THE SEVEN HUNDRED POUND GORILLA IN THE WHITE HOUSE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown



Amid GOP revolt, bailout deal breaks down


By JENNIFER LOVEN and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writers1 hour, 16 minutes ago


A Republican rebellion stalled government efforts Thursday to avoid economic meltdown, a chaotic turnaround that disrupted the choreography of an extraordinary White House meeting meant to show joint resolve from the president, the political parties and the presidential candidates. Instead, the summit broke up so bitterly that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got on one knee before Democratic leaders in a theatrical attempt to salvage talks.
After six days of bare-knuckled negotiations on the $700 billion financial industry bailout proposed by the Bush administration, with Wall Street tottering and presidential politics intruding six weeks before the election, there was far more confusion than clarity.
An apparent breakthrough was announced with fanfare at midday by key members of Congress from both parties — but not top leaders. Wall Street cautiously showed its pleasure, with the Dow Jones industrials closing 196 points higher.
But the good news and the market close were followed by a rash of less-positive developments.
Washington Mutual Inc. was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in the largest failure ever of a U.S. bank, after which JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc. came to its rescue by buying the thrift's banking assets.
And the late-afternoon White House gathering of President Bush, presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, and top congressional leaders turned into what one person in the room described as "a full-throated discussion" and McCain's campaign called "a contentious shouting match."
Conservatives were in revolt over the astonishing price tag of the proposal and the hand of government that it would place on private markets.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, emerged from the White House meeting to say the announced agreement "is, obviously, no agreement." McCain's campaign issued a statement saying, "the plan that has been put forth by the administration does not enjoy the confidence of the American people as it will not protect the taxpayers and will sacrifice Main Street in favor of Wall Street." The White House, too, acknowledged there was no deal, only progress.
Meanwhile a group of House GOP lawmakers circulated an alternative that would put much less focus on a government takeover of failing institutions' sour assets. This proposal would have the government provide insurance to companies that agree to hold frozen assets, rather than have the U.S. purchase the assets.
Inside the White House session, House Republican leader John Boehner announced his concerns about the emerging plan and asked that the conservatives' alternative be considered, said people from both parties who were briefed on the exchange.
Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, the feisty Democrat who has been leading negotiations with Paulson, reacted angrily, saying Republicans had waited until the last moment to present their proposal.
McCain, who dramatically announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign to deal with the economic crisis, stayed silent for most of the session and spoke only briefly to voice general principles for a rescue plan.
After the session, Paulson, hoping to prevent any chance for agreement from being torpedoed, pleaded with Democratic leaders not to publicly disclose how poorly the session had gone, said three people familiar with the episode. Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded angrily, and Paulson, in an attempt to lighten the mood, got down on one knee, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, like the others, because the conversations were private.
Weary congressional negotiators then resumed working with Paulson into the night in an effort to revive or rework the proposal that Bush said must be quickly approved by Congress to stave off "a long and painful recession." They gave up after 10 p.m. EDT, more than an hour after the lone House Republican involved, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, left the room.
Talks were to resume Friday morning on the effort to bail out failing financial institutions and restart the flow of credit that has begun to starve the national economy.
The Bush administration plan's centerpiece remained for the government to buy the toxic, mortgage-based assets of shaky financial institutions in a bid to keep them from going under and setting off a cascade of ruinous events, including wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, closed businesses and lost jobs.
The earlier bipartisan accord establishing principles and important details would have given the Bush administration just a fraction of the money it wanted up front, subjecting half the $700 billion total to a congressional veto. The treasury secretary would get $250 billion immediately and could have an additional $100 billion if he certified it was needed, an approach designed to give lawmakers a stronger hand in controlling the unprecedented rescue.
The Bush administration had already agreed to several concessions based on demands from the right and left, including that the government take equity in companies helped by the bailout and put rules in place to limit excessive compensation of their executives, according to a draft of the outline obtained by The Associated Press.
Democrat Obama and Republican McCain, who have both sought to distance themselves from the unpopular Bush, sat down with the president at the White House for the hourlong afternoon session that was striking in this brutally partisan season. By also including Congress' Democratic and Republican leaders, the meeting gathered nearly all Washington's political power structure at one long table in a small West Wing room.
"All of us around the table ... know we've got to get something done as quickly as possible," Bush declared optimistically at the start of the meeting. Obama and McCain were at distant ends of the oval table, not even in each other's sight lines. Bush, playing host in the middle, was flanked by Congress' two Democratic leaders, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
But neither Bush, McCain nor Obama have been deeply involved so far in this week's scramble to hammer out a package. The meeting was intended more to provide bipartisan political cover for lawmakers to support a plan in the face of an angry public and their own re-election bids in six weeks.
At day's end, Frank said he told Paulson "this whole thing is at risk if the president can't get members of his own party to participate."
Layered over the White House meeting was a complicated web of potential political benefits and consequences for both presidential candidates.
McCain hoped voters would believe that he rose above politics to wade into nitty-gritty and ultimately successful dealmaking at a time of urgent crisis, but he risked being seen instead as either overly impulsive or politically craven, or both. Obama saw a chance to appear presidential and fit for duty but was also caught off guard strategically by McCain's surprising campaign gamble.







IN OTHER WORDS THEY WANT TO FORCE US TO BUY THEIR SHIT WE WILL HAVE TO EAT INSTEAD OF HANGING THEM?

UPDATE:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/dealor-no-deal-bush-tells-politicians-to-settle-bailout-differences-944047.html

Deal...or no deal? Bush tells politicians to settle bailout differences

The process really went off the rails when the conservatives came forward on Thursday with an entirely new plan that would put most of the onus on the banks themselves. The banks would have to inject capital into a fund to protect themselves against the falling value of mortgage-related securities, lessening the exposure of taxpayers.
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financially. (The banks don't have the cash.) Politically, however, it responds to the reality that the original version is irredeemably unpopular across the country at a time when most members of Congress are seeking re-election. Mr Reid said the political dimension may have escaped Mr Paulson, "fine man though he is". ....

WTF????????????????

Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)
Mr Paulson has called the alternative plan unworkable, financialy. (The banks don't have the cash.)

WHAT FRIGGIN' BANK RUNS COMPLETELY OUT OF MONEY?????????

NO WAY.

Does this remind anyone else beside me of the S&L scandal???

The S&L Crisis: A Chrono-Bibliography

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/s&l/index.html

CORPORATE WELFARE IN OKLAHOMA

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=6658608&subject=economic&action=article

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A tax incentive package to help lure the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City won approval Monday in the state House over the objections of opponents who described it as corporate welfare for the NBA team's millionaire owners that does not benefit average Oklahomans.
"People are hopping mad about it," Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, said before House members voted 66-32 to send the measure to the Senate for consideration. It must pass the Senate and be signed by Gov. Brad Henry before the incentives become law.
"It is unfair. It's very clearly unfair," Key said. "Taxpayers don't get this kind of benefit."
"What we're doing here is corporate welfare," said Rep. Charlie Joyner, R-Midwest City, adding that he does not want the Sonics in Oklahoma "if it's on the back of taxpayers."
The measure would expand Oklahoma's Quality Jobs Program to include the NBA. About 500 companies already participate in the program, which gives rebates to companies for creating jobs. If the team relocates, it is expected to bring 170 jobs with a $74 million payroll to the state.
House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, said the measure would permit the Sonics to receive a rebate of a portion of payroll taxes paid by the team. It places a cap on the incentives not to exceed the top income tax rate in Oklahoma, which is currently 5.5 percent.
The measure would also permit the company to receive rebates on the taxable payroll paid by players from opposing teams when they play in the city, Benge said. He said the rebate will be about $4 million a year.
Sonics owner Clay Bennett has filed a relocation request with the NBA and a subcommittee of three NBA owners has recommend approval when all 30 owners vote on the SuperSonics' request on Friday.
"The owners of the team have put together a financial plan. This is part of that," Benge said. "They feel like they need this rebate to make the team profitable long term."
"A small-market team like Oklahoma City is going to be very challenging for the team to be profitable," he said. "We want to try to have them here long term."
The House passed the bill after approving several amendments, including one that rolled back its effectiveness from 15 years to 10 years and others that offered economic incentives for areas of rural Oklahoma.
Benge attempted to deflect criticism that the measure will divert scarce tax dollars to the team.
"This is money that's going to be generated only -- only -- if this basketball team comes to the state of Oklahoma," he said.
Benge said the team's move would have a total economic impact to the state of $170 million. Other lawmakers, including Rep. Guy Liebmann, R-Oklahoma City, said the team will create additional jobs in restaurants and other downtown businesses and give the city prominence.
"You can't buy that kind of advertising," Liebmann said.
"We are this close to our very first major professional team in the state of Oklahoma," said Rep. Tad Jones, R-Claremore. "This is our chance to send a signal."
But other lawmakers said the incentive package is unnecessary because the team has already revealed its plans to relocate.
"This team is coming here regardless," said Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore. Terrill referred to e-mails released last week that Bennett exchanged last year with partners about moving the team to Oklahoma City.
"It's been their intention to move the team here all along," Terrill said. "It is plain and simple, my friends, a gift."
"We're going to be giving away a lot of money," said Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. "Should we? Absolutely not." Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Gov. Gregoire says Sonics owners lied about plans to move

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=8154090&Call=Email&Format=HTML

Associated Press
SEATTLE - Washington Governor Chris Gregoire says she's shocked by newly disclosed e-mails from the owners of the Seattle SuperSonics and says she and the people were lied to.
The e-mails indicate the owners planned to move the team to Oklahoma City at the same time majority owner Clay Bennett was saying they were trying to keep the team in Seattle.
The e-mails were obtained as part of Seattle's lawsuit trying to force the Sonics to play out the two years remaining on the Key Arena lease.
Trial is scheduled for June.
The NBA Board of Governors meets next week to vote on the Sonics' relocation request. Gregoire says she plans to ask the board to give the state a chance to keep the team.

GAYLORD TRIES TO CRAWL FROM GRAVE...

http://www.okpns.com/2008/02/okpns-exclusive-stealin-repealin.html

OKPNS EXCLUSIVE: Stealin’ & Repealin’??
Scheme Aims to Pick Taxpayer Pockets and Re-Open Floodgates for New Illegal Alien Invasion
Responding to a question from the Oklahoma Political New Service, Rep. Terrill says he has not been contacted by Cain or Price about the difficulties 1804 may have caused the two industries. “They’ve not said a word to me, and it concerns me that these companies would launch a multi-million dollar scorched-earth campaign without once speaking to me. If illegal aliens making the modern equivalent of slave labor wages are critical to their vitality, it makes me very, very concerned about the future of those companies,” Rep. Terrill told OKPNS.

Oklahoma City – An OKPNS investigation has unmasked an elaborate but seemingly foolish scheme by corporations and some chambers of commerce to pass a sales tax for improvements to Ford Arena and simultaneously double-cross those same voters by launching a multi-million dollar campaign to repeal the state’s wildly popular immigration reform bill.
Insiders believe that if the public discovers the linkage between the two efforts, there could be a voter backlash, adversely affecting the March 4th penny sales tax election, and subsequently killing Oklahoma City’s bid to land an NBA franchise.
While OKPNS has been critical of the Oklahoma press in the past for enormous lapses in journalistic judgment, this time the oversight is inexcusable. This one should have been uncovered some time ago, but it has not been explained anywhere in Oklahoma media or in the blogosphere.
Incredibly, the scheme calls for not just one campaign of deceit but two disingenuous and risky double-crosses: one aimed at the voters and another aimed at a popular state representative, which could unravel an effort to gain tax credits for the energy and technology sector. One insider summed up the plot in this way, “Take their money, and then give them more illegal aliens. Take the tax credits, and politically harm the chairman of the revenue and tax committee. If true, I have never witnessed a more loathsome act.”
Oklahoma Political News Service has learned that the repeal plan is being kept in a low profile mode for two reasons. First, the corporate chiefs want the March 4th penny sales tax election to go off without a hitch, because of the fear of a massive voter backlash if citizens discover the agenda to repeal HB 1804 BEFORE the voters’ pockets are picked.
Second, the corporate bosses do not want to agitate Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, HB 1804 author and now a national leader in the immigration reform movement. Why? Because these and other corporate leaders are lobbying for millions of dollars in tax credits for the energy and telecommunications industries. To do that, they will need the support of the House Revenue and Tax Committee, chaired by Rep. Randy Terrill.
We at OKPNS thought when we heard this that this plan, risky and idiotic as it may seem, that it must be so ingenious that we couldn’t grasp its complexities. “No, you’re wrong,” another capitol insider suggests. “It’s the product of idiots.”
The March 4th vote seeks to raise $122 million, through a penny sales tax for 15 months to improve the Ford Center and build a practice facility so it can attract the Seattle Supersonics here starting in 2009. Dubbed “MAPS for Millionaires,” it is a relatively unpopular and controversial initiative. City leaders are planning a campaign to get voters to see the initiative in a positive light.
The OKPNS revelations of corporate dissembling will undoubtedly add to the initiative’s problems: a SurveyUSA poll done on January 29th for Oklahoma City TV station KFOR-TV showed the measure trailing 48-47, despite nearly universal positive media coverage of the proposal and no real organized opposition.
With apologies to KTOK afternoon drive host Mark Shannon, who hinted at the story last Friday, this is a story that the lazy and timid Oklahoma capitol press corps should have uncovered weeks ago. It’s best summed up by a capitol regular, who when told of the scheme said, “When the voters find out that the rich boys, who want the taxpayers to pimp their basketball arena, are going to turn around and try to open the floodgates to bring back illegal immigrants, there will be hell to pay,” she says.

Names connected to the plan include AT&T Oklahoma President Don Cain, as well as a public relations official at Chesapeake Energy named Tom Price. Sources say Chesapeake Energy is quietly discussing with allies a multi-million dollar campaign to repeal HB 1804. Ironically, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon has an ownership stake in the Sonics, and tying the penny sales tax election to the same people who are attempting to weaken the immigration law would be damaging to his investment. Cain is also Chairman of the state’s chamber of commerce, a relatively weak business lobby group that stood mute in 2007 as HB 1804 was rocketing through the legislature. The three largest chambers of commerce, the state, Tulsa and Oklahoma City chambers, are officially on record as opposing the immigration reform bill.
This scenario becomes even more unusual when you consider that AT&T and Chesapeake have millions of dollars in tax credits pending at the capitol. Those items will most likely be heard in Terrill’s committee, and the Chairman, a social and fiscal conservative who follows the Reagan brand of conservatism, abhors corporate welfare. And now AT&T and Chesapeake, among others, have been exposed as insincere at precisely the wrong time.
“Their bosses are going to freak, but not as much as the voters,” our insider says. “Terrill will kill Cain’s tax credits, as he should, and I suspect that Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony, who loathes AT&T, will want to know more. It could be a PR nightmare for him.”
The insider goes on to say that arrogance may have led the corporation group to overestimate their political IQ. “As for Chesapeake, they’re not playing against naïve little old OG&E this time. I don’t give a damn how much money they have: Terrill will line up that oil company with illegal aliens and the public will go with him. Their tax credits will be dead, too. They’re up against perhaps the smartest and most skilled politician in Oklahoma. He’s media savvy due to his television and radio gig, and he has a wealthy national following as the Pied Piper of immigration reform. The phone company and an oil company against Randy Terrill is an unfair fight: Terrill wins going away.”
So why would two large business corporations plot against an elected official that holds the key to their corporate welfare this session? “This is incredibly stupid. Tell me it’s not true. They’re plotting against and polling against the Revenue and Tax Chairman of the House of Representatives? It will boomerang against the phone industry, the energy sector and undermine public confidence against business as a whole,” an Oklahoma City lobbyist familiar with the situation says.
Responding to a question from OKPNS, Rep. Terrill says he has not been contacted by Cain or Price about the difficulties 1804 may have caused the two industries. “They’ve not said a word to me, and it concerns me that these companies would launch a multi-million dollar scorched-earth campaign without once speaking to me. If illegal aliens making the modern equivalent of slave labor wages are critical to their vitality, it makes me very, very concerned about the future of those companies,” Rep. Terrill tells us.
Other capitol observers say that at least one organization connected with this scheme has performed extensive polling on the possibility of repealing HB 1804, and that repeal will be almost impossible. “It’s too popular, [Terrill] is too popular and even a massive educational effort would fall short,” he says.
So what now? From our vantage point, the plan has put at risk the March 4th election, energy tax credits and cellular telephone tax credits. There will be interesting fallout if the dominoes fall where they appear to be heading and the arena tax fails in March and HB 1804 is still standing in June. Or maybe they’ll get away with it: after all, it still is the Oklahoma media. In that case, maybe only readers of OKPNS will ever know.

TRAITORS AND THEIVES-NO WONDER AT&T IS TRYING TO RIP ME OFF!