Patch_W_Adams's St Louis Blog

A donor’s gift soon followed Clinton’s help

 $100,000 donation highlights ethics issues with links to foundations

By Charlie Savage

 updated 8:05 p.m. CT, Sat., Jan. 3, 2009

WASHINGTON - An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

To Read the Rest of the Article Go To:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28485901/

States seeking $1 trillion to 'keep afloat'

 By ANDY BARR | 1/3/09 11:37 AM EST   

New York Gov. David Paterson along with other Democratic Governors are seeking $ 1 trillion in federal assistance in order to meet financial obligations. Photo: AP

A group of Democratic governors warned Friday that without as much as $1 trillion in federal assistance, many states will not be able to pay their bills in the next year.

“There are states that are talking as California has of not being able to meet their financial obligations in the coming months,” New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson said on a conference call with reporters. California announced in December that all state employees would be forced to take two days of unpaid leave.

Paterson was joined by fellow Democrats, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle in warning that states across the country will be forced to make drastic budget cuts in the face of unprecedented deficits.

“We are not crying wolf. This is one of the worst situations our states have faced,” Strickland said. “This is a real crisis. These are real problems. And if we don’t get some significant assistance many of those in our states will suffer greatly.”

Strickland added that the situation facing the state of Ohio is so dire that in order to balance his state’s budget, he would have to fund every state program at 75 percent of its current level. “If I were simply to flat fund the operations of this government, I’d end up with $7.3 billion in deficit,” he said. “We’re just trying to keep afloat.”

In order to make up for the shortfalls, Corzine said the incoming Obama administration and Congress will need to free up $1 trillion in federal spending for state assistance. “We’re all going to be Herbert Hoovers if we’re not careful here,” he said.

To Read the Whole Article Go To:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17000.htm
l

There was an article that predicted that in 2009 the American People will embrace an even more Socialistic State in order to relieve their economic Pain.  They said that it would be the largest transfer of Power to Washington since the New Deal in the 30's.

So My question is this, how many Freedoms are you willing to give up in order for your economic pain to be supposedly removed?   How much is too much?  Are you willing to pay all you make over to the Government, maybe even be told what to do, in order to have your Economic suffering relieved?

How important is your Freedom and Liberty?  Is it worth Suffering over?  Or is your Comfort More important?

All through the Presidential Race I signed up for e-mails from both Mccain and Obama's Political Campaigns.  I wanted to know what each group was saying to their supporters.

Well naturally I still receive Obama e-mails from David Plouffe the Campaign Manager for Barak Obama. 

The Progression and Direction of the e-mails have been interesting and sometimes entertaining.  For instance the Holiday Greeting was not from Mr Obama but from his Wife Michelle.  It was written asking for people to help either their local food kitchen or donate to the local USO.  It was an appropriate Holiday Greeting, but why it was not sent from the Obama family or from Barack, who knows.  I have not usually receieved e-mails from Political Parties at the Holidays so I have nothing to compare it too.

Also right after the Election they were begging for donations to the Democratic Party claiming that they took out very large and numerous Loans in order to help get Barack elected.  I was under the impression in the Media that they were in the Green and had plenty of Donations from the Common Man...Obviously not so much.

Recently they suggested that people hold House Parties that bring together Supporters for Change.  These get togethers were to be discussions about what the Change actually is that they keep refering too.  It is also to organize the Grass Roots supporters of the Pres-Elect Obama and to keep them interested and motivated so that they will be able to respond when called on to act.  It may also make his supporters feel like they are involved in what is to come. 

They do not hide the fact that during the coming years there will be Legislation that will need the Support of the Obama Grass Roots Army to get through Congress.  What those new Laws are they have not yet specified, but we can speculate that they run along the lines of the agenda that was on Obama's Transition Page.  The agenda got alot of people upset and were removed from the Web Site and replaced with a More General idea of what the Next Pres wants to accomplish.

One e-mail discribes the results from the House gatherings and some surveys that were done with the Obama Supporters.  Here is an excerpt from that e-mail.

"And so far, the response has been remarkable -- 550,000 people completed the online supporter survey. And this past weekend, supporters organized more than 4,000 Change is Coming house meetings in 2,000 cities across all 50 states.

Supporters like you are deciding how this movement will go forward. And your dedication is incredible.

House meetings were held in 2,000 cities. In Florida there were 302 events across the state. In Pennsylvania there were 165, and Ohio had 160.

From these meetings, survey responses, and thousands of conversations on My.BarackObama and email, your ideas about the future of this organization are taking shape.

Here are a few things you shared in the survey:

• House meetings were the primary way supporters got involved in the campaign
• People are excited to volunteer around a number of top issues, including education, the environment, health care, poverty, and the economy
• 86 percent of respondents feel it's important to help Barack's administration pass legislation through grassroots support
• 68 percent feel it's important to help elect state and local candidates who share the same vision for our country
• And a staggering 10 percent of respondents indicated that they would be interested in running for elected office

This feedback is essential to our next steps, because this movement is fueled by your ideas and your passion.

Watch the house meetings video and get involved by taking the survey or hosting a meeting of your own:

http://my.barackobama.com/meetingvideo

Between now and Barack's inauguration, we'll continue to collect your ideas and feedback.

After the inauguration, we should be able to announce a clear plan for the future of this movement -- a plan determined by you.

Thanks for being a part of this journey to bring about change in the years to come,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America"

Well as you can see they have a pretty organized Grass Roots movement going.  If they have as many people as they say they do, they can easily influence Congress on the Direction of this Country.

What Direction that is they are either still not sure, or as  I believe, afraid to let us know yet.  They tried on his Transition Page and got Burned.  So they have decided to keep things vauge, especially if they feel people may think it's too radical.

Obama is appointing people to his cabinet that in the end will do the Dirty work for him, and if we are not paying attention there is a Good chance that they will get alot of what they want.  They may anyway with the majority they appear they will have in Congress.

Well I will continue to monitor the e-mails and if I see anything more interesting, or alerts that ask for Obama Supporters Action, I will let you all know.  Or feel free to find his websites and Join yourself. 

The fact that they still will not openly define Change is worrysome, especially to their own supporters.  But they are spining it to appear they are taking their supporters opinion into consideration.  But I feel as their agenda on the Transition Page showed, they already know what they want to do....they just want their supporters to feel they had something to do with it.

Politicians to the Last......

Well it looks like the Communists are taking Russia back. Suprise, Suprise... I don't think they ever left. 

There is a Poll that is being conducted by a T.V. station in Russia on who is the Greatest Russian in History.   It looks like Stalin, one of the most Blood Thirsty and tyranical men in Modern History is in the Running.  Heck according to the article in the BBC he is being pushed to win from the Highest levels of the Russian Government. 

Here is the Article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7798497.stmp>

The Article goes on to say that the Russian Government has also issued New School Manuels  to History teachers that say that Stalin was not a Blood thirsty Nut Job that massacered Hundreds of Thousands of People, instead it says he was entirely Rational. 

Also this was followed by a Raid on the Offices of one of the biggest and best known Human Rights Organizations in Russia, Memorial.  The Riot Police took 12 hard drives that contained all of the atrocities of Stalin that took 20 years to accumilate.  They claim that the organization was linked to an extremist group.  Memorial specialized in collecting atrocities that were comitted under the Soviet regime. 

They say that there is a new form of nationalism called "Putinism".  The Russian Government is trying to justify the past horrors of the former U.S.S.R. so that the same tactics can again be employed while calling it Patriotic and justifiying the Hard Line treatment of the new Russian Government.

It looks like the KGB is alive an well. 

I would say in the next 4 years we are going to see the reemergence of the U.S.S.R. but with a new name.   They will cloak it in neccesity and Nationalism all the while suppressing those that disagree......

Gee......Guess we are going to need that little Missle Defense System......

New Cold War..here we come!

I was reading an article on how the Obama Administration is going to try and create OR save 3 million Jobs.    Ideas included weatherizing 1 million homes, shifting to a paperless health system, investing in disease prevention and modernizing schools and "green" jobs.

When the Government spends Money that it doesn't have, it is not a Fresh influx into the Market.  It is money that is either printed, borrowed or taxed.  If it's printed it devalues the dollar, if it's borrowed it has to be repayed with interest and increases the Debt and if it's taxed it's less money in the pockets of consumers.  When the Government spends money it is just playing a shell game.  Moving money from one area to another, it is not True stimulation to the economy.  So any supposed positive effects will be short lived and increase the repercusions to a later date.

The Government can lead the Consumers to water, hell even throw them in..but it can't make them drink....or spend.  You can build a Road but can't force someone to build a Strip mall next to it.  You can create Solar panels but can't force the Homeowner to spend the money to purchase and install them.   You can create Government Run Healthcare but you have to tax the hell out of the Citizens to pay for it, which leaves less money in the hands of the consumer and strips personal freedoms.   If the Government insists on spending by taking more from the citizens or increasing the debt or the devaluation of the dollar, it can have nothing but negative long term affects on the economy.

The Government can "create" demand by spending on infrastructure, Green tech, or healthcare.  But it's an artifical demand that is not supported in the long term by the market.   So the "Positive" from Government spending will also be artificial.  Which leads to a Market Bubble.

A Recession is a Market Correction that is usually brought on by "artifical" demand in the Market.   The Housing bubble was created by the Government "Creating" a demand in  High Risk Loans by purchasing the Loans through Fannie and Freddie and then repackaging these High Risk Loans with other loans and reselling them as investments. This encouraged Private banks to invest in an area that  normally would be considered too risky by lowering their lending standards, and giving loans to people they normally they would not which made the compaines less viable.  They all figured they would have time to sell their High Risk loans back to Freddie and Fannie and the Good Mortgage loans would offset the bad.  The Profits of this High Risk Lending encouraged the investment to spread to other sectors of the economy and create new Risky Loans.  ARM's, Home Equity Loans, No Money Down loans, ...... and as the Profits Grew things like 401ks started seeing these High Risk Loan Packages as investments and the idea of buying up Freddie and Fannie repackaged loans as investments grew like wildfire. 

Because of the lower standards of lending, more and more consumers bought homes that they could not really afford.  Which over time and with other market factors (like the high Oil Prices) this led to many people losing their homes to forclosure.  Which led to the only possible outcome of this irresponsible behavior.The artifical bubble popped. 

When the Home Mortgage bubble popped it caught alot of people with their pants down.  As the Bad Loans started to forclose they began to outnumber the Good Loans.  Home Builders couldn't repay their loans due to lack of sales and then it began to snowball, as more and more of these Investment Loan Packages began to lose money, companies, banks and investment brokerages that invested heavily in the Mortgage market started to go under.  Hence the Plea from the banks for a Bailout.  But even after they received th Bailout they did what they should have been doing in the first place to ensure their survival.  They stopped giving risky loans and held on to the Cash.  Which in turn did not unfreeze the credit market.

When the Public not only saw their home values plummet, gas prices skyrocket and the Banks appearing to be on the verge of collapse they did what anyone would do.....Stop Spending and hunker down.

But in so doing, it has sped up the snowball and turned it into an avalanche.   With Consumer spending down, demand for Goods went down.  Then companies starting losing profits, which in turn led to people losing their jobs.  Which in turn led to more belt tighting and less spending, which in turn lead to less demand, companies failing and more people losing their jobs.   Which in turn lead to less sales/income tax for local and federal governemnts, which lead to less services and more people losing their jobs.  It is a nasty cycle....that appears to have no end.

But it does.  Like an avalanche it must stop after it reaches the bottom of the hill.  It may destroy anything in it's path and may take alot of people with it..but it will stop.  Then rebuilding can begin.

But the concept of Government spending just keeps shoring up failure, encouraging irresponsible behavior and increasing Government debt while decreasing Consumer confidence.  Like an avalanche the Economy has to run it's course, and throwing things in it's path like Government Spending  just increases the size of the avalanche and increases the debris in it.  So instead of making the economy better or stopping the avalanche, the Government spending will just increase the size of the disaster and set up a New Market Bubble with the artifical Demand created by the Government Spending.   Which in turn..will lead to another Recession down the road.

The Free Market economy has to supply what the Consumers demand.  Any Artifically created demand will just cause a Market bubble which will lead to another Market Correction. 

Until the economy is allowed to run it's course and find it's own heading created by market demand not by Governmental interference.....we will always have Artifical Market Bubbles......

Which in the end will lead to more Government Control, less personal Freedom and less money in the Pockets of Consumers. 

Either we run with a failed concept of Artifical Government Created Economy.

Or we allow the Market to Correct itself and stop feeding the Artifical Market Bubble. 

We can't have our cake...and eat it too...  Something has to give...

Ok,  some of you are asking...what the hell is he talking about?  Mental Abuse..from the Government?  Like Water Boarding?  .....um no...

All we have been hearing from Washington is that We the Citizens need Help from the Government.  That we can't do it on our own.....that we are helpless and need the Government  to make it...for us to continue...for us to succeed.

Now if any of us had a Partner, Spouse, Boyfriend/Girlfriend...telling us everyday that we can't do it.  That we need them to survive..that we are worthless without them....that would be seen as Mental Abuse and rightly so....  They would be enabling our feeling of being a useless victim....that we aren't good enough.   It encourages our dependence on an abusive individual.

But somehow when the Government does it...it's ok.  When Washington Politicians tell us that they know better...that we can't do it without a Government Bailout..that we NEED them....it is celebrated as wisdom.

But in reality....it's Abuse....

Maybe many Americans need Therapy for Abuse.

So that Americans can feel their self Worth, their Self Confidence.  To understand that it is not Us that is nothing without Government....

It is the Government that is Nothing .....without US.

Obama Attorney General Pick's Golden Parachute

Holder to Get Multi-Million Dollar Payment From Law Firm

BY EMMA SCHWARTZ

December 16, 2008

Presidential-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general will be taking a salary hit when he moves from his white-shoe law firm to become the highest law enforcement official in the land. But Eric Holder will be entering the $186,000 a year job with a multi-million cushion from his law firm.

Attorney General-designate Eric Holder speaks during a news conference with President-elect Barack Obama, right, in Chicago, in this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo. (Charles Dharapak/AP Photo )

According to documents disclosed Tuesday to Congress as part of his nomination, Holder will receive a $2.5 million payment in 2009 from his law firm, Covington & Burling. This figure comes on top of the $2.1 million he earned from the firm in 2008.

That sum alone makes Holder one of the highest paid members of the law firm, where partners' average profits were $1.17 million in 2008, according to a survey by Legal Times.

Much of the $2.5 million payment comes from standard compensation: $632,767 in capital payments he invested in the firm when he joined in 2001; $680,820 in deferred compensation from the previous fiscal year; and $484,073 in partner compensation work and pension contributions for the current fiscal year, according to the disclosure record.

The firm said in a statement that such payments are routine for partners leaving to go anywhere but another law firm and are calculated "based on a standard methodology that would be applied to any similarly situated partner." It continued, "the methodology has been established and applied by our firm for many years and was in place well before the parties knew that Mr. Holder was being considered for a Federal appointment."

But law firm management experts said that separation payments are not standard operating procedures when partners leave law firms, although they said such an arrangement wasn't unheard of. "It's not common to get something on top of all that," said Peter Zeughauser, a law firm management consultant.

A spokesperson for the Obama transition team did not respond to comment. Holder, who served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, first joined Covington in 2001 and has worked there continuously since. In that time he had handled a variety of cases, including representing companies such as UBS Financial Services, Chiquita Banana and Global Crossings.

To Read the Whole Article Go To:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6468267&page
=1

Has anyone else noticed that the "Emergency Bailout" of 700 Billion for the most part is still sitting and doing...nothing?   Even the funds that they have distributed is being horded with little to no accoutability on the part of the Government.  Even after all of the Chicken Littles in Washington said we need that money and we need it NOW!...OR ELSE!   ..............   Well.....where is the or else?   Why has the Sky not suddenly fallen with the Bailout money just sitting there?   Huh....

Now the Chicken Littles are coming out of Washington again...yelling  "The Big 3 are Too Big to Fail!!"  Terrible things will happen!!.......Excuse me?  Haven't I heard this before somewhere??  Haven't we danced to this tune before?....Dejavu?

Well the Big 3 "Loan" (Bailout) Bill died in the Senate after the Pres Bush said it needed to go through Congress because that is the way it is supposed to work in this Great Republic.........well that is until it didn't go through...... 

It appears that the First 700 Billion dollar bailout had a few hidden clauses in it that gave Dictatoral powers to the Pres and Paulson.......  So even if the supposed elected Officials of the People Shoot it down....the President and Paulson have the unlimited power to throw Our Money around to whom ever they Please.......when ever they Please with little to no accountability.

Does anyone else see a problem with this?   I mean whats the point of having Elected Officials if the Pres can do what the Heck he wants??? 

Last time I looked  the President's name wasn't Chavez........

Or was it?

Just recently the Full list of Donors for both the Democrat and Republican conventions have been released. Guees what it says?

These reports show that the same companies that made big donations or contributions to the conventions are the same ones that are asking for and receiveing bailouts. If you think that it's just a coincidence then I have packages of dehydrated water you might be interested in.......

Here are the articles:

http://www.cfinst.org/pr/prRelease.aspx?ReleaseID=2
18

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view
&pageId=83255

So why are the Repubs against Bailing out the Car Companies even though they made big donations to their convention? One Word......Unions.

The Unions gave all of their Money to the Democratic Convention. They were able to do this because of a little distinction between giving money to a Political Party and the Commity holding the Parties Convention.....

Gee....I guess that alot like what is....is?lol

AIG, Ford, GM, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs...the list goes on and on......

All gave big money to the Conventions..and All are getting their Returns on their investments....

I wonder why people are still so suprised when they hear news like this or find out that a Politican is dishonest or doesn't keep their word.......

I mean really......

When you look in the Sewer what are you expecting to see.......Roses?

Despite Recession, Lobbyists Kick Off Holiday Parties

 Lawmakers and Their Staff Invited for Open Bars, Free Food This Holiday Season

By JUSTIN ROOD and EMMA SCHWARTZ

December 3, 2008

One day after the U.S. officially acknowledged it was in a recession, it was party time in Washington for lawmakers and their staff, courtesy of the nation's corporate lobbyists.

The 2008 Capitol Christmas Tree stands on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol after a lighting... The 2008 Capitol Christmas Tree stands on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol after a lighting ceremony December 2, 2008 in Washington, DC. The 70-foot-tall Subalpine Fir was a gift of the state of Montana and it was decorated by ornaments handmade by schoolchildren of the state. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
More Photos

For weeks, invitations and event lists have been circulating on Capitol Hill, carrying promises of open bars and free food. Though some organizations say they have cut back on events in the wake of the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression, many of 2008 's parties are shaping up to look a lot like the parties of earlier years.

"The partying always goes on," said Nancy Watzman of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Sunlight Foundation.

Watzman directs the group's "Party Time" project, which tracks fundraising events and other parties where lawmakers rub shoulders with special interests.

The ABC News Investigative Unit is reporting on the holiday party scene again this season, continuing last year's coverage.

Click here to watch the full story from 2007.

Defense contractors, energy companies and telecoms are all sponsoring parties this year, taking over restaurants and renting out museums in the expectation of crowds hundreds strong.

New lay of the land
The country is in a period of transition. A new potentially transformative president is entering the White House, along with increased Democratic majorities in Congress. Class consciousness is deeper and reaches into every section of the working class. A spirit of broad unity is palpable. The ideological environment is infused with progressive, egalitarian, and anti-militarist ideas. Labor and its allies are retrofitting their priorities, message and initiatives to the new political landscape. And millions are ready to energetically back the legislative agenda of the Obama administration. Meanwhile, the Republicans are on the defensive, its grassroots constituency dispirited. And the capitalist class as a whole is adapting to the new terrain of struggle and the collapse of financial markets.

This favorable correlation of class and social forces couldn’t happen at a better time. The challenges facing the new administration are immense. Some are short term; others longer term; some are national in scope; others global. And all are begging for solution.

Sam Webb, National Chair  Communist Party USA

Well the Communist Party has thrown off it's shroud of Neutrality that it cloaked itself in during the election.  It is now in Celebration mode.......for as Mr. Webb has said....there is a new lay of the land.....and the Future of their utopia of "equality" has never looked brighter.

What some forget is that President  Bush has been a very Socialistic President.  He has increased Government spending, Social Programs and has Socialized alot of the "Free Market" in leu of this Crisis.  Mr Webb understands this, and he understands that our next President plans on building on the Socialist foundation of the Bush Adminsitration. 

Mr. Webb says that their Utopia (Socialism) is not at the door step yet.......but that this election gives the Communist Party  a mandate to hopefully influence and encourage  the New Adminsitration in their endeavors of Social Justice.  That we are indeed on the road to full blown Socialism.....

To read the whole Speech go to:

http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/994/1/154/

In a Past Blog of mine, I discussed Wealth Redistribution.  As with any subject, there are those for and against.   But instead of writing a long response to those in favor of on that Blog I decided to write it here.....

First, Wealth redistribution is unconstitutional.  Yea I know, easy thing to say.....but it's true.

First we must all understand the foundation of this Country and where the Rights of Life , Liberty and Property derive from.   The founders covered that base when they wrote this,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

This one sentence is all that is needed to counter the concept of Wealth Redistribution.......why?  

Because our Rights to Life, Liberty, Property and Pursuit of Happiness are all given to us..not by the Politicians in Washington but by Nature's Creator.   We have a Natural Right to Life, Liberty and Property.....

Government does not Give us Freedom and Liberty....it was created to  Protect them....the only reason we allow laws that restrict them is for the sake of security...nothing else..and even then only the bare minimum to get the job done....

So to believe that the Government has the right to strip you of your Life, Liberty or Property ignores this Fundamental Truth written in the Founding documents of this Great Nation.  Which in turn ignores the fact that the Government has no right to take your property and give it to another just for the sake of "fairness".

Some people will say that there are many laws on the books that violate this concept and so it must not be true.  My response is that there are many laws on the books wrongly written and many citizens that have lost Life, Liberty and Property unjustly.......that is why those that seek to destroy Liberty...seek to appoint Judges and force their ideology into the public school system.  The more generations that are ignorant of the founding Principles of this Nation, the easier it is for them to "change" it or "interprete" it any way they wish.........

That is why Vigilance is necessary,  The Understanding of History essential.....

For as long as there are those living under Tyranny that believe they are Free.....there will always be Tyrants...

and Slaves.....

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Perfect example of the Mentallity of the Politicans in Washington.  They think they are in Charge with Money they believe Grows on Trees....

No wonder they throw the idea of more taxes around like it doesn't effect anyone..

Twits....

My wife one uped me tonight.  We were discussing the whole Wealth Redistribution or Spreading the Wealth around thing....and she told me that this happend before.  I thought she ment that the tax code was written so that is what is happening anyway..and she said ..nope...I said..the New Deal?   She said No.....

Well I finally figured it out...but was wondering if any of you have thought of this....

Give me your best Guess.....it is a perfect example of redistribution and how you can't trust the word of some of those in the Federal Gov....no not Stalin or anything like that...

Any Guesses?? I'll check back tomorrow night and then Give the answer on a New Blog if no one has Gotten it yet....

Hey if we can't have fun...at least we can make you think....