In exploring the machinations of Bain Capital, Romney's private equity firm, which Romney holds out as a cornerstone of his campaign to convince Americans of his business savvy, the Times obliquely opens a window into what we all could expect from a Romney Administration.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Slash and Burn Economics - Benefits Elite At Expense of the Working Class
America under Romney gets, well, screwed.
In exploring the machinations of Bain Capital, Romney's private equity firm, which Romney holds out as a cornerstone of his campaign to convince Americans of his business savvy, the Times obliquely opens a window into what we all could expect from a Romney Administration.
In exploring the machinations of Bain Capital, Romney's private equity firm, which Romney holds out as a cornerstone of his campaign to convince Americans of his business savvy, the Times obliquely opens a window into what we all could expect from a Romney Administration.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Link - Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World ~ by William D. Cohan
Goldman alum: 'I saw what they did to their customers...they'd steal from them, rape them, anything they could do.' It worked like a charm...the author has produced the frankest, most detailed, most human assessment of the bank to date. Cohan portrays a firm that has grown so large and hungry that it's no longer long-term greedy but short-term vicious.
Friday, September 23, 2011
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Action_Network
American Action Network's board includes billionaire Republicans who have bankrolled many GOP campaigns, and who are affiliated with some of the wealthiest corporations in the country. Some of the board members include:
American Action Network's board includes billionaire Republicans who have bankrolled many GOP campaigns, and who are affiliated with some of the wealthiest corporations in the country. Some of the board members include:
Robert Steel
Robert Steel was Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs for 30 years, then served with Henry Paulson at the U.S. treasury and mismanaged the financial crisis, then headed to Wachovia, where he used his Treasury connections to negotiate a sweet merger with Wells Fargo, who then accepted $25 Billion in taxpayer-funded TARP dollars. He was called one of "America's Ten Most Corrupt Capitalists" by AlterNet.[10]- While at Goldman Sachs, Steel co-headed the firm’s equities and trading business with Goldman CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein, who sold securities designed to fail (and will still receive a $100 million bonus this year).
- Steel served as co-chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce anti-regulation crusade before being appointed Under Secretary for Domestic Finance under Henry Paulson in George W. Bush's Treasury Department, where he served from 2006-2008. Paulson and Steel had a "Batman-and-Robin-like relationship," according to the Washington Post.[11]
- Steel departed from Treasury just before the Wall Street meltdown, and took the helm at Wachovia. As Wachovia was failing, Steel used his connections at Treasury to negotiate a merger with Wells Fargo, which then was bailed out by taxpayers, taking $25 Billion in TARP funds. Steel served on the board of Wells Fargo until July 2010, when he headed off for a post with the city of New York.
Fred Malek
AAN Chair Fred Malek was President Richard Nixon's White House personnel chief during the Watergate scandal, "and helped dispense patronage for major Nixon donors as well as serving as deputy director of CREEP" (the Committee to Re-Elect the President). [12] CREEP employed money laundering in its political activities, and was directly and actively involved in the Watergate scandal.[13] "Malek is perhaps most famous for his central role in responding to Nixon's request for a count of Jews employed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics."[14]- Malek engineered Nixon's "Responsiveness Program," which aimed to politicize the executive branch and take advantage of the power of the incumbency to direct federal resources towards ensuring Nixon's re-election.[15] [13] This included The "Responsiveness Program" was censured by the Senate Watergate Committee. The committee found that the program was aimed at influencing decisions concerning government "grants, contracts, loans, subsidies, procurement and construction projects," decisions regarding "legal and regulatory actions," and even personnel decisions that affected protected "career positions" -- all to advance Nixon's reelection.[16]
- In 1971, the Washington Post reported that Malek had ordered the FBI to conduct an investigation of then-veteran CBS correspondent and Nixon critic Daniel Schorr. [16]
- Malek was known as "the hatchet" in the Nixon administration "because of his alleged ruthlessness in paring the workforce and ousting those deemed disloyal to the Nixon administration."[16]
- "Malek is perhaps most famous for his central role in responding to Nixon's request for a count of Jews employed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics."[17] "Less than two months later, two senior BLS officials who were Jewish were moved out of their jobs to less visible posts. Malek acknowledges carrying out the disgusting hunt for Jews, but he denies having anything to do with the transfers."[16] However, a recently released memo suggests that he may be lying.
- Malek was nominated to govern the U.S. Post Office by Ronald Reagaon in 1982, but failed to achieve Senate confirmation not only because of his role in the Responsiveness Program, but also because he made conflicting statements under oath about his role in the program. [16]
- George H.W. Bush appointed Malek to head the Republican National Committee in 1988, but he was forced to resign after Bob Woodward followed up on his Watergate reporting and reminded America about Malek's BLS "jew-count." [18]
- Malek's net worth is reportedly $250 million.
- Malek paid a $100,000 fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission in a case involving a fraudulent pension fund scheme. He was John McCain's National Finance Committee co-chair in the 2008 election. He served as a director of Fannie Mae during the period in which CEO Franklin Raines was forced out by regulators and when Raines left the federal mortgage guarantor with a pension worth over $100,000 a month and over $5 million in stock options. Malek made his initial fortune as CEO of Marriott Hotels and is part of the Carlyle Group. He is also a George W. Bush crony who was part of the syndicate that bought the Texas Rangers, one of Bush's failed businesses. His reputation has been tainted by evidence he carried out some of President Nixon's dirty work in identifying Jewish federal employees, resulting in his resignation as Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee, even though he was George H.W. Bush's pick for that post back in 1988.
Kenneth G. Langone
Kenneth Langone is worth $1 billion, is listed as the 347th richest man in the U.S, and is affiliated with a number of corporations that have influenced or interfered with elections.- Langone co-founded ChoicePoint, a "'data-mining" company that collects personal information it then sells to the government and businesses. Among other scandals, ChoicePoint was embroiled in the 2000 Presidential election debacle in Florida-- a ChoicePoint subsidiary ("DBT Online") provided Florida with a list of felons for the state to drop from the election rolls; however, 8000 of those names (most of whom were African-American and Hispanic, and likely Democratic voters) were not actually felons, and were thus prohibited from exercising their legal right to vote. The names were provided under a $4 million no-bid contract to Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who also declared George W. Bush the winner of Florida by 1,784 votes. Bush officially became president after five conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the vote recount-- a couple thousand voters turned away could have been the difference, even without the flawed butterfly ballot that added up for Pat Buchanan.[19] The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division identified problems with ChoicePoint's methodology in its report on the 2000 elections. [20]
- Langone also co-founded the home-remodeling store Home Depot, which was rewarded by Bush/Cheney for its top employees' big donations to the GOP. Home Depot got a $48 million tax break in the Bush/Cheney energy bill (lifting a tariff on Chinese-made ceiling fans), and George W. Bush used the store as the PR backdrop for a speech about the economy.
C. Boyden Gray
C. Boyden Gray, an heir to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company fortune, has played a key role in many right-wing groups like Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was founded by the Koch Brothers, and is on the Board of Directors of FreedomWorks, the beltway group behind the Tea Party movement.[21] Gray has helped orchestrate everything from the big business attack on the EPA's regulation of air quality standards to the effort to pack the courts with right-wing ideologues through his attack machine, the "Committee for Justice."[22]Board
- Fred Malek, Chairman, Network Board, and Chairman, Thayer Capital Partners
- Senator Norm Coleman, CEO, American Action Network and Forum
- Senator George Allen, President, George Allen Strategies, LLC.
- Isaac Applbaum, founding General Partner, Opus Capital
- Maria Cino, Vice President of Government Affairs, Pfizer Inc.
- Dylan Glenn, Senior Vice President, Guggenheim Advisors
- Ambassador Boyden Gray, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union
- B. Wayne Hughes, Jr., Founder and Senior Vice President of American Commercial Equities Inc.
- Ken Langone, Founder and Chairman, Invemed Associates LLC
- Senator Mel Martinez, Chairman of Florida, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, JPMorgan Chase
- Congressman Jim Nussle, President and CEO, The Nussle Group
- Congressman Tom Reynolds, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor, Nixon Peabody
- Ambassador Gregory Slayton, President and CEO, NRX Global
- Congressman Vin Weber, Managing Partner, Clark and Weinstock
Republicans hate Social Security because it has been an extraordinary success and has done exactly what it was designed to do. It is the most successful government program in our nation's history and is enormously popular.
When Social Security was developed, 50 percent of seniors lived in poverty. Today, that number is 10 percent -- still too high, but a testament to the success of Social Security.
Republicans have spent years demonizing Social Security and spreading lies about its sustainability. They want to scare Americans and build support for making drastic cuts to the program or privatizing it entirely.
Their long-term goal is to end Social Security as we know it, and convert it into a private account system which will enable Wall Street to make hundreds of billions in profits.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)