Campaign 2010

Countdown to Congressional Elections


The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
Noam Chomsky, M.I.T. emeritus Professor of Linguistics

The Rise of Corporate Freedom of Speech

(Surpassed 2008 total on August 18)

See Weekly Spending Totals

$2.9 Billion Spent in 08
on Congressional Race
See Major Contributors

Corporate money in politics is bad enough. Secret corporate money is intolerable.


Primary Election Results
(UPDATED: August 25, 2010)






"The Great 2010 Incumbent (Non-)Revolt"

Senate Primary’s
Incumbent Democrats
1 Loss; 6 Wins of 13
Incumbent Republicans
1 Loss; 9 Wins of 12

House Primary’s
Incumbent Democrats
2 Loss; 182 Wins of 245
Incumbent Republicans
2 Loss; 140 Wins of 158

General Election Candidates

Senate

House of Representatives

Visual Facts

Hover to Pause.
Click Image for Larger Size.

National Debt Clock

Hover to Pause

WHEN Did You Become Fiscally Responsible?
BEFORE Obama or AFTER Obama??
January 20, 2009
$10,838,758,414,164.46 - ↑90%
Discretionary Spending at 48.6%

January 20, 2001
$5,719,124,940,098.04 - 36%
January 20, 1993
$4,192,107,025,882.17 - 62%
January 20, 1989
$2,601,104,000,000.00 - 189%
January 20, 1981
$909,041,000.000.00

Click Image for Full Size


Debt by President

Are You A Tea Party Hyprocrite??

(Click for Debt Details)

United States of Corporations

Thanks to the GOP's Supreme Court
(Click Flag for Full Size)
Corporate Bill of Rights

Quotes and Links

Hover to Pause
(Look for the Listings)

The Decade When the U.S. Lost Its Way

Where Have All the Neocons Gone?

From Neocons to Crazy-Cons

America Builds an Aristocracy

Supreme immodesty: Why the justices play politics

The Biggest Medicare Fraud Ever

Enough Right-Wing Propaganda

Tax Rate for Richest 400 Taxpayers Plummeted in Recent Decades, Even as Their Pre-Tax Incomes Skyrocketed

"The financial reform bill will determine whether Wall Street’s banks will serve the American economy or whether the American economy will continue to serve Wall Street's banks."

"While the economy doesn't function for most of us ordinary workers, it yields considerable reward for those at the top."

Republicans Are Locked in a Passionate Embrace with a Corpse and Won't Let Go

"The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can't afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that's their problem."

"It should tell you everything you need to know that, in lobbying to retain its bank supervisory powers, the Fed's allies include the big Wall Street banks."

"[Texas Republican Jeb] Hensarling told a Texas-size whopper — and then tried to claim Republican credit for Bill Clinton’s budget surpluses."

"The Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision last week giving American corporations the right to unlimited political spending was an astonishing display of judicial arrogance, overreach and unjustified activism."

"It was wrong because nothing in the First Amendment dictates that corporations must be treated identically to people."

"They backed the truck up to Fort Knox in broad daylight. They emptied it out, we rescued them and they get $150 billion in bonuses."

"A huge, unregulated boom in which almost all the upside went directly into private hands, followed by a gigantic bust in which the losses were socialized."

So You Just Squandered Billions . . . Take Another Whack at It

Banks 'Too Big to Fail' Have Grown Even Bigger

Bankers' bonuses Beat Earnings as Industry Imploded

U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion

The Bank Bailouts — Corporate Welfarism

New Evidence Cheney Swayed Reaction to Leak - Valerie Plame

Once Again, The More You Watch Fox The Dumber You Are

"Over the past year, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have injected trillions of dollars into frozen financial markets, snapping up unwanted bonds, extending guarantees to banks and slashing interest rates."

Building a Better Capitalism

The End of Supply Side Economics

The Great Wealth Transfer

The Richer

Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change

Proponents of Estate Tax Repeal Are Resurrecting Old Misconceptions

Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades

Ending Plutocracy: A 12-Step Program

Our Gilded Age

The Rich and the Rest of Us

GOP's "Small Government" Talk is Hollow


Distortions, Hypocrisy & More

"I'm not upset that you lied to me; I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you"
Friedrich Nietzsche
[Hover to Pause]

Today is

March 4, 2009

PennyMac: New Twist To Bankrupting Company, Then Rewarded With Taxpayer Money

March 4, 2009

The Facts

Countrywide Financial was among the first of the scandals in the financial industry. They, along with Merrill Lynch & Citigroup, were in front of congressional committee in February of last year getting a “spanking” for the mess they had created while being handsomely rewarded. I wrote this post on the hearing and suggested there that our tax dollars would bail out these companies while they, the crooks, went off and enjoyed their fortunes. (We know now that’s exactly what happened.) Well, one of them is back in business again, although he was not one of those in front of the committee.

Stanford Kurland, who was the number two man behind Angelo Mozilo at Countrywide, eventually became President of that company. He is now President and CEO of PennyMac (Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company). stanford-kurlandKurland started the company up last year with several of his friends from Countrywide. The company is making hundreds of millions of dollars buying up so-called bad loans at pennies on the dollar. There biggest customer so far was the FDIC where they paid just over $43 million for $560 million in delinquent loans. PennyMac will be allowed to keep twenty cents, eventually rising to forty cents, on every dollar they collect. With a smile on his face, Kurland was quoted as saying business was very good.

My View

In this post I suggested that while other countries were properly punishing their corporate crooks we were rewarding ours. Here’s just another example of our good nature.

Some delinquent homeowners are saying that PennyMac has lowered their interest rate allowing them to stay in their homes. I hope these homeowners have learned a lesson from their past and made sure there’s no ramping up of interest rates in a year or two, or a balloon payment scheduled for the future. But knowing these crooks at PennyMac, you can bet there is a “gotcha” in there somewhere. If not for the homeowner, for us taxpayers. These crooks are like the owners of casinos; they make absolutely sure that the odds are on their side, and in this case, probably 110% sure.

I’m going to make another prediction here; there will come a time when PennyMac will have to be bailed out with taxpayer money and Kurland & his friends will once again ride off into the sunset with their hundreds of millions in rewards. Once a corporate crook always a corporate crook. For these guys, greed is too lucrative to give up.

Bookmark and Share

Leave a Reply

 

 

 

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>