Off With Their Heads!

First they didn't know anything about it, Dodd and Geitner, and then all of a sudden we find out they did. BUT it is all the administrations fault. Obama and company MADE them do it. Just when you thought it couldn't get anymore incredulous the Congress passes a law to tax the bonuses of the AIG executives. What do you think John Stossel? "Give me a break" The "Keystone Cops" are in charge of the country. The Queen had it right. "Off with their heads". And what about Barney Frank. This guy is laughable. Tell me people of MA, what the heck were you thinking? NOW people of America, do you get the idea that your voice can be heard? Sure it can, BUT let not us cut off our nose to spite our face. BUT then just as I was going to encourage to make your case with logic and reason I realize that the people in Washington, the Keystone Cop brigade, wouldn't recognize reason and logic if they saw it. You really couldn't make this stuff up!! And now we have the President of doom and gloom all of a sudden turned cheer leader! What's with that??? Who's running the asylum?

Is AIG a P.I.G?

The pen is....This whole AIG mess boils down to who knew what when. It sure looks like a "just made for politics" issue but lets get real here a minute. The new CEO gets paid a dollar a year. No matter how much it was it is a thankless task. Senior Execs in companies like AIG have contracts for these bonuses. Now if they didn't meet the terms of the agreement and still got paid we should put the payers in jail and get the money back from the payees. AIG is not now the governments company, it is OURS. 80% ours. The congressional hearing make for good theater just like trying to figure out who to prosecute in the former administration for whatever. Our representatives need to spend their time figuring out how to solve the problems. Get them solved first and then we can do the other stuff later. Just like Nancy Pelosi telling that group of many illegals over the weekend, in church no less, that they are "patriots". Since when are criminals partriots? Change the law or put them in jail, it is really not that hard to figure out.

One in Private, the Other in Public

The pen is......Reality has finally hit home in the Obama White House. What you promise in a campaign may not be doable when you are the President, sometimes as a result of actions of your own party. The President signed the budget (spending) bill today in private without any real ceremony and on the same day made some very public comments and commitments about what he is going to stop or limit the "earmarks" i.e., pork barrel projects of which there were 8700 of them in the bill he had just signed. Who is running the place? Obviously not the President. You don't mess with Pelosi and Reid!! Welcome to the real world Mr. President. I am not against altogether members of Congress steering some of the money spent back to their districts. At least it makes them look like they are doing something and should be re-elected. The problem here is the "timing" of this spending. We are in trouble on the basics, bread and water stuff, and now is not the time to be spending on "nice to have" items than can wait while we get the economy fixed. This is Economics 101 but obviously not everyone took and/or passed the course. What do you think?

Hindsight is 20/20

So NOW the Fed Chairman says that we should be putting in place rules and methods of detection so that we can see what's coming and stop it. Mr. Chairman are you just now figuring this out. You mean to tell us that this is some kind of sudden revelation to you. As John Stossel would say, "give me a break". And this morning the WSJ reports that in the fourth quarter 500 Billion dollars of credit was withdrawn by the same credit card companies who passed out their plastic disaster like Christmas candy so now there is another prediction of a catastrophic credit crunch because many people who really can't afford to use them will not be able to live off of their credit card float. Where were all these people and their prognostications when we needed them!!

Wouln't You Know It

The pen is......The price of crude goes up and the price of gas I got yesterday went down again today. I just got a new telephone and now the tech stocks take a dip. It seems like a lot of things are just backwards of what we understood they ought to be. Maybe that's because the market place is being manipulated instead of letting the market do it's thing. Possibly the "its to big to let it fail" argument is really being make by those who have the most to lose at GM or AIG. Maybe they really aren't to big to fail and maybe this is just what needs to happen so the market can correct this whole thing and things will be right with the world. Oh by the way, suddenly everybody is calling for the US to save the world. Aren't these some of the same countries who burn our flag and our President in effigy and still take our money? It's a funny world.

Dumb and Dumber

The pen is...... Any money given to anybody from our taxpayer pocketbook ought to be traceable. We already have 350 billion that no one seems to be able to find, how dumb is that. We should let GM go into bankruptcy. That would be best for them to be able to re-structure and try to become a viable organization again. No more bailout money for them or AIG. If we the taxpayer are going to foot the bill on this then lets be sure we hold the Congress accountable for knowing how our money is spent. Did you know that the Budget Bill was never read by any member of Congress or Senator!! Why because it was delivered to them after midnight on the day they were to vote. This was done purposely and this isn't the first time. Interns read most of that stuff not the elected representative. There must be new rules on how far in advance a Congressperson or Senator has to get a copy of anything they are going to vote on SO THEY CAN READ IT!!! The government is not the answer, we are. And by sitting back and doing nothing we are a part of the problem and not a part of the solution. Wake up American and become a part of the solution and demand accountability.

No Robin Hood Here

Well government has done it again. Found a way to punish those that create jobs and take the risks. It looks very much like small businesses and entrepreneurs have decided "enough is enough". Obama and company have figured out how to create dis-incentives for those that would probably be the answer. 90% of job growth comes through small businesses and now in another attempt at wealth re-distribution the government wants to take from the rich and give it to those who have made bad decisions both in business and personal lives and don't deserve to be bailed out. Those who have gotten there through no fault of their own we should help, but those whose greedy decisions have plunged their businesses into bankruptcy and those who took on obligations they knew they couldn't afford should pay the price. The American people are the answer and not the government. It is time for us to step up and step in to stop this charade of a Robin Hood from doing any more damage to this great Republic. Come on America. Stand Up!!!!

Pork With No Barbecue Sauce

The pen is......The Senate passed the spending bill yesterday with 8700 "earmarks" in it totaling 33BILLION dollars. Only one Senator, John McCain stood in the well and called it what it was, business as usual. If the President is true to his word, he will cut out those earmarks, but does he have the political will to do it. They, whoever they are, say that it is money the Senators and MC's need to get to show the folks back home that they are doing their job. If you and I are doing our job we will tell them to cut the "pork" and lets get on with fixing what needs to be fixed. It will be interesting to see how the American public reacts to all this. My hunch is they liked the "no pork" rhetoric during the campaign but when push comes to shove they will take the money and run. Wake up America your elected representatives have a ring through your nose and are leading us to the debt trough once again. It will take more than a few so called "tea" parties to get these peoples attention. They work for us but you would never know it because we are refusing to hold them accountable.

Bigger is better?

The Fed Chairman and many others who supported putting another 30 BILLION into AIG to keep it from failing are saying they are too big to fail because this could cause a failure of the entire system. The failure in the system has already taken place when you have an AIG in it. AIG has become a "sole source provider" in essence to the financial markets and thus these markets suffer the slings and arrows of anyone finding themselves at the mercy of a "sole source provider". The system needs to be re-tooled so that the potential for systemic failure is not in the hands of one provider. We need to build a new system with multiple "sources" so that the failure of any one does not put the entire system at risk. Many must have seen this coming who could have raised the alarm yet no one did. Were they cowards or feeding off of the system. Whichever we have to overhaul the "checks and balances" in the financial system and hold people accountable. Why is no one calling for the heads of those that knew it was happening, especially at the highest levels of many financial institutions, and did nothing about it. Right now we are just talking, talking talking. What we need is to hold people responsible for their actions or inaction's that caused this.