly battered is the shipping industry that the daily rate to charter a large bulk freighter suitable for carrying, say, iron ore, plummeted from close to $300,000 last summer to a low of $10,000 early this year, according to H. Clarkson & Company, a London ship brokerage.

The rate has rebounded to nearly $25,000 in the last several weeks, and some bulk carriers have left Singapore. But ship owners say this recovery may be short-lived because it mostly reflects a rush by Chinese steel makers to import iron ore before a possible price increase next month.

Notebook: Chrysler Under Fire

Watch CBS Videos Online

Hubble Space Telescope Repair

Watch CBS Videos Online

Haha sounds like an upgrade to me.

Obama Administration Job Creation

Obama wants to create green jobs - according to Gabriel Calzada Alvares, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid who authored a 41 page study on his country’s experiment said the U.S. should expect to lose NINE JOBS FOR EVERY FOUR CREATED.
Second, if cap and trade bill passes in Congress it is expected that across the next two decades, annual job losses due to restrictions on CO2 emissions will exceed 800,000 in at least two years. Losses for most years will be more then 500,000.
A CO2 regulation regime would begin eating away at the
manufacturing employment base in about five years. By
2029, more than 3.5 million jobs will have been lost, according
to Heritage’s reckoning.
The machinery industry will lose more than 57% of its
jobs, while jobs in plastic and rubber production will fall
54%. Other manufacturing areas in which employment
will drop precipitously are paper and paper products
(36%), durable goods (28%)and textiles (27.6%).
Bear in mind that these numbers, as staggering as they
are, don’t count the losses that would occur if companies
moved operations offshore, rather than absorb the higher
energy prices - Investors Business Daily.

The question is - Does Obama really want to create jobs? Is he listening to others? Does he pay any attention to others’ opinions? Does he read any statistics? Better stop him before it is too late.

Cheney Speaks Out

Watch CBS Videos Online

Bob Schieffer is joined with former V.P., Dick Cheney, who spoke out about his beliefs on the Obama Administration and also spoke about his White House days.

Bear Market Rally Signal End

So looking at the day on the SPX, it barely held the 15 sma on a daily chart and failed at the 5 sma. That does not give me any conviction to go long. Another test and fail at 5 sma and longs have real problems IMO.

More importantly, I just noticed that the week is shaping up to be an inside week. Now anyone who was following my posts from last Friday and over the weekend, we all saw how the inside day Friday on the long ETFs (i.e. FAS, TNA, BGU) were followed by sharp declines Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

So having seen what an inside day can produce, imagine what an inside week will produce. For those not familiar with inside days, here is a link to what they are and their significance:

Obama's Insane Deficit and Unemployment

John Browne, colleague of Peter Schiff and former member of British Parliament, as well as a close associate of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, talks about the ramifications of Obama's insane deficit.

Do not Trust the Banks

"We can't really trust any earnings reports we get since they changed the accounting rules about two weeks ago so that management can now give values to assets that they think it should have. Now, of course they think they should have high values."

Stocks still face deflationary collapse: Prechter

"Longtime technical analyst Robert Prechter, who forecast the 1987 stock market crash, predicted this week that U.S. equities may plunge to half their lows hit in March as a deflationary depression bites.

Oil and U.S. Treasury bonds are also locked in long term bear markets, while corporate bond prices will plunge precipitously by next year as broad economy, banking system and company earnings sustain more damage from a financial crisis that's akin to the Great Depression, he said".

Quote of The Day

"Are these tactics [of ridiculing one's opponents] an accident, or is there something deeper here? Enter far left philosopher Saul Alinsky, a Chicago rabble-rouser who died in 1972. ...According to Alinsky, in order to change America into a far-left bastion, traditional Americans must be marginalized, attacked... the Alinsky principals are followed by a variety of far-left organizations ...so the politics of ridicule is no accident. It is a game plan, a blueprint. It is currently being used by a major television news organization and perhaps by the White House itself. Now you know."

Whoopi Finally Gets It

Now, if only she can convince President Obama to stop proposing even more new taxes, like today’s Soda Tax, yesterday’s Estate Tax hike proposal or the grandaddy of them all, the Global Warming Tax.

Pastor Beaten Tased by Border Patrol and DPS

Tension between Obama and Hillary

Pres. Obama was praised widely for his monologue at the White House Correspondents dinner, including a crack at Hillary Clinton. But did his joke signal something else? Is there possibly some unresolved tension between the two, leftover from their bruising primary battle?

Quote of The Day

Whether you like them or not, presidents, all of them, are entitled to respect. Loyal Americans understand the office of the presidency is far bigger than the person actually in the Oval Office. So understanding that, it is hard to believe that this controversial dinner stuff [last Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner] actually happens time and time again..... I think it's because presidents like to come off as good sports and want to have a regular guy rapport with the press on occasion. But we are living in a time of hyper partisan hatred, where rules of conduct have broken down........... The president of the United States might take that into account next time invitation flows in.

Rule of Law and Not of Men

"The rule of law, not of men -- an ideal tracing back to the ancient Greeks and well-known to our Founding Fathers -- is the animating principle of the American experiment. While the rest of the world in 1787 was governed by the whims of kings and dukes, the U.S. Constitution was established to circumscribe arbitrary government power. It would do so by establishing clear rules, equally applied to the powerful and the weak.

Fleecing lenders to pay off politically powerful interests, or governmental threats to reputation and business from a failure to toe a political line? We might expect this behavior from a Hugo Chávez. But it would never happen here, right?

Until Chrysler."

Jimmy Kimmel goes to black barbershop to see how to properly joke on Barack Obama

Economic Impact Of Obama Presidency

Argentina's Economic Collapse

Quote of The Day

"Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs ... and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Alan Greenspan tips bottoming of spiral

"FORMER US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan believes the US housing market decline may be bottoming and he can see financial markets continuing to improve.

Greenspan, 83, who left the Fed in January 2006 after almost two decades at the helm, has returned to his former role as a private economic forecaster.

"We are finally beginning to see the seeds of a bottoming" in the housing industry, Greenspan said this week at a conference of the National Association of Realtors in Washington.

He said the US was at the edge of a major liquidation in the stock of unsold properties, which may help to stabilise prices".

Jim Rogers On Current Economic Conditions

CNBC Joke

Erin Burnett on CNBC is asking herself if rising foreclosuers is a good thing or bad? How crazy is that? Are they brain dead or they're just reading the teleprompter?

She's kinda cute and confused.

CNBC is into market damage control: now in automatic cheerleading mode.

Washington Socialists

Eight years into the New Deal, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau wrote in his diary: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work....We have never made good on our promises....I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started...and an enormous debt to boot!"

Today, the washington socialist policies are much more severe.

Great Depression Quotes 1929 vs 2008: Have We Learned Anything?

A few select quotes during the depression years of 1929 to 1931.

Notice the “Expert” opinions which convey optimism, the bank bailouts, government assurances, the Hoover (Paulson) plan, and the deliberate attempt by the main stream media to manufacture consent for bailing out Wall St. Has anything changed?

Audit the Fed bill

Tell your Congressman to co-sponsor Ron Paul's "Audit the Fed bill". Sign the petition:

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/auditthefed.php

The Federal Reserve Can Not Account For $9 Trillion In Off-Balance Sheet Transactions

This video is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand just how "effective" the Fed is at safeguarding taxpayer money. Apparently nobody at the Federal Reserve has any clue where the trillions of dollars that have come from the Fed's expanded balance sheet have gone. Additionally, nobody there seems to have any idea what the losses on the Fed's $2 trillion portfolio really are.

As for the pittance of $9 trillion in Fed off-balance sheet transactions over the past 8 months, well, yeah, that's also somewhere out there... Just don't ask the Federal Reserve where.

Rep. Alan Grayson summarizes it best "I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve is keeping track of anything."

(P.S. Zero Hedge uses the term "anyone" generically, with the presumption that the Fed's Inspector General should traditionally receive most memos on memorandum items that deal with a dollar sign and +/- 12 zeros after it).

Obama A Subprime Borrower

"A humorous if somewhat serious post by scrivener.net, which analyzes whether the current President would have benefited from the ongoing mortgage relief plan, assorted bankruptcy initiatives and other programs set in place to make life for subprime borrowers easier, especially if a butterfly had flapped its wings in China between 5 and 10 years ago. The answer is...

Not quite. But it seems that during his pre-Senator years, he and Michelle spent substantially more than their income and made up the difference by repeatedly taking out loans against the rising value of their home during the home-price bubble. At least according to this story...

In April 1999, they purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line of credit for $100,000 on top of the mortgage.

Tax returns for 2004 reveal $14,395 in mortgage deductions. If we assume an effective interest rate of 6%, then they owed about $240,000 on a home they purchased for about $159,250....
And they weren't exactly "poor" during this time. They were what they now call "the rich". Apparently they were just free with their money, not rich enough, spending more than they had coming in ...


During the presidential primary campaign, Michelle Obama complained how tough it was to make ends meet ... "I know we're spending - I added it up for the first time - we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we're spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth."...

The Obamas' adjusted gross income averaged $257,000 from 2000 to 2004. This is above the threshold of $250,000 which Obama initially used as the definition of being "rich" for taxation purposes during last year's election campaign.

The Obama family apparently had little or no savings during this period since there was virtually no taxable interest shown on their tax returns.

... until he got elected to the Senate in 2005 ...

the Obamas were living off lines of credit along with other income for several years until 2005, when Obama's book royalties came through and Michelle received her 260% pay raise at the University of Chicago.

This was also the year Obama started serving in the U.S. Senate ... Michelle explained, "It was like Jack and his magic beans."

Wasn't it lucky that they found their magic beans just as he got locked into a limited-salary government job for six years? Anyhow, for them things easily could have been much different.

Barack might well have lost his Senate run, but for his respected and well-financed Republican opponent being done in by allegations that he had wanted to take his wife to a sex club ... that were contained in four-year-old sealed legal documents, which a Chicago judge decided to release to the press during the campaign, that had been filed against him by his wife in a divorce proceeding ... which she'd initiated after pursuing an on-the-job dalliance with a man who was the near co-destroyer of the Star Trek franchise. But I digress (though in case you are interested).

If Barack hadn't been elected...
Without those magic beans, the Obama family would have eventually suffered the consequences of too much debt ... and they might have suffered financially during the decline in housing prices had they relied on taking ever larger amounts of equity from their home to pay the bills...
Here's a counterfactual: Let's imagine a world in which long-sealed court documents remained sealed during elections, and Star Trek producers didn't hit on married actresses.

Suppose in that world Barack had lost his Senate run, and he and Michelle had thereafter continued to live their lives as previously, beanless. Then the housing bubble burst, leaving them as short of income as ever before but now with no way to cover the income gap, and also tens of thousands of dollars "underwater" on their home, owing that much more than it was worth.

Today, in response to the mortgage crisis and masses of foreclosures everywhere, the new Clinton Administration is putting together its Innocent Overstretched Homeowner Bailout and Mortgage Relief Plan.

Should the plan be written so that that Barack Obama -- a virtuous, hard-working citizen, state legislator, respected professor (indeed a person fully qualified to be President of the United States!) -- should have tens of thousands of dollars knocked off his loan balance and his interest rate reduced, dropping yet another loss on the staggering banking system and endangering its creditors, because he and the wife always liked to spend more money than they had? Can he say greedy bankers exploited him into over-extending himself like that?

Or should the Obamas be told: stick it, move to an apartment, forget all the fancy private lessons for the kids, wear the same clothes for a while, and cut your spending until it is less than your income and you finally are saving something".

Freedom of Speech Miss California

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

The Donald took to the mic today to announce that Miss California, Carrie Prejean, would be able to keep her crown. Prejean, who initially caused controversy by announcing her opposition to gay marriage, has come under fire in recent days for a series of racy topless photos that are currently circulating on the net. Prejean thanked Trump, then tearfully complained about her right to free speech being violated.

Quote of The Day

"It is long past time for the USA to stop with all the contrition [about inadvertent civilian casualties], because in Afghanistan, the military is fighting and dying to give the Afghan people a chance at freedom, a chance to live their lives without the threat of being beheaded. If the world doesn't like that, tough. We are not the bad guys. And the president should make that much more clearer than he has."

Hey, how’s that porkulus working out?

It’s going to dead people:

"Millions of Americans on Social Security are receiving $250 checks as part of the president’s stimulus plan — including an Anne Arundel woman who’s dead.

The woman’s son, 83-year-old James Hagner, said his mother has been dead for more than 40 years.

That didn’t stop her from getting a stimulus check though.

“It shocked me and I laughed all at the same time and I told her how in the world could they ever do this?” Hagner said. “I don’t even expect to get one for myself and I get one for my mother from 43 years ago ‘Kind of strange right’ Yes sir.”

Social Security representatives said there is a good explanation. Of the about 52 million checks that have been mailed out, about 10,000 of those have been sent to people who are deceased.

The agency blames the error on the strict mid-June deadline of mailing out all of the checks, which didn’t leave officials with much time to clean up all of their records".

It’s not going to the neediest areas:

"The billions in transportation stimulus dollars that President Barack Obama promoted as a way to create jobs shortchange counties that need the work the most, an Associated Press analysis has found.

The AP’s review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide is the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. It reveals that states are planning to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest. The Transportation Department said it will attempt to replicate the AP’s analysis as it continues pressing states to dole out money fairly.

One result among many: Elk County, Pa., isn’t receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse".

The jobs estimates are shady.

And states can’t afford the administrative costs of it.

But hey, cheer up: The stimulus package is helping Americans buy…scooters!

Imagine if the reporters now blowing the whistle about the generational theft act’s shortcomings had been as vigilant about policing the White House claims before it was rammed down our throats…

The Bull Market is Over

Link

Tapes Reveal Unqualified Pilot of Crashed Buffalo Flight was “flirting” with Co-Pilot Prior to Crash

The inexperienced captain of Flight 3407, which crashed into a Buffalo home, killing 50 people in February, flirted and discussed relationships with his much younger female co-pilot moments before the fatal plunge, sources close to the investigation said.

What transpired between Capt. Marvin Renslow, 47, and his co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, 24, in the minutes before the disaster will be topic No. 1 at a public hearing by the National Transportation Safety Board today in Washington, DC. The two chatted back and forth during the final approach into Buffalo Niagara International Airport despite FAA rules that forbid non-flight-related talk below 10,000 feet, sources said.

Their banter was captured on the flight recorder, one source close to the investigation told The Post. Transcripts of their conversation may be released over the three-day hearing. Shaw may have further been too fatigued to aid Renslow, sources said.

She had just taken a red-eye flight to Newark after spending a week skiing and visiting her parents in Seattle, complained about a head cold and said she should have taken a sick day. Renslow, 47, was never properly trained on the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier’s anti-stall stick-pusher, sources said. The safety feature automatically points the plane’s nose into a dive to allow it to gain speed to prevent a stall if the plane slows down. Pilots should push the stick forward to gain speed if this happens, but Renslow apparently yanked back, causing the crash.

Obama admits that the media is in the tank for him

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

Obama The Comedian

Haha and people thought Bush was stupid.

Quote of The Day

"The point is that in every war, brutal things are done. Some are flat out wrong. Some are necessary to win...

So, enough with the platitudes, Mr. President. Let's understand what we're really dealing with here. Right now, the Taliban are murdering civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al Qaeda continues its worldwide terror jihad with America as the number one target. It is not against American values to protect ourselves."

The Coming Depression

The suckers rally is simply the loading and winding of a catapult meant to throw the dollar upward as the stock market spring unwinds at the moment chosen by the PPT, which moment has already been telegraphed to Illuminist insiders for their continued looting of the sheople and for the filthy aggrandizement of their growing mountain of ill-gotten gains. The stock market shorts are being set up in the dark pools of liquidity beyond the purview of regulators as this article is being written, so if you plug yourself back into the pod electrodes of the Goldilocks Matrix again, you are in for a major shock. Link

Five Economic Storms Raging NOW

Any economist fixated on so-called “signs of a recovery” needs to have his head examined.

The storms are not abating. Nor are they changing direction. Quite the contrary, what you see today is, at best, merely a deceptive calm before the next, even larger tempests.

The official stress test results released Thursday on 19 U.S. bank holding companies were supposed to help determine exactly how much capital they’ll need, and the total came to $75 billion.

That’s no small amount. But the stress tests will go down in history as the world’s most elaborate effort to paint lipstick on a pig. Link

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Obama in Poor Taste

Late on Friday, the White House dumped Scare Force One staffer Louis Caldera and released a scant “review” of the stunt photo-op flyover that wrought havoc in New York City. The dump seems to have accomplished its mission. By Saturday night, the president was instantly comfortable joking about it in front of starstruck journalists who should have seen the lack of disclosure as no laughing matter.

Snickered the president at the White House Correspondents Dinner:

Now Sasha and Malia aren’t here tonight because they’re grounded. You can’t just take Air Force One on a joy ride to Manhattan. (Laughter.) I don’t care whose kids you are. (Laughter.) We’ve been setting some ground rules here. They’re starting to get a little carried away.

All just fun and games in Washington. Remember when Obama said he was “furious” about the debacle? Not “furious” enough to restrain himself from making light of the incident in front of tittering Beltway/Hollywood glitterati.

Outside the Beltway, more serious thoughts prevail. Victor Massad writes at The American Thinker today about the visual subtext of the Statue of Liberty fly-by photo: Link

One image alone was released from the expensive photo op that terrified New Yorkers last month. Out of God only knows how many images taken during the mission, only one was chosen. It speaks powerfully to the American public — in symbolic language.

The ominous and imposing aircraft dominates the scene in such a way that, in gestalt parlance, no one could mistake the figure for the ground. The figure is an aircraft that serves as Air Force One, representing the Messianic omnipotence of the Obama presidency. Below it, part of the background — a small and less relevant thing in comparison to the aircraft — stands the Statue of Liberty, representing the individual freedoms that Americans have come to treasure and enjoy.

The message and its purpose could not be clearer: we must reset our priorities. Now that the democracy is at last headed by this magnificent and elegant man, we must put the federal government and its needs ahead of our paltry individual freedoms. Of what value, after all, is the property Americans have spent their lifetimes to acquire, or one’s right to defend oneself with a firearm, or even the privilege of living in an upwardly mobile society that used to be the envy of the rest of the world, in comparison to the Leader’s magnificently powerful icon, glistening like a phoenix in the sun?

And if you missed Debra Burlingame’s piece on the utter unseriousness of Obama with regard to the Gitmo detainees, read it as 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America — with supporting links and video — here.

Thankfully, not everyone treats national security as a joke.