"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson
Kiddies, the 234-year-long party is just about over.
Obama threatens to follow in FDR's economic missteps
Excerpt time: What about the third factor, the entrepreneurial environment? The Obama administration places a premium on action. When it comes to spending, the idea seems to be that any spending is better than none. Big new laws -- financial reform -- are put forward to inspire confidence.
But change that is too arbitrary and too frequent petrifies firms, especially before their rules have been tested in the courts. As Verizon Communications chief executive Ivan Seidenberg noted recently in a Business Roundtable speech: "By reaching into virtually every sector of economic life, government is injecting uncertainty into the marketplace and making it harder to raise capital and create new businesses."
This analysis echoes those of Depression-era entrepreneurs. In 1938 Lammot du Pont, head of the eponymous chemical concern, spoke of a "fog of uncertainty" slowing business and noted in the company's annual report that arbitrary government always slowed business down: "by land and sea the universal practice under conditions of fog is to slacken speed."
Uncertainty? No sh*t! No kidding!
And where have we heard that U-word mentioned before?
The full text: "We see a host of laws, regulations and other policies being enacted that impose a government prescription of how individual industries ought to be structured, rather than produce an environment in which the private sector can innovate, invest and create jobs in this modern global economy.
In our judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of these policies are simply too significant to ignore. In the search for short-term revenue fixes, we're doing long-term damage to growth. By reaching into virtually every sector of economic life, government is injecting uncertainty into the marketplace and making it harder to raise capital and create new businesses." - Verizon CEO and Business Roundtable Chairman Ivan Seidenberg speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, June 22, 2010
And get ready for the latest from Community Organizer Central, prepare to Google search the “Financial Transaction Tax.”
Yikes!
And then we have the latest, distressing news such as…
*California is $19.1 billion in the red and the legislature has gone home without passing a budget. Governor Schwarzenegger has said he will cut the wages of state employees to the federal minimum of $7.25/hour, at least for those employees whose unions are not willing to negotiate new contracts.
*In Illinois the Comptroller has stopped paying bills because the state is $12 billion in deficit. The cash balance for the state is minus $5 billion and it is taking nearly 250 days to pay bills that are due.- In Oregon they tried raising taxes on "the rich." The state passed a referendum in January to substantially raise taxes on those making over $125,000 per year and on corporations, but the hoped-for revenues never materialized, so Governor Kulongoski is calling for a 9 percent across-the-board cut in state spending.
*Indiana has balanced its budget by not relying on federal funds. Governor Mitch Daniels said, "It would have never entered our mind to put funny money like that into the budget."
*In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie managed to cut spending by 8.8 percent from last year and refused demands to raise taxes on "millionaires." Now he has called for a special session of the legislature to limit property tax hikes to no more than 2.5 percent per year.
You know, despite what Ba-roke Oblahblah says, this ain’t fu*king rocket science. At least, not for anyone born and raised in America. Here’s the tried-and-true fix:
1. Downsize government.
2. Reduce the deficit.
3. Decrease the level of taxation.
4. Regulate, don't suffocate.
5. Tell the partisan union brotherhoods to deal with reality.
And don’t give me any Keynesian nonsense.
A dollar drained by force from the private sector does not produce a return and then some, as the Harvard shut-ins might have you believe. A dollar confiscated from the private sector is a dollar that returns no real dividend back to the private sector. That lost dollar goes to pay for the bureaucracy, it pays for those wanting a government handout and it pays for votes. Done.
Whatever.
I’ll see y’all at the Salvation Army thrift store.
Oh, and by the way, Afghanistan is all but lost in any practical sense. Pull the ground troops back, get the boots off of the mountainsides and allow the CIA to turn that 4th-century country into it's private, high-tech playground. No more blood spilled by America's kids.
Drone, baby, drone.
Nite
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Only in Kingston
The following is a perfect example of why anonymous posting should be banned from the Internet, never to return.
This is a comment that was posted at Gort’s site, which was a limp-wristed, laughable and completely uninformed response to something that I had previously posted.
Anonymous said...
Mark, I am a resident of Kingston and street sweeping is not a rotating schedule, it is the same day every week. Here's an idea, don't park where you are not supposed to on street sweeping day and you won't get a ticket. Otherwise, you get the ticket you deserve. Obviously you are always the "victim" and never responsible for your own actions.
9:56 AM
This is abject stupidity on so many levels, it’s frightening in it’s abjectly clueless perfection.
Did that even make sense?
Tom, feel free to grade that one.
Before we go on, here’s what I had posted, the comments that drew the ire of the stupid fu*k on the hot seat…
I would like to ask Mr. Mayor Haggerty why folks working, quite obviously working in Kingston, need to be ticketed over and over and over again on street sweeping days by that Navy Seals wannabe of a Parking Enforcement goof?
I'm 200 feet away, behind the structure, with motors whirling, electrical cords all over the place, pumps spinning and with ear-protecting headphones on, but I'm ticketed every time. Um, why should I have to pay those ill-begotten tickets?
Mayor? Better government? Better governing?
This from the executive who has no problem with working stiffs being fleeced while toiling away in his town?
Now, we know Haggerty saw this comment, simply because he was sure to be following the reader’s comments left in response to his Home Rule tome on Gort’s site. And of course, as the consummate politician that he is, he ignored them, as if he had never laid eyes on them.
No biggie. I expected as much from the man who personally sank the latest Home Rule uprising. Quote me on that.
As for the next-door neighbor of Donna Reed who felt the need to go after me, perhaps he/she/it should stick to the Shade Tree Commission meetings, or the Bridge Club or the Neighborhood Protection Association.
Here’s the scoop on parking illegally, something I had not been ticketed for since I was 17-years-old. Something, by the way, that I never do. Something that never occurs to me. See, I’m not fat and lazy like most people. I can pump a quarter into a parking meter and walk a block and a half. A rarity, for sure.
When I arrive at a job site, I should not be expected to know all of the varying schedules and all of the ancient ordinances of any of the 70-plus communities in this ass-backwards county. In addition, when I arrive at a job site to find the customer’s driveway already spoken for, I am left with strategically parking the rig on the street.
At the curb. On the street. The street. Do you get it, anonymous dunce?
And once at the job site, the industrial work begins, which means an array of tools, half-inch hammer drills, cordless drills, 5/16 hammer drills, 24 horsepower shop-vacs, 100 or so feet of 12-gauge extension cords, warning signs, my cooler, and up to 300 feet of hose need to be positioned and utilized.
And then, just for effect, throw in the constant whirling of the electric motors, the deafening gas-powered motors and the droning of the pumps.
And then consider that while all of that is going on, at any given moment I may be 300-plus feet away from the truck and at the very rear of the job site, in the basement with noise-suppression headphones on, or lying prone in a crawl space.
And, whether or not I have the street sweeping schedule of the borough I may be working in on that particular day memorized, I have absolutely no warning when the overzealous Kingston parking enforcement ass-wipe arrives on the scene with his trusty pencil in hand. Fact is, with a real job to do, I usually find his pussy-whipped handiwork well after the fact.
You see, unbeknownst to the people that reside there, the rest of the world does not wait on bent knees in anticipation of the updated Kingston street sweeping schedule. Shocking, I know. But in the grand scheme of things, Kingston is about as important as is Lindsey Lohan's new potty schedule.
And it is for that exact reason that contractors being paid by residents of Kingston to apply their skills within the borders of Kingston should not be punished for doing so. We’re not punished in Wilkes-Barre. We’re not getting ripped-off in Swoyersville. We’re not getting screwed over in Hazleton, Scranton, Pittston or Nanticoke. Oh, but in Kingston, the powers that be will attempt to balance the smallish budget on the backs of contractors and sub-contractors?
And when the parking ticket creep decides to go all Parking God on us, he is endeavoring to extort monies from vendors and contractors who were invited into his neighborhoods. And from what I can gather, the real Mayor of Kingston, Paul Keating, has absolutely no problem with borough employees extorting hard-earned money from working stiffs.
Always the victim?
Nope. Not always. In fact, I’m only the victim when I have to toil away in Kingston. Yup. The only time I get fleeced is when I am contracted to work in Kingston. Only in Kingston are hard working folks smugly fu*ked over by the municipality. Only in Kingston does Parking Enforcement ignore common courtesies that every other municipality in this county adheres to.
Only in Kingston.
And to the anonymous pussy that spoke from a position of obvious ignorance, commingled pickup is tomorrow. Hurry up, run like hell to the curb and pray at your chosen altar.
Now you know. If only you had known before you went and made an anonymous ass of yourself.
And with that, I’m off to change the settings by which people can comment on this site.
I’m thrilled to have added to your woefully foreshortened and long overdue continuing education.
Bye, dunce
This is a comment that was posted at Gort’s site, which was a limp-wristed, laughable and completely uninformed response to something that I had previously posted.
Anonymous said...
Mark, I am a resident of Kingston and street sweeping is not a rotating schedule, it is the same day every week. Here's an idea, don't park where you are not supposed to on street sweeping day and you won't get a ticket. Otherwise, you get the ticket you deserve. Obviously you are always the "victim" and never responsible for your own actions.
9:56 AM
This is abject stupidity on so many levels, it’s frightening in it’s abjectly clueless perfection.
Did that even make sense?
Tom, feel free to grade that one.
Before we go on, here’s what I had posted, the comments that drew the ire of the stupid fu*k on the hot seat…
I would like to ask Mr. Mayor Haggerty why folks working, quite obviously working in Kingston, need to be ticketed over and over and over again on street sweeping days by that Navy Seals wannabe of a Parking Enforcement goof?
I'm 200 feet away, behind the structure, with motors whirling, electrical cords all over the place, pumps spinning and with ear-protecting headphones on, but I'm ticketed every time. Um, why should I have to pay those ill-begotten tickets?
Mayor? Better government? Better governing?
This from the executive who has no problem with working stiffs being fleeced while toiling away in his town?
Now, we know Haggerty saw this comment, simply because he was sure to be following the reader’s comments left in response to his Home Rule tome on Gort’s site. And of course, as the consummate politician that he is, he ignored them, as if he had never laid eyes on them.
No biggie. I expected as much from the man who personally sank the latest Home Rule uprising. Quote me on that.
As for the next-door neighbor of Donna Reed who felt the need to go after me, perhaps he/she/it should stick to the Shade Tree Commission meetings, or the Bridge Club or the Neighborhood Protection Association.
Here’s the scoop on parking illegally, something I had not been ticketed for since I was 17-years-old. Something, by the way, that I never do. Something that never occurs to me. See, I’m not fat and lazy like most people. I can pump a quarter into a parking meter and walk a block and a half. A rarity, for sure.
When I arrive at a job site, I should not be expected to know all of the varying schedules and all of the ancient ordinances of any of the 70-plus communities in this ass-backwards county. In addition, when I arrive at a job site to find the customer’s driveway already spoken for, I am left with strategically parking the rig on the street.
At the curb. On the street. The street. Do you get it, anonymous dunce?
And once at the job site, the industrial work begins, which means an array of tools, half-inch hammer drills, cordless drills, 5/16 hammer drills, 24 horsepower shop-vacs, 100 or so feet of 12-gauge extension cords, warning signs, my cooler, and up to 300 feet of hose need to be positioned and utilized.
And then, just for effect, throw in the constant whirling of the electric motors, the deafening gas-powered motors and the droning of the pumps.
And then consider that while all of that is going on, at any given moment I may be 300-plus feet away from the truck and at the very rear of the job site, in the basement with noise-suppression headphones on, or lying prone in a crawl space.
And, whether or not I have the street sweeping schedule of the borough I may be working in on that particular day memorized, I have absolutely no warning when the overzealous Kingston parking enforcement ass-wipe arrives on the scene with his trusty pencil in hand. Fact is, with a real job to do, I usually find his pussy-whipped handiwork well after the fact.
You see, unbeknownst to the people that reside there, the rest of the world does not wait on bent knees in anticipation of the updated Kingston street sweeping schedule. Shocking, I know. But in the grand scheme of things, Kingston is about as important as is Lindsey Lohan's new potty schedule.
And it is for that exact reason that contractors being paid by residents of Kingston to apply their skills within the borders of Kingston should not be punished for doing so. We’re not punished in Wilkes-Barre. We’re not getting ripped-off in Swoyersville. We’re not getting screwed over in Hazleton, Scranton, Pittston or Nanticoke. Oh, but in Kingston, the powers that be will attempt to balance the smallish budget on the backs of contractors and sub-contractors?
And when the parking ticket creep decides to go all Parking God on us, he is endeavoring to extort monies from vendors and contractors who were invited into his neighborhoods. And from what I can gather, the real Mayor of Kingston, Paul Keating, has absolutely no problem with borough employees extorting hard-earned money from working stiffs.
Always the victim?
Nope. Not always. In fact, I’m only the victim when I have to toil away in Kingston. Yup. The only time I get fleeced is when I am contracted to work in Kingston. Only in Kingston are hard working folks smugly fu*ked over by the municipality. Only in Kingston does Parking Enforcement ignore common courtesies that every other municipality in this county adheres to.
Only in Kingston.
And to the anonymous pussy that spoke from a position of obvious ignorance, commingled pickup is tomorrow. Hurry up, run like hell to the curb and pray at your chosen altar.
Now you know. If only you had known before you went and made an anonymous ass of yourself.
And with that, I’m off to change the settings by which people can comment on this site.
I’m thrilled to have added to your woefully foreshortened and long overdue continuing education.
Bye, dunce
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Rationed Care: Who knew?
Ah, it just gets better and better and better, depending on your perspective.
And they said Sarah Palin was flat-out crazy for coining the phrase, “Death Panels?”
In actuality, whenever strong-minded women get close to being in a position of some great political and policy-making importance, those emasculated men on the left come out in force to call them crazy and what have you.
Let’s see here. Condi Rice. Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin. Does anyone see a pattern here? I sure do.
Anyway, Ba-roke Oblahblah has gone and done it again. He’s gone and added yet another pointy-headed, anti-American radical to the Fedrule Czarist mix.
The link: Critical Condition: Obama Appoints His Rationer-in-Chief
The excerpt: Berwick will have authority over an agency with the largest single budget in the entire U.S. government and over implementation of the most sweeping legislative overhaul of our health sector ever — without so much as a congressional hearing!
The link: Political Punch: President Obama to Make Recess Appointment of CMS Administrator Republicans Attacking as 'Expert on Rationing'
The excerpt: In an interview last year with Biotechnology Healthcare, Berwick said society makes decisions about rationing all the time, and that the "decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly."
A couple of video snippets…
Redistribution of Wealth (2:15)
Opposes Free Markets (:48)
Miles to go before I sleep…
G’nite
And they said Sarah Palin was flat-out crazy for coining the phrase, “Death Panels?”
In actuality, whenever strong-minded women get close to being in a position of some great political and policy-making importance, those emasculated men on the left come out in force to call them crazy and what have you.
Let’s see here. Condi Rice. Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin. Does anyone see a pattern here? I sure do.
Anyway, Ba-roke Oblahblah has gone and done it again. He’s gone and added yet another pointy-headed, anti-American radical to the Fedrule Czarist mix.
The link: Critical Condition: Obama Appoints His Rationer-in-Chief
The excerpt: Berwick will have authority over an agency with the largest single budget in the entire U.S. government and over implementation of the most sweeping legislative overhaul of our health sector ever — without so much as a congressional hearing!
The link: Political Punch: President Obama to Make Recess Appointment of CMS Administrator Republicans Attacking as 'Expert on Rationing'
The excerpt: In an interview last year with Biotechnology Healthcare, Berwick said society makes decisions about rationing all the time, and that the "decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly."
A couple of video snippets…
Redistribution of Wealth (2:15)
Opposes Free Markets (:48)
Miles to go before I sleep…
G’nite
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
To 'deem' the Fedrule budget
I hate to say it, but 2012 can't get here fast enough.
The link: Obama's fiscal fantasyland
The excerpt: For thousands of years, businesses, organizations, governments and even individuals have relied on a basic tool to make sure they do not spend or borrow more than they can service - it is called a budget. Yet, for the first time since 1974, when the current rules were put into effect, the U.S. House of Representatives does not intend to pass a budget resolution. The main purpose of the budget resolution is to set discretionary spending caps for the coming fiscal year.
Another snippet: And do government workers on average work harder, and are they more productive than workers you observe in the private sector?
Whoa there! Let's not get frickin' crazy!
If you answered that one in the affirmative, pour a gallon of water over your head, depress both buttons and insert your tongue into the toaster.
Bye
Report Card
Go ahead, do it.
Go ahead and grade the clueless wonder's abysmal performance at CBS.com, that bastion of far-right nincompoops.
Grade Obama's First Year in Office
The best part is that none of you can go whining that I'm--me--being mean to your newist leftist hero. No cheap shots here, girls. No picking one sentence out of a couple hundred and making like I am somehow off base. No need to agree to disagree. No need to tangle with that one dissenter.
Do it. I know you're afraid, but the brave go in spite of their fears.
Later
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Dem Straight
This is fun.
The latest from Dem Straight, "Money for Nothing," featuring Joe BFD Biden on the drums, Barack Obama on keyboard, Harry Reid on guitar, Nancy Pelosi on bass and Mark Knockoffler on vocals.
Money for Nothing (4:49)
*Courtesy of PolitiZoid
Bye
The latest from Dem Straight, "Money for Nothing," featuring Joe BFD Biden on the drums, Barack Obama on keyboard, Harry Reid on guitar, Nancy Pelosi on bass and Mark Knockoffler on vocals.
Money for Nothing (4:49)
*Courtesy of PolitiZoid
Bye
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Flashback: "I repeat: not one single dime."
It’s 11:00 p.m., Kirby Park is slowly, that’s slowly emptying out, and I want to be the first to call for this to be the last year that the City of Wilkes-Barre sponsors an Independence Day fireworks display.
Both the police and fire departments have been pushed to the brink for hours now. With the dry conditions, we’ve had brush fires and structure fires for most of the day. And now that the drunks are at it with reckless abandon, the calls are now flowing in to 911 for domestics, drunken idiocy and assaults and all of that good aggravated assault type stuff.
With municipal budgets already strained to the point of breaking into the Sargasso Sea of red ink, this public safety madness bordering on chaos needs to stop this year. Why spend ungodly amounts of overtime on an hours-long display of idiocy? No more.
Sez me.
From NPR.org:Tanning Salons Burned By New Health Law
The excerpt: It's the first controversial element of the new health law to take effect: Starting Thursday, people who partake of indoor tanning services will pay a 10 percent tax to help underwrite the costs of the rest of the new law.
Tanning salon owners are outraged. They say the new tax is the last thing they need in a struggling economy. But dermatologists hope the new tax will deter indoor tanning — which they say is every bit as dangerous as baking in the sun — the same way tobacco taxes have helped cut down on smoking.
"The tax could hit an estimated 18,000 small businesses nationwide, jeopardizing thousands of jobs and unfairly hitting working women and college students, who comprise the majority of indoor tanning customers," said a joint statement from the Indoor Tanning Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Federation of Independent Business.
So Ba-roke Oblahblah has broken his oft-repeated campaign promise – a “firm pledge” that Americans earning less than $250,000 would not see “any form of tax increase.” He first broke this pledge sixteen days into his presidency when he signed a 156% increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco.
And dig this…this so-called Obamacare contains 21 certifiable, undeniable tax increases.
Our minds drift back to…
“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”--Candidate Barack Obama, Sept. 12, 2008
“If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”--President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009
“The statement didn’t come with caveats.”--Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, April 15, 2009, when asked if the pledge applies to healthcare
In 2001 and 2003, the ‘evil’ GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. All of which expire on January 1, 2011.
What was it? The economy created 36,000 jobs in June, a measly average of 260 jobs per state? So much for that promised “laser-like focus.”
Uncertainty, baby. No smart entrepreneur of either the large or small variety invests in anything of any great importance when uncertainty rules the day, as well as rules the immediate future and beyond.
Read his lips: No new taxes.
G’nite
Both the police and fire departments have been pushed to the brink for hours now. With the dry conditions, we’ve had brush fires and structure fires for most of the day. And now that the drunks are at it with reckless abandon, the calls are now flowing in to 911 for domestics, drunken idiocy and assaults and all of that good aggravated assault type stuff.
With municipal budgets already strained to the point of breaking into the Sargasso Sea of red ink, this public safety madness bordering on chaos needs to stop this year. Why spend ungodly amounts of overtime on an hours-long display of idiocy? No more.
Sez me.
From NPR.org:Tanning Salons Burned By New Health Law
The excerpt: It's the first controversial element of the new health law to take effect: Starting Thursday, people who partake of indoor tanning services will pay a 10 percent tax to help underwrite the costs of the rest of the new law.
Tanning salon owners are outraged. They say the new tax is the last thing they need in a struggling economy. But dermatologists hope the new tax will deter indoor tanning — which they say is every bit as dangerous as baking in the sun — the same way tobacco taxes have helped cut down on smoking.
"The tax could hit an estimated 18,000 small businesses nationwide, jeopardizing thousands of jobs and unfairly hitting working women and college students, who comprise the majority of indoor tanning customers," said a joint statement from the Indoor Tanning Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Federation of Independent Business.
So Ba-roke Oblahblah has broken his oft-repeated campaign promise – a “firm pledge” that Americans earning less than $250,000 would not see “any form of tax increase.” He first broke this pledge sixteen days into his presidency when he signed a 156% increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco.
And dig this…this so-called Obamacare contains 21 certifiable, undeniable tax increases.
Our minds drift back to…
“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”--Candidate Barack Obama, Sept. 12, 2008
“If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”--President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009
“The statement didn’t come with caveats.”--Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, April 15, 2009, when asked if the pledge applies to healthcare
In 2001 and 2003, the ‘evil’ GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. All of which expire on January 1, 2011.
What was it? The economy created 36,000 jobs in June, a measly average of 260 jobs per state? So much for that promised “laser-like focus.”
Uncertainty, baby. No smart entrepreneur of either the large or small variety invests in anything of any great importance when uncertainty rules the day, as well as rules the immediate future and beyond.
Read his lips: No new taxes.
G’nite
Will cameras be allowed at the FINRA event?
Is FINRA, the embattled Financial Industry Regulatory Organization really a self-regulatory organization? Investor protection? Market integrity?
Yeah, right? It's more like a self-regulatory group of financial plunderers. The people that are allowed to schmooze with our camera-shy congressman, Paul "Cornerstone" Kanjorski.
Read on...
From Wickipedia:
In March 2010, Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit organization that works to make the government more open and accountable, wrote a letter to Congress criticizing FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations for what POGO described as a failure to adequately regulate the financial sector. POGO claimed that FINRA and other SROs are unable to regulate effectively due to their close ties with the securities industry that they are supposed to regulate; for example, Bernard Madoff was vice-chairman of NASD, FINRA's predecessor, while he was running his ponzi scheme, his son was on the National Adjudicatory Council whose job it was to review FINRA's disciplinary decisions, and his niece was a member of a compliance advisory committee of FINRA. POGO also attacked FINRA's multi-million dollar executive compensation packages, failure to warn other investors about the imminent collapse of the auction rate securities market despite having liquidated its own investment in the market, spending of large amounts of money and resources on advertising and campaigning in an attempt to gain more power, and the higher transaction costs to investors that are created when an industry regulates itself.
Before going on, know that Ba-roke Oblahblah nominated a former FINRA honcho to head the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC). In common parlance, a former member of the corrupt is now leading the incompetent and corrupt.
Divest, people. Divest. Withdraw your investments and store them in a Charles Chip can.
From Phil’s Favorites: The FINRA Fiasco
FINRA may have potential massive conflicts of interests in its dealing with its internal investment portfolio. A clear example is FINRA’s behavior with its Auction Rate Securities. Evidence suggests FINRA sold its Auction Rate Securities months before the market collapsed. Insider information or really good luck?
From Larry Doyle: FINRA Owes America Answers on These Proposals
There you go. In light of everything our country has experienced, who in America could possibly have a problem with the transparency and integrity encompassed in these proposals? America deserves answers to these proposals. FINRA must remove the incestuous blanket it has wrapped itself in over the years. No longer can FINRA be allowed to operate as an entity described by Harry Markopolos as ‘in bed with the industry.’ These proposals will go a long way in pulling that cover back.
I call on President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner, Fed Chair Bernanke, SEC Chair Schapiro, Congressmen Issa, Frank, Kanjorski, Senators Dodd, Schumer, et al to compel FINRA to embrace these proposals.
America deserves nothing less than total transparency and will learn a lot in this process.
From the Baltimore Chronicle: Paul Kanjorski and the $550 Billion that "Disappeared" on September 15
I was also struck by Rep. Kanjorski's idiodic statement during the interview that "somebody" threw us into the (financial) ocean, and now he is trying to find the shore. He says this as if it is ineffable who is the "somebody." And, of course, when the going gets a little rough, he takes one leg off of his high horse and says, "I'm not an expert on these matters, I'm just a little ole representative of the people."
From FINRA: FINRA Investor Forum at Wilkes-Barre, PA; featuring special guest Congressman Paul Kanjorski: What Every Investor Needs to Know: Smart Investing in Today’s Environment
More from Larry Doyle (teaser from a very recent appearance on The Sue Henry Show):
We will be talking about our favorite financial regulator, FINRA.
Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) is scheduled for a dog and pony show with FINRA in early July (details here). The fact is, Kanjorski is a member of two Congressional subcommittees which received a letter from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) questioning the very validity of the self-regulatory model on Wall Street. Those questions are embodied in my commentary from February 23rd, Is FINRA’s Future in Doubt?.
Kanjorski should forget the dog and pony show and call FINRA on the carpet to answer for the massive shortcomings and transgressions within its purview over the last few years.
But will they allow video cameras at the investor forum? That’s what Kanjo and his handlers really need to know.
Anyway, there you have it. Paul Kanjorski refuses to meet face-to-face with his worried and angered constituents, but he will rub elbows with the very people that regularly put our investments at needless risk, while they use inside information to insulate themselves from risk.
A clear lack of oversight led to our continuing financial quagmire. Oversight that Kanjo was all but put in charge of. And now Kanjo wants to pose as our financial knight in shining armor? Spare me.
Those are the sorts of people that Paul Kanjorski is willing and eager to meet with in person.
As for yourself, you're merely an annoying constituent of some sort. The minorities, the defective. The nuts. And the rest of you coal crackers carrying video-capable camera phones.
Buh-bye
Yeah, right? It's more like a self-regulatory group of financial plunderers. The people that are allowed to schmooze with our camera-shy congressman, Paul "Cornerstone" Kanjorski.
Read on...
From Wickipedia:
In March 2010, Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit organization that works to make the government more open and accountable, wrote a letter to Congress criticizing FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations for what POGO described as a failure to adequately regulate the financial sector. POGO claimed that FINRA and other SROs are unable to regulate effectively due to their close ties with the securities industry that they are supposed to regulate; for example, Bernard Madoff was vice-chairman of NASD, FINRA's predecessor, while he was running his ponzi scheme, his son was on the National Adjudicatory Council whose job it was to review FINRA's disciplinary decisions, and his niece was a member of a compliance advisory committee of FINRA. POGO also attacked FINRA's multi-million dollar executive compensation packages, failure to warn other investors about the imminent collapse of the auction rate securities market despite having liquidated its own investment in the market, spending of large amounts of money and resources on advertising and campaigning in an attempt to gain more power, and the higher transaction costs to investors that are created when an industry regulates itself.
Before going on, know that Ba-roke Oblahblah nominated a former FINRA honcho to head the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC). In common parlance, a former member of the corrupt is now leading the incompetent and corrupt.
Divest, people. Divest. Withdraw your investments and store them in a Charles Chip can.
From Phil’s Favorites: The FINRA Fiasco
FINRA may have potential massive conflicts of interests in its dealing with its internal investment portfolio. A clear example is FINRA’s behavior with its Auction Rate Securities. Evidence suggests FINRA sold its Auction Rate Securities months before the market collapsed. Insider information or really good luck?
From Larry Doyle: FINRA Owes America Answers on These Proposals
There you go. In light of everything our country has experienced, who in America could possibly have a problem with the transparency and integrity encompassed in these proposals? America deserves answers to these proposals. FINRA must remove the incestuous blanket it has wrapped itself in over the years. No longer can FINRA be allowed to operate as an entity described by Harry Markopolos as ‘in bed with the industry.’ These proposals will go a long way in pulling that cover back.
I call on President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner, Fed Chair Bernanke, SEC Chair Schapiro, Congressmen Issa, Frank, Kanjorski, Senators Dodd, Schumer, et al to compel FINRA to embrace these proposals.
America deserves nothing less than total transparency and will learn a lot in this process.
From the Baltimore Chronicle: Paul Kanjorski and the $550 Billion that "Disappeared" on September 15
I was also struck by Rep. Kanjorski's idiodic statement during the interview that "somebody" threw us into the (financial) ocean, and now he is trying to find the shore. He says this as if it is ineffable who is the "somebody." And, of course, when the going gets a little rough, he takes one leg off of his high horse and says, "I'm not an expert on these matters, I'm just a little ole representative of the people."
From FINRA: FINRA Investor Forum at Wilkes-Barre, PA; featuring special guest Congressman Paul Kanjorski: What Every Investor Needs to Know: Smart Investing in Today’s Environment
More from Larry Doyle (teaser from a very recent appearance on The Sue Henry Show):
We will be talking about our favorite financial regulator, FINRA.
Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) is scheduled for a dog and pony show with FINRA in early July (details here). The fact is, Kanjorski is a member of two Congressional subcommittees which received a letter from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) questioning the very validity of the self-regulatory model on Wall Street. Those questions are embodied in my commentary from February 23rd, Is FINRA’s Future in Doubt?.
Kanjorski should forget the dog and pony show and call FINRA on the carpet to answer for the massive shortcomings and transgressions within its purview over the last few years.
But will they allow video cameras at the investor forum? That’s what Kanjo and his handlers really need to know.
Anyway, there you have it. Paul Kanjorski refuses to meet face-to-face with his worried and angered constituents, but he will rub elbows with the very people that regularly put our investments at needless risk, while they use inside information to insulate themselves from risk.
A clear lack of oversight led to our continuing financial quagmire. Oversight that Kanjo was all but put in charge of. And now Kanjo wants to pose as our financial knight in shining armor? Spare me.
Those are the sorts of people that Paul Kanjorski is willing and eager to meet with in person.
As for yourself, you're merely an annoying constituent of some sort. The minorities, the defective. The nuts. And the rest of you coal crackers carrying video-capable camera phones.
Buh-bye
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Flashback: Kanjo's paid 'nuts'
What do you get when you combine equal parts hypocrisy, sophistry, connivance and senility? Anyone?
No, not Cornerstone Technologies. Why, you get Paul Kanjorski!
C'mon. That one was too easy.
From "Dems videotaped Barletta," Times Leader, 11/16/2008
U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski spent more than $2 million to win his 13th term, including $10,000 in payments to a videographer who followed political opponent Lou Barletta throughout the campaign.
Kanjorski, a Democrat, defeated Barletta in the Nov. 4 election by nearly 10,000 votes to retain his 11th Congressional District seat.
The videographer, identified as Joe Van Wie of Agapic Films of Scranton, was observed taping Barletta at campaign rallies and fundraisers. He also caught the mayor at Hazleton City Hall before and after council meetings, said Shawn Kelly, who served as Barletta’s campaign spokesman.
Van Wie may have been able to track Barletta because he signed up to be a Barletta campaign volunteer.
Van Wie filled out a volunteer card for the Barletta campaign and wore a Barletta for Congress button at some of the events where he was working for Kanjorski and taping Barletta, Kelly said. When he signed the volunteer card, Van Wie checked two boxes on the card, volunteering to place a Barletta yard sign on his home lawn and volunteering to work the polls on Election Day.
But Van Wie would not discuss it.
For the inside scoop, visit the 2008 'Van Wie Report' by McGruff: ..."I'm not going to set myself up for, you know…nuts to hit me with a camera and ask stupid questions.”
Markie's translation of above quote: I don't want done to me what we did to Lou Barletta in 2008.
From Kanjo, Barletta spar over 'nuts'
Ed Mitchell, Kanjorski’s campaign spokesman, fired back, saying the congressman stands by his comments made on WILK, “including the ones about Barletta’s sorry record as mayor.”
“With the reference to ‘nuts,’ he (Kanjorski) meant a small number of extreme political opponents who come to disrupt town meetings solely for the purpose of scoring political points they can register on YouTube or the Internet to inflict damage and embarrass the congressman and not to the people who come to those meetings to discuss issues and gather information,” Mitchell said. “He meant nothing disparaging by his comments.”
Extreme political whats?
Like the slithering sort that would pay a creepy guy such as Van Wie? Man, these haplessly transparent prevaricators make it sound as if there's a tea bag sniper hiding under every rock and pebble. Meanwhile, they reach for the sticky stuff from within their murky bag of political tricks.
What we have here is continuing hypocrisy from the dirty trickster at the behest of the big conniver.
Moral and ethical inanition!
Sez me.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Kanjo: Nuts with cameras
Always warm and cuddly, earlier today Paul Kanjorski told WILK's Nancy & Webster that he'll not do town hall meetings so as to not expose himself to 'nuts with cameras.'
Cong. Kanjorski slams Barletta and 'you tube politics'
From WILK: 11th District Congressman Paul Kanjorski talked financial reform with WILK's Webster and Nancy this morning. The Democrat was also asked whether he'd be doing any face-to-face townhall meetings this summer. His opponent, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has attacked Kanjorski for not scheduling such meetings. The Congressman said there's nothing to be gained by 'nuts with cameras' showing up at such events, and that he 'won't hand his opponent a baseball bat'. Kanjorski also slammed Barletta on a number of fronts, including Hazleton's money woes and when speaking about Barletta as Mayor said 'he already botched that up'.
Watch this at WILK News Radio
Here's the blow-by-blow...
Nancy: “There are those on the other side, namely a guy is running against you -- Lou Bartletta -- coming up in the fall who says you know you need to go out actually have a face to face town hall meeting rather than your phone call, you do the call-outs -- are you going to do any town hall meetings."
Kanjo: “We're gonna do everything we can to get opinions from people…to meet with people but I'm not going to set myself up for, you know…nuts to hit me with a camera and ask stupid questions.”
Ah, when he comes off badly on video as he so often does, it was because of a nut with a camera. Ah. Got it. Thank you Uncle Paul.
Thanks once again for insulting those of us that are encouraged by politicos to do our civic duty and get involved, do as much, and then are called "nuts" for having done so.
I think he needs to stay away from the nuts with the microphones, too. I think he needs to just stay away. Period.
Later
Cong. Kanjorski slams Barletta and 'you tube politics'
From WILK: 11th District Congressman Paul Kanjorski talked financial reform with WILK's Webster and Nancy this morning. The Democrat was also asked whether he'd be doing any face-to-face townhall meetings this summer. His opponent, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has attacked Kanjorski for not scheduling such meetings. The Congressman said there's nothing to be gained by 'nuts with cameras' showing up at such events, and that he 'won't hand his opponent a baseball bat'. Kanjorski also slammed Barletta on a number of fronts, including Hazleton's money woes and when speaking about Barletta as Mayor said 'he already botched that up'.
Watch this at WILK News Radio
Here's the blow-by-blow...
Nancy: “There are those on the other side, namely a guy is running against you -- Lou Bartletta -- coming up in the fall who says you know you need to go out actually have a face to face town hall meeting rather than your phone call, you do the call-outs -- are you going to do any town hall meetings."
Kanjo: “We're gonna do everything we can to get opinions from people…to meet with people but I'm not going to set myself up for, you know…nuts to hit me with a camera and ask stupid questions.”
Ah, when he comes off badly on video as he so often does, it was because of a nut with a camera. Ah. Got it. Thank you Uncle Paul.
Thanks once again for insulting those of us that are encouraged by politicos to do our civic duty and get involved, do as much, and then are called "nuts" for having done so.
I think he needs to stay away from the nuts with the microphones, too. I think he needs to just stay away. Period.
Later
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