My latest work....

I would like to thank Jill Greenberg for giving me the idea..bless her!




Crossposted at Sirens and Bring it On!

Artist takes artistic license…

Jill Greenberg is a photographer. She recently took the picture below of Weathervane McCain for an Atlantic Monthly cover:

Ms. Greenberg also asked to take some photos for her personal use. McSame’s handlers agreed…

Evidently his handlers aren’t astute enough to realize that these types of shots are not…well…appealing nor do they put your boy in a good light..Below is what Ms. Greenberg did with her personal shots of McSame:

Alternet has these up on their site with a question:

Was it immoral and unprofessional for her to make unflattering pictures? Or was it her right to create images as political commentary about a man who has no qualms broadcasting mendacious advertisements and then defending them as truth?

What do you think, readers?

I think they are just fine…but thats just me. Ms. Greenberg however is getting major shit over her images which are obviously photoshopped. Her response: “Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for them [The Atlantic] to hire me.”

If you are someone that saw NO problem with the Obama New Yorker cover, then you can not have a problem with these images in my humble yet vocal opinion. That would be hypocritical at best. And for th record…I had NO problem with the New Yorker cover.

BTW, I left the most heinous one out..check out the Alternet article to see that one.

Tags: Jill Greenberg, Political Commentary

Crossposted at Bring it On!

Obama approved this message..

I love it! From Obama, courtesy of First Read:

“Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, ‘the old boys’ network in Washington.’ I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys’ network. In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting.”

The Big O needs to keep hitting the old coot hard with both the left and right hook. McCain’s bounce is gone and he is showing desperation at every turn by lying his ever-lovin ass off.

Selling our soul to the devil...

That is what the Fed is doing this morning. Selling more of our debt to foreign nations in order to bail out AIG. We are bailing out INVESTORS and stock holders...people who took a chance on making big bucks or going broke.

They went broke. Yet, our government sees nothing wrong with selling a huge portion of our debt to China or whomever is buying today, in order to have the cash to give to AIG.

I looked for a news story on it..googled it and got one Bloomberg story on it..what does that tell you?

The Media is complicit in this bullshit. They keep the most important part of this... cough...deal quiet so that we, the people, don't think about what this horseshit is actually costing us. From another Bloomberg article on the subject of selling our debt to cover a privately owned companies ass:

Benchmark 10-year credit-default swaps on Treasuries increased 4 basis points to 30, according to BNP Paribas SA prices at 6:45 a.m. in New York. The contracts have risen from below 2 basis points at the start of the credit crisis in July 2007 and are more than double those on government bonds sold by Austria, Finland or Sweden.

The U.S. Treasury pledged an $85 billion loan for AIG just 10 days after committing as much as $200 billion to prevent a collapse of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The U.S. budget deficit will grow next year to $438 billion, the Congressional Budget Office said Sept. 9, making it harder for President George W. Bush's successor to either cut taxes or increase spending.

Bush has little time left to fuck over America, but the man is doing his ever-lovin best to leave us in such a fucking shithole..it will take decades to crawl out of it.

Too many people jump on the Repubs for creating this mess, when the reality is Bill Clinton did it when he pushed through the bill ironically named:

The Financial Modernization Act of 1999.

Guess who wrote the bill…go on…guess..

Phil Gramm!

Fed takes over AIG

From CNN:

Federal officials will take 80% stake in the nation's largest insurer in an $85 billion rescue plan to prevent financial chaos worldwide.

In a stunning turn, the Federal Reserve Board is taking over crumbling insurer American International Group in an $85 billion rescue plan, officials announced Tuesday evening.

The Fed authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) up to $85 billion. In return, the federal government will receive a 79.9% stake in the company.

Officials decided they must act lest the nation's largest insurer file bankruptcy. Such a move would roil world markets since AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) has $1.1 trillion in assets and 74 million clients in 130 countries.

Somehow, this doesn't surprise me one iota. What makes this even more heinous imho...this is an insurance company, that evidently has broken federal laws about being able to cover their own ass.

Update: The NYT is reporting its NOT a done deal yet:

With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan.

They emerged just after 7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, but with top lawmakers generally expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with.

What frightened Fed and Treasury officials was not simply the prospect of another giant corporate bankruptcy, but A.I.G.’s role as an enormous provider of financial insurance to investors who bought complex debt securities. That effectively required A.I.G. to cover losses suffered by the buyers in the event the securities defaulted. It meant A.I.G. was potentially on the hook for billions of dollars worth of risky securities that were once considered safe.

But its real fucking close...

Tags: AIG, Fed takes over AIG

No Golden Parachute for Fannie and Freddie exec's.

This per The Legal Times:

The Federal Housing Finance Agency—the regulator that now controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—announced yesterday that it would block millions in exit pay to the companies’ departing chief executives. The “golden parachute” packages could have totaled as much as $24 million, and they have drawn fire from Congress and both presidential candidates ever since the government bailed out Fannie and Freddie two weekends ago. Daniel Mudd, Fannie’s ex-CEO, and Richard Syron, Freddie’s former CEO, learned yesterday that they would not receive the severance pay.

Mudd and Syron gotta be freaking out. Bet they pissed down both legs..

Tags: Daniel Mudd, Richard Syron, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Do the republicans still want to privatize social security?

Privatizing social security was one of the corner stones of the Bush administration. As Dave asked in the comments of the Lehman Bros post below~Werent these guys supposed to be the folk that would handle all of our retirement accounts?

The Dow took a huge shit yesterday on the weekend news that more financial institutions were taking their last breaths. Over four percent of its value went into the shitter people.

AIG is now gasping for breath..wait a minute..AIG is an insurance corporation? Why are they dying?

Mortgage investments, just like all the rest of them. They provide insurance for the greedy stock market funds, that's why. Their stock value plummeted over 60 percent yesterday.

Wall Streeters are screaming for more Federal moolah....they are demanding it. They also want a drop in the prime interest rate again.

But the prime is already at the bottom of the barrel...how can it drop any farther? Why are we, the taxpayers expected to take it in the shorts for these greedy fuckers? Why? From the LAT:

The downfall of 158-year-old Lehman, combined with the unexpected deal by Bank of America to acquire Merrill, marked the most dramatic reshaping of the Wall Street landscape since the Great Depression, analysts said. Lehman, mortally wounded by loss-ridden securities tied to real estate loans, filed Monday for protection from creditors who hold more than $600 billion of the firm's various IOUs.

In its bankruptcy petition, Lehman reported assets of $639 billion and liabilities of $613 billion. It listed 30 unsecured creditors to whom it owes about $158 billion. The markets are likely to remain on edge for weeks, experts said, until the extent of Lehman-related losses at other firms becomes clear.

A collapse of AIG could be an even bigger problem for the country's financial system, Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis told CNBC. "I don't know of a major bank that doesn't have some significant exposure to AIG," he said.

Part of AIG's business is to provide a way for big investors to hedge against potential market losses in their portfolios by essentially taking the other side of the investors' bets. (emphasis mine)

Why is it ok to nationalize their losses? Someone explain it to me? Will someone make John McCain explain it to me since that sumbitch said yesterday the 'fundimentals of our economy are strong'? How about Nancy Pelosi? I want one of the mutha fuckas in the Bush Administration to explain to me why it's ok to bail out a greedy financial institution but not Americans barely eeking out a life with the inflation we currently have going on...I want that fucking explanation now....and we all deserve it, make no mistake about that.

McCain said it was greed that caused all these problems. Obama said it was deregulation. They are both right in a basic sort of way. The NYT puts it this way:

On the campaign trail on Monday, Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, struck a populist tone. Speaking in Florida, he said that the economy’s underlying fundamentals remained strong but were being threatened “because of the greed by some based in Wall Street and we have got to fix it.”

But his record on the issue, and the views of those he has always cited as his most influential advisers, suggest that he has never departed in any major way from his party’s embrace of deregulation and relying more on market forces than on the government to exert discipline.

~ Which means he is lying to get votes.

Mr. Obama set out his general approach to financial regulation in March, calling for regulating investment banks, mortgage brokers and hedge funds much as commercial banks are. And he would streamline the overlapping regulatory agencies and create a commission to monitor threats to the financial system and report to the White House and Congress.

On Wall Street’s Republican-friendly turf, Mr. Obama has outraised Mr. McCain. He has received $9.9 million from individuals associated with the securities and investment industry, $3 million more than Mr. McCain, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. His advisers include Wall Street heavyweights, including Robert E. Rubin, the former treasury secretary who is now a senior adviser at Citigroup, another firm being buffeted by the financial crisis.

~Which candidate makes more sense and their record supports what they are saying? It's a no-brainer people..and here is a hint...its not a republican and I doubt it's the democrat.

This financial meltdown is a gift to the democrats...will they do anything with it? Pelosi and company could start now with bills to finally regulate those fucking hedge funds. The only question we should be asking is why haven't they done it prior to all this turmoil and carnage..

We can jerk out the republicans for this mess, but bear in mind that the best Democratic President the Republicans ever had in office, Bill Clinton, started the deregulation ball rolling for financial institutions when he demanded and got passed the The Financial Services Modernization Act in 1999. From this post I did earlier in the year about what a putz Bill Clinton was:

The Financial Services Modernization Act was a real gem as well. Enacted in 1999, this sucker deregulated the banking and investment industry. This opened the door to the creation of the 'hedge fund' which we all know is not regulated in the slightest and is the most crooked investment scenario ever created with many cases of manipulation and down right illegal price-fixing.

Reagan and Bush41 were assholes with regard to deregulation as well, make no mistake about it. We have seen what wholesale deregulation has caused with the Enron Scandal and now...the mortgage mess. The long and short of it is this:

You can not trust greedy bastards to regulate themselves. Its fuckwitted at best, and dangerous to our economy at its worst..Fuck capitalists...fuck em hard. But take this with you today...even in bankruptcy, the head honcho for Lehman Brothers will get a $22 MILLION DOLLAR RETIREMENT PACKAGE...

A must see for every American

We all should see this film, if only to see where our country has been and sadly...where it's heading again with regards to vocal opposition to the war and all the other issues that affect Americans. The Angry Black Bitch has a good post up about this film as she went and saw it last week. The movie will be airing on PBS's Independent Lens on October 22nd. If you can rent this video before then..Do IT!

Lehman filing Bankruptcy today.

From The Telegraph this morning, what the financial honcho's of the world think of Lehman Bro's filing bankruptcy:

US investment bank Lehman Brothers has announced that it will file for bankruptcy this morning, after a weekend of rescue talks, overseen by Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, failed. Lehman had incurred losses of billions of dollars in the US mortgage market, amid the global economic crisis. Here are some initial reactions from figures across the globe.

Michael Holland, chairman and founder of Holland and Co:

"I've been on Wall Street for many years and I've never seen a weekend like this one. We are unwinding what has been years of silliness in the financial markets and the silliness is being vaporised as we speak."

Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Group:

"The tectonic plates beneath the world's financial system are shifting and there is going to be a new financial world order that will be borne of this. It's an ugly and painful process."

Peter Sorrentino, of Huntington Asset Management:

"The fact that no one wanted to step up with Lehman means that there's no incentive to be a hero at this point. If you buy this stuff and it's worse than you thought, they'll take you out and shoot you.

"The only way they can restore confidence is to find the cancer and tear it out as quickly as possible."

Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors:

"Investors will be looking around at other US vulnerable financial institutions. Investors are likely to remain fairly risk averse, which is good news for Treasuries and government bonds and bad news for corporate debt.

"Government bonds are probably a good place to be at the moment. Opportunities will open up and we'll see a good rally once this settles down a bit later this year."

John Kattar, chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors:

"We don't think it's the of the world, but what's happening in the financial sector is unprecedented and the signs of stress continue to mount. We see the recession continuing into next year and a sluggish recovery from there."

David Bloom, chief currency strategist at HSBC:

"The worst situation for the dollar would be if people lost confidence in the US government. However, there has been a massive rally towards government bonds and this is a situation involving a private company so it shouldn't be too harmful for the dollar.

"There will, of course, be a knee-jerk reaction in the markets, but on the plus side, this and the situation at Merril Lynch are rather like dominos being taken out of a bad chain - meaning fewer should fall in their wake." Ian Stannard, currency strategist at BNP Paribus:

"The dollar is under broad-based pressure, but as time goes by this will be emphasised against the lower yielding currencies such as the yen and the swiss dollar. I expect there to be a mixed picture against the euro and today's reaction to be short-lived."

The markets will right themselves and there will be less selection for those who still want to invest their money in risky undertakings.

And, make no mistake...investment managers tell you before you sign on the damn bottom line, its RISKY, that there is NO GUARANTEE.

Unless the Bush Administration wants to save their friends....then the fed bails you out. We, the taxpayers will absorb the fucking risk. From the NYT writeup:

Early Monday morning, Lehman said it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York for its holding company in what would be the largest failure of an investment bank since the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert 18 years ago, the Associated Press reported.

Questions remain about how the market will react Monday, particularly to Lehman’s plan to wind down its trading operations, and whether other companies, like A.I.G. and Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest savings and loan, might falter.

Indeed, in a move that echoed Wall Street’s rescue of a big hedge fund a decade ago this week, 10 major banks agreed to create an emergency fund of $70 billion to $100 billion that financial institutions can use to protect themselves from the fallout of Lehman’s failure.

The Fed, meantime, broadened the terms of its emergency loan program for Wall Street banks, a move that could ultimately put taxpayers’ money at risk.

AIG now begging for bail out funds..

With BofA poised to buy the fucked up Merrill Lynch and Lehman brothers taking a huge ass shit...now we see AIG is on their knees and begging for Federal Aid. From the NYT:

The American International Group is seeking a $40 billion bridge loan from the Federal Reserve, as it faces a potential downgrade from credit ratings agencies that could spell its doom, a person briefed on the matter said Sunday night.

Ratings agencies threatened to downgrade the insurance giant’s credit rating by Monday morning, allowing counterparties to withdraw capital from their contracts with the company. One person close to the firm said that if such an event occurred, A.I.G. may survive for only 48 hours to 72 hours.

A.I.G.’s sickly financial health emerged late into one of the most tumultuous days in Wall Street history. Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old investment bank, is expected to file for bankruptcy protection Sunday night, while Bank of America has agreed to buy Merrill Lynch for $50.03 billion.

It has already raised $20 billion this year. But even that enormous capital raise may not be enough.

This is horseshit. These firms need to suck it up or fail, I don't give a shit who they are. Fuck the investors, they sure has hell aren't worried about what I pay to fill my gas tank, or what it costs to buy a small bag of groceries these days. Fuck em all. They might actually have to sweat a bit...just like the rest of us.

Tags: AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch