Friday, October 31, 2008

Financial Fraud

The Times has a long piece today about the insurance company AIG, and what it has done with the billions of dollars "lent" to it by the Government to prevent it from going bust. The story is not easy to understand - but it is clear that numerous executives at the company were, or should have been, aware of the fact that the company was lying to everyone.

These same executives were carting off tens, if not hundreds of millions in bonuses as compensation for their fraudulent (or just incompetent) business activities.

I knew one of the top AIG dogs when I worked in financial services 20 years ago and could have told you then that he was a master at creating financial schemes that no one could understand. His true talent though, was in making top executive believe his accounting - that not only was he earning them tons of money, but what he was doing was perfectly safe.

These bastards have taken over $100 billion from the U.S. Government to bail out their disaster. So I ask myself the reasonable question: why the fuck haven't they been arrested and why aren't they looking at 20 years in prison?

What is it about this country that you go to Jackson for five years for selling a rock of Crack but can steal billions and nothing happens.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Banks 3, America 0

The Washington Post reports today that banks receiving federal investments (bailouts) are on pace to distribute more than half of that money to their shareholders in the form of dividends over the next three years.

We have already seen that the bailout funds are not increasing lending (which was the whole point). It has also been reported that some banks will use the money to fund acquisitions of other banks (which could be beneficial if the purchased bank was in trouble, but not necessarily). So now we find that the Government made no restrictions on dividend payments, which bags the questions of what the fuck did these people in Washington do with my money?

$3.4 billion was invested in Fifth Third Bank, a corporation so poorly run that it deserves to go out of business. I should know, since my company banked with them for five years and I witnessed first hand how the place decayed after Old Kent sold out to Fifth Third. Never mind that it also has the dumbest name in the business.

If we are going to bail out the banks, we must have a say in how they operate. We are right back in the game of privatizing gains and socializing losses and I really can't believe how the Bush Administration has fucked us yet again.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Cutting the Prison Budget

I have been harping on the Michigan Prison situation for a long time. In a nutshell, we have way too many people in prison and spend too much money paying for it. In return, we have a crime rate no better than other Great Lakes states and have contributed to the destruction of lives and families by throwing too many non-violent offenders into jail.

Last week, the Detroit Area Chamber of Commerce came out in favor of cutting the prison population. Their reason is totally self-serving (eliminating the surcharge on the SBT) but that's irrelevant. The only way we are going to usher in a rational penal system is if politicians are forced to do it by people they listen to.

It's time for all the Chambers to recognize that Michigan cannot afford its destructive and ineffective corrections policies. Republican legislators may not care about the negative societal impacts of longer and harsher prison terms, but they do care about the business interests represented by the Chambers of Commerce.

Governor Granholm said she's wiling to talk about it and Democratic politicians need to get on board. The stars are lining up to fix the state's corrections policy and we have to make this happen before the chance slips away.

Friday, October 24, 2008

John McCain: Horn Dog

Wow, Kathleen Parker must definitely be looking for a new office, since I don't think the National Review is going to be giving her space any more.

Today's column lays it all out about the Palin pick: it was all about sex appeal. Not that this should be a surprise to anyone who understands the cult of carrier pilots. These guys are the most notorious partyers and womanizers of the U.S. military. Not that you can blame them; the job of landing a jet plane at night on a miniature, moving runway requires balls of steel - and you have to do something with them when you're on the ground.

Of course McCain dumped his first wife (who was well liked in Washington) after seeing Cindy in a bathing suit. Apparently that was all it took for him to set sail on his former wife who had waited for him all those years while he was being a hero POW.

Bush also had the pilot thing going, but then he found Jesus and kicked the bottle and stayed faithful to his wife. McCain still wishes he could be tom cattin' around some naval base in the South Seas, or maybe Alaska?

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Alan Greenspan throws In the towell

I have considered former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan a massive fraud for years.

He played Colin Powell's role in pimping for the Bush tax cuts and was directly responsible for the real estate bubble that created the illusion of a growing economy during the Bush years. He was a slavish disciple of Ayn Rand and promoted Economic Fundamentalism under the cover of being a centrist Fed Chairman who had only the country's interest's at heart.

Well, today Mr. Greenspan showed a rare quality for movement conservatives and admitted he was wrong.

From testimony in Congress:
Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

At least he has the strength of character and intellectual honesty to admit that his theories were wrong. I doubt we will ever see such honesty from Bush, Cheney, Rove or the rest of their cabal.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Michigan's Budget

The other day, Governor Granholm commented that she is looking at the budget, just in case the financial meltdown and looming recession might just possibly result in lower revenues than projected. She added something to the effect that Michigan had already tightened its fiscal belt and therefor wasn't in the same position as states that have actually been doing well over the past five years.

First off, there can be little doubt that this recession is going to clobber Michigan. Let's start with the closure of the GM stamping plant in Wyoming and go from there. We're screwed, again.

The second flaw in her logic is that we are in better shape because we have already tightened the belt. What this really means is that we don't have any fat left to trim. The budget is balanced but the state is barely covering its basic responsibilities for education, health care, public safety and infrastructure. If we are scraping bottom and face even less money coming in, we are going subterranean.

Which brings me to my point, which is that there is a place to trim massively and that is the prison system. We spend more money on prisons than higher education and have a per-capita prison population far in excess of the other Great Lakes states - with no relative reduction in crime.

Most of this debacle is due to politicians doing what they do best: pandering to voters by enacting "tough on crime" laws that are best ineffective and more typically destructive. Unfortunately the political instinct for self preservation makes it impossible for politicians to speak the truth and say we can't afford so many prisoners, and keeping them behind bars isn't helping anything anyhow. Unless you happen to be a term-limited Governor who has nothing left to fear from speaking the truth.

Joe Conason says it pretty well today in Salon: the War on Drugs is a $50 billion a year failure. If running out of money is the only way to force politicians for admit this, so be it, but now's the time.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

GR Press Endorsements

Press endorsements usually have a consistent logic: go for the Republican except for unquestionably safe Democratic seats where the GOP doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell (e.g. the 76th House District). This keeps them in the Republican fold but lets them feel less like the toadies they really are.

There is one exception to the rule though: they will throw a Republican under the bus if he hasn't been playing ball with the party establishment. I should know, since they once endorsed me back in a 2002 house race. Being young and stupid, I thought this must have been due to my sterling qualities as a candidate. Then it was explained to me that it was more a dis-endorsement of the Republican incumbent because he wasn't following orders.

Which seems to explain the Robert Dean endorsement. They couldn't possibly like Dean, but they must really dislike Tietema because he's not an obedient GOP clone. In essence, the Press doesn't really give a shit about the candidates, they endorse the power brokers who keep the Republican legislators on a very short leash. The Press is just an enforcer for the GOP establishment.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Last Refuges

There was never any doubt the Republicans would play dirty when they needed to, but I'm sorry to say they have surpassed even their own depraved standards of conduct.

Glenn Greenwald lays it out pretty well here.

This is not about campaigns and this is not about politics as usual, this is racist hate-mongering of the worst type. And since McCain is out of time and short on cash, he can't play around with surrogates and mystery Swift Boat type ads: he has to come right out and say it himself. But as Joe Biden pointed out today, McCain is too much of a coward to say it to Obama's face.

Next up: slimy comments about drug use.

It's obvious to me why the Republicans are resorting to this: if a Democratic Administration decides to investigate what the Bush Regime has done to this country over the past eight years, people are going to go to jail. Nothing like hard time to bring out the worst in already bad people.

Time to get back to work beating these bastards in November.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Winning is Not Enough

When I decided to get behind Barack Obama it wasn't because I thought he could win. It was because I thought he could govern.

Now that it is looking increasingly clear that we will have a Democratic president with solid majorities in Congress, it is time to remember why we do this. Why we spend hours calling voters, knocking on doors, contributing our hard-earned money and investing our emotional well-being in a person or a party.

I have been actively involved in Michigan politics for close to ten years, including running for office and helping to run the local Democratic Party. We have been very successful in winning races, both local and state-wide. We have shown that we know how to organize and win. But for the most part, we have failed to take the next step and convert electoral victories to progressive legislation that achieves the real goal of better government.

We work our buts off to elect Democrats and they proceed to crumble in the face of the relentless conservative opposition. They take office, get comfortable, and fail to achieve the goals we elected them for.

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I consider Jennifer Granholm to be a tremendous disappointment. She looks like a governor and talks like a governor but has failed to move the progressive agenda forward in Michigan. She had a tough situation to deal with, but she knew that going in - and failed to impose her will on the legislature. She has not delivered, period. Granted this is better than going backwards (as we would have under Dick DeVos) but that is a cold cup of coffee.

For President Obama to achieve the progressive agenda, he is going to have to impose his will on the Blue Dog Democrats as well as the conservative minority. He will have to use his impressive personal skills to create an unstoppable national consensus that the conservative governing philosophy that we have suffered under since Regan is a wretched failure that has ruined our economy and destroyed our standing in the global community.

God willing we win this thing, we have to take the next step and make sure the winners deliver what they have promised: universal health care, an economy centered on the well being of workers, not corporations, and the restoration of the American dream both here and abroad.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Mackinac Center

Are we ever going to get the chance to call out the Mackinac Center and their toadies like Jack Hoogendyk?

They espouse economic fundamentalism that has proven itself to be completely wrong, unsupported by the facts and worthless in stopping Michigan's slide into the abyss. It's not just that Hoogendyk's wrong; their whole philosophy needs to be ripped to shreds and tossed into the dustbin.

I'm sick of seeing Mackinac writers trotted out in the GR Press like they are some kind of intellectuals. They are a bunch of right-wing hacks and we need to destroy their credibility once we are done beating their politicians. Failure to do this will lead to Dick Amway as Governor with yet another round of bullshit supply side economics.