OT: Lets add $700billion to the deficit...a "how to" primmer:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#40018357

OT?: This is hilarious tho sadly today's state of affairs...the lies will get bigger and louder...count on it...conspiracy theorists need to watch the whole thing to get some new fodder - maybe this is the REAL conspiracy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#40018314

Wow...leaving the country...Dateline Nov. 3

Enormous change in capabilities in the White House. Imagine organizing a 3000 person antourage with 40 planes and a meeting of world leaders in one day. I'm actually impressed.

OT: Germany's take on the T party/Hitler obsession...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,724418,00.html

Not-So-Steeped in History
US Tea Party Should Keep Its Hands Off Hitler
A Commentary by Charles Hawley


Photo Gallery: 7 Photos
Many on the American right have developed a taste for including a bit of German history in their stump speeches. Hitler comparisons abound and the Berlin Wall even made a cameo recently. But the flippant references to the Holocaust are ignorant and offensive. And they should stop.

German politicians are well aware of the dangers of making ill-thought-out references to their country's history. In 2002, then-German Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin, speaking to the southern German daily Schwäbisches Tagblatt, said in reference to US President George W. Bush's increasingly bellicose rhetoric against Iraq: "Bush wants to distract people from his domestic difficulties. It is a popular method. Hitler did the same thing."

It was the hint of a parallel more than a direct comparison. But Germans, the majority of whom hated Bush even then, were outraged -- and Däubler-Gmelin paid a high price for it. She was forced to resign.

The lesson doesn't seem to have made it across the Atlantic.

In this midterm campaign season in the US, German history seems to be everywhere. In June, conservative columnist Thomas Sowell of JewishWorldReview.com essentially argued that President Barack Obama, by requiring that BP pay $20 billion (€14.3 billion) to compensate those harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, was following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler -- and was promptly praised by Sarah Palin and Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas.

Other examples abound. A Tea Party campaign poster in Iowa depicted Obama flanked by both Hitler and Lenin. Conservative talking head and Tea Party heartthrob Glenn Beck can hardly get through one of his Fox News shows without an Obama-Hitler comparison. Palin also accused Obama's health care plan of including "death panels." And one Tea Party candidate, Rich Iott, even enjoys dressing up as a Nazi now and then.

Reducing the Flow

Last weekend, another Tea Party-backed candidate moved on to a different chapter in German history. Joe Miller, a Republican candidate for Senate in Alaska, intimated that the US should build a Berlin Wall on its border with Mexico. "East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow," he said. "If East Germany could, we could."

It is perhaps only natural that Germans would be a bit more sensitive to these kinds of wilfully ignorant comparisons than Americans. The Berlin Wall, after all, only came down just over two decades ago. And World War II, while ancient history from the perspective of the US, still plays a very active role in the way Germans see their country and the way Germany interacts with the world.

But there is a more fundamental reason that German politicians and talking heads avoid making flippant references to either the Nazi or communist dictatorships from their country's past -- and why they often pay with their jobs if they cross the line. You can't talk about Hitler without also referring to the historically unique, industrialized slaughter of the Holocaust. Similarly, you can't talk about East Germany's Berlin Wall and ignore the appalling oppression the regime visited on its citizens.

There is, in other words, a reason that East Germany was "very, very able to reduce the flow." It wasn't the barrier itself. After all, numerous people devised ingenious ways to escape over, under and through the Berlin Wall (on their way out of, and not into, East Germany, it should be noted). It's just that not all that many had the courage to try. If they were seen, they were shot.

Along with the wall came dogs trained to tear people apart, armed guards equipped with shoot-to-kill orders, mines, and an extremely able domestic intelligence system that permeated all parts of society.

Emaciated Corpses and Zyklon B

Despite Joe Miller's bodyguards having thrown a journalist into handcuffs recently, it is hard to believe that he had such a totalitarian state in mind when he made his wall comments. But the Berlin Wall without the morally bankrupt East German regime behind it would not have worked.

For most Germans, though, the Hitler comparisons are vastly more offensive. It is almost impossible to finish high school in Germany without going on a class visit to a former concentration camp. They are not pleasant places to be. While the sites themselves might now be little more than windswept rows of foundations where hopelessly overcrowded, disease-ridden barracks once stood, the museum exhibits tend to be much more disturbing. Images of trucks full of emaciated corpses, ovens where tens of thousands of bodies were burned, photos of SS commandos on the Eastern Front shooting row upon row of Jews, a canister of the poison gas Zyklon B -- all are likely to be on display.

During his show on Oct. 5, Glenn Beck said that Obama's science adviser John Holdren's concern about the global population and White House health policy adviser Ezekiel Emanuel's warnings about global warming are "the kind of thinking that led to … the extermination program that eventually led to the Holocaust."

It would be hard to find someone on this side of the Atlantic who wouldn't cringe at the ignorance of that statement. Leaving aside the question as to whether or not one should be concerned about climate change and an overcrowded planet, the kind of thinking that led to the Holocaust was a different one. Hitler wanted a racially pure Germany. People with handicaps didn't fit. Neither did Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, blacks, Asians, Arabs or homosexuals.

Not a Children's Choir

The Holocaust was the result of murderous ideological fanaticism of the kind not to be found in leaders forced to face re-election every four years. It was not the result of a policy meeting.

Similarly, back in June Glenn Beck said that children singing for Barack Obama was "out of the playbook … of the Third Reich ….This is Hitler Youth." One can assume that not all of Beck's listeners and viewers know what the Hitler Youth was. Beck himself, an astute, if cynical, student of history, certainly does. The Hitler Youth was the ideological training grounds designed to prepare German boys for a glorious career in the SS murdering anyone who stood in the way of the Führer's dream of a vast and racially pure German Reich. It was not a dictator's private children's choir.


One can forgive those like Glenn Beck and his Tea Party followers for hating Barack Obama. The liberals, after all, were passionately opposed to George W. Bush and rarely shied away from hyperbole in their expressions of loathing. But it is hard to imagine even the most hard-bitten Tea Party activist sincerely believing that President Barack Obama wants to systematically murder over 6 million people like Adolf Hitler did.

And that is necessarily the implication. Germans are not worried that using Nazi comparisons are overly offensive to those targeted. Rather, the concern is that such flippant uses of the most horrible chapter in human history, in the case of the Hitler comparisons, and the shocking overreach of a totalitarian state, in the case of East Germany, unavoidably relativizes that history. It makes it easier for people to say "maybe it wasn't all that bad." In the case of Nazism, it makes it easier to ignore the monstrous scale of the crimes committed in the name of a misguided ideology.

With Germany's 20th century crimes fading into the past, that is a dangerous path to take. It is a path that all politicians, whatever their leanings, should avoid. The Tea Party should keep their hands off German history.

maybe $1.20 was good enough.../e

my TA suggests that we tag $1.15ish then head north.../e

Amen.

OT: Able Danger is a cartoon site... /e

BW and Kismet...those were what I was looking for...thx /e

Thanks BW, but there is another one I had remembered from about a year ago. It was over a shorter period of time...since 1980 or so. It was a single line with the dow expressed in gold value...as such, it was clearly the same shapes as this chart 1980 to present. What was intriguing was that it expressed the peak dow '99-2000 like this one, but more clearly interpreted the actual gold equivient $ value of the dow that began diving in 2000 when the non-gold value stated in dollars was going up. Money was leaving the market and moving to gold at the time...but the market did not show it. In gold standard basis, the market peaked in 2000 and has been tanking since... That message is contained in this chart, but the real message is less obvious to interpret for those of of feeble mind...

BW

Please re-post or give me a link to the chart you have previously put up that expressed the Dow in terms of the price of gold...from the late '90s or so.

It looked like a great measure of the "real" valure of the Dow. And the what and the when of what period in time the precipitus real down draft in the US economy began...

Thx
A

Paintings Faces: Actually they show the misguided feelings of the painter who believes with his heart and mind that the Bush family et al are in deep pain for the little guys whos lives they are responsible for crushing...the forgotten man should be one of the unnamed Billion $/Year Wall Street hedge fund mgrs that is being brought out into the bright sunlight (remember, the best disenfectant)...then it would be about right...but that's just my belief.

Actually half...but you missed the point...or are you just trying to change the subject = phony need of rich guys tax breaks.

Just to help you get a grip, here are some of todays real college numbers.

I have a Freshman so I've seen first hand many of these numbers...you have to add at least $15K to each one of these to begin approaching the real cost...In California, add an additional $10K surcharge/year.


Here are the top 100 most expensive colleges by tuition for the 2009-2010 school year.

College Cost
1. Middlebury College $43,690
2. Connecticut College $42,335
3. Sarah Lawrence College $41,040
4. The George Washington University $41,610
5. Vassar College $41,335
6. Colgate University $40,690
7. Bucknell University $40,594
8. Skidmore College $40,420
9. Carnegie Mellon University $40,300
10. Union College (NY) $40,068
11. University of Richmond $40,010
12. St. John's College $39,992
13. Franklin & Marshall College $39,930
14. Wesleyan University $39,822
15. Kenyon College $39,810
16. Dickinson College $39,780
17. Oberlin College $39,686
18. Bowdoin College $39,605
19. Bates College $39,575
20. Wheaton College (MA) $39,565
21. Carleton College $39,546
22. St. Lawrence University $39,520
23. Reed College $39,440
24. Tufts University $39,432
25. Bard College at Simon's Rock $39,380
26. Hamilton College $39,370
27. Columbia University $39,296
28. Williams College $39,250
29. Johns Hopkins University $39,150
30. Hobart and William Smith College $39,144
31. Hampshire College $39,112
32. Bard College $39,080
32. Duke University $39,080
34. Mount Holyoke College $38,940
35. Trinity College (CT) $38,900
36. New York University $38,765
37. Haverford College $38,735
38. Bennington College $38,730
39. Gettysburg College $38,690
40. Dartmouth College $38,679
41. Georgetown University $38,616
42. University of Southern California $38,570
43. University of Chicago $38,550
44. Boston College $38,530
45. Ursinus College $38,500
46. Scripps College $38,486
47. University of Notre Dame $38,480
48. Harvey Mudd College $38,467
49. Colby College $38,370
50. Lehigh University $38,330
51. Stevens Institute of Technology $38,300
52. Claremont McKenna College $38,275
53. Amherst College $38,250
54. Villanova University $38,240
55. Wake Forest University $38,206
56. College of the Holy Cross $38,180
57. Macalester College $38,174
58. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute $38,100
59. Northwestern University $38,088
60. Brown University $38,048
61. Washington and Lee University $37,990
62. Occidental College $37,970
63. Cornell University $37,954
64. Boston University $37,910
65. University of Rochester $37,870
66. Wellesley College $37,826
67. Babson College $37,824
68. Washington University in St. Louis $37,800
69. Pepperdine University $37,730
70. Vanderbilt University $37,632
71. Brandeis University $37,566
72. Lafayette College $37,520
73. MIT $37,510
73. Smith College $37,510
73. Swarthmore College $37,510
76. Emory University $37,500
77. Stanford University $37,380
78. Drew University $37,310
79. Colorado College $37,278
80. Tulane University $37,200
81. Bryn Mawr College $37,120
82. Barnard College $37,052
83. Fairfield University $36,900
84. Worcester Polytechnic Institute $36,890
85. Muhlenberg College $36,730
86. Pomona College $36,710
87. Drexel University $36,700
88. Whitman College $36,620
89. Loyola University Maryland $36,510
90. Yale University $36,500
91. Grinnell College $36,476
92. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering $36,400
93. Furman University $36,296
94. Rollins College $36,220
95. Santa Clara University $36,000
96. Case Western Reserve University $35,900
97. University of San Diego $35,870
98. Pitzer College $35,840
99. Fordham University $35,825
100. Chapman University $35,790

As of Nov. '09...any updates?


And now this little list for all of those who feel as if Obama has not done anything since entering office, ENJOY!

The Accomplishments of President Obama .. It's More Than You Would Think


As of Nov 25, 2009

1.Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make recommendations for ways to cut spending
2. Ordered a review of all federal operations to identify and cut wasteful spending and practices
3. Instituted enforcements for equal pay for women
4. Beginning the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq
5. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover A.F.B.
6. Ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information
7. Ended media blackout on covering the return of fallen soldiers to Dover A.F.B.; the media is now permitted to do so pending adherence to respectful rules and approval of fallen soldier's family
8. The White House and federal government are respecting the Freedom of Information Act
9. Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible
10. Limits on lobbyist's access to the White House
11. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration
12. Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date
13. Phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren't even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan
14. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research
15. Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research
16. New federal funding for science and research labs
17. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards
18. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect
19. Funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools
20. New funds for school construction
21. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is being phased out
22. US Auto industry rescue plan
23. Housing rescue plan
24. $789 billion economic stimulus plan
25. The public can meet with federal housing insurers to refinance (the new plan can be completed in one day) a mortgage if they are having trouble paying
26. US financial and banking rescue plan
27. The secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are being closed
28. Ended the previous policy; the US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards
29. Better body armor is now being provided to our troops
30.The missile defense program is being cut by $1.4 billion in 2010
31. Restarted the nuclear non-proliferation talks and building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols
32. Re-engaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic
33. Re-engaged in the agreements/talks on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions
34. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office
35. Successful release of US captain held by Somali pirates; authorized the SEALS to do their job
36. US Navy increasing patrols off Somali coast
37. Attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles
38. Cash for clunkers program offers vouchers to trade in fuel inefficient, polluting old cars for new cars; stimulated auto sales
39. Announced plans to purchase fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government
40. Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children
41. Signed national service legislation; expanded national youth service program
42. Instituted a new policy on Cuba , allowing Cuban families to return home to visit loved ones
43. Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions
44. Expanding vaccination programs
45. Immediate and efficient response to the floods in North Dakota and other natural disasters
46. Closed offshore tax safe havens
47. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals
48. Ended the previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back
49. Ended the previous practice of protecting credit card companies; in place of it are new consumer protections from credit card industry's predatory practices
50. Energy producing plants must begin preparing to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources
51. Lower drug costs for seniors
52. Ended the previous practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs; the federal government is now realizing hundreds of millions in savings
53. Increasing pay and benefits for military personnel
54. Improved housing for military personnel
55. Initiating a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses
56. Improved conditions at Walter Reed Military Hospital and other military hospitals
57. Increasing student loans
58. Increasing opportunities in AmeriCorps program
59. Sent envoys to Middle East and other parts of the world that had been neglected for years; re-engaging in multilateral and bilateral talks and diplomacy
60. Established a new cyber security office
61. Beginning the process of reforming and restructuring the military 20 years after the Cold War to a more modern fighting force; this includes new procurement policies, increasing size of military, new technology and cyber units and operations, etc.
62. Ended previous policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts
63. Ordered a review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness
64. Established a National Performance Officer charged with saving the federal government money and making federal operations more efficient
65. Students struggling to make college loan payments can have their loans refinanced
66. Improving benefits for veterans
67. Many more press conferences and town halls and much more media access than previous administration
68. Instituted a new focus on mortgage fraud
69. The FDA is now regulating tobacco
70. Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules
71. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations, and reports
72. Authorized discussions with North Korea and private mission by Pres. Bill Clinton to secure the release of two Americans held in prisons
73. Authorized discussions with Myanmar and mission by Sen. Jim Web to secure the release of an American held captive
74. Making more loans available to small businesses
75. Established independent commission to make recommendations on slowing the costs of Medicare
76. Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court
77. Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans
78. Limited salaries of senior White House aides; cut to $100,000
79. Renewed loan guarantees for Israel
80. Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan
81. Deployed additional troops to Afghanistan
82. New Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing and prioritizes aid, development of infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices by Afghans
83. Announced the long-term development of a national energy grid with renewable sources and cleaner, efficient energy production
84. Returned money authorized for refurbishment of White House offices and private living quarters
85. Paid for redecoration of White House living quarters out of his own pocket
86. Held first Seder in White House
87. Attempting to reform the nation's healthcare system which is the most expensive in the world yet leaves almost 50 million without health insurance and millions more under insured
88. Has put the ball in play for comprehensive immigration reform
89. Has announced his intention to push for energy reform
90. Has announced his intention to push for education reform

Oh, and he built a swing set for the girls outside the Oval Office!

Robert P. Watson, Ph.D.Coordinator of American Studies
Lynn University
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1314286

I agree...Absolutely on tax hikes for those who as a result might need to settle for 14 carot gold for their bathroom fixtures vs. 24 carot...

The biggest hoax played on the low information voting public is that there is some sort of positive result magic about squeezing the life out of the "middle" (read: consumers)... while redistributing obnoxious amounts of cash to the very richest 1-3%. 20 hedge fund mgrs earning in excess of 1 Billion income last year...each. They can withstand a few % points without much pain. A billion $s buys 20,000 teachers...do the math. A question I don't hear asked is, "where did the billion $ come from and who is out the billions for the year?" (you and me?)

Even the falacy of "small business" being injured by the expiration of the current nationally suicidal tax structure is finally being exposed...billionaire business owners who qualify by definition as "small business"...the Koch brothers, Bechtel, Pro sport franchise owners, PriceWaterhouseCoopers... and etc. Small because of how many owners, not small because of revenue...often 100's of millions to billions. Even Sen. Boehner admits (w/out being challenged to explain) that 50% of the gross small business income today goes to the top 3% of "small business" owners (watch the interview clip contained below).

Watch this report to be informed about the real small business story...it is not what the public is led to believe:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#39316659

Albert Einstein once said, and I'm paraphasing here...

"I don't know how or when WW3 will be fought, but I can tell you with some certainty that WW4 will fought with sticks and stones..."

"Folly..." should tell you all you need to know /e

OT? The real Tea Party benefactors (shhhh - don't tell anyone):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/opinion/21tue1.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp

The Brothers Koch (Pronounced "Coke") and AB 32Published: September 20, 2010

Four years ago, bipartisan majorities in the California Legislature approved a landmark clean energy bill that many hoped would serve as a template for a national effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil and mitigate the threat of climate change.

Now a well-financed coalition of right-wing ideologues, out-of-state oil and gas companies and climate-change skeptics is seeking to effectively kill that law with an initiative on the November state ballot. The money men include Charles and David Koch, the Kansas oil and gas billionaires who have played a prominent role in financing the Tea Party movement.

The 2006 law, known as AB 32, is aimed at reducing California’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent at midcentury. To reach these targets, state agencies are drawing up regulations that would affect businesses and consumers across the board — requiring even cleaner cars, more energy-efficient buildings and appliances, and power plants that use alternative energy sources like wind instead of older fossil fuels.

The prospect that these rules could reduce gasoline consumption strikes terror into some energy companies. A large chunk of the $8.2 million raised in support of the ballot proposition has come from just two Texas-based oil and gas companies, Valero and Tesoro, which have extensive operations in California. The Koch brothers have contributed about $1 million, partly because they worry about damage to the bottom line at Koch Industries, and also because they believe that climate change is a left-wing hoax.

They have argued that the law will lead to higher energy costs and job losses, arguments that resonate with many voters in a state with a 12.4 percent unemployment rate. But this overlooks the enormous increase in investments in clean energy technologies — and the jobs associated with them — since the law was passed.

Overturning AB 32 would be another setback in the effort to fight climate change. The United States Senate has already scuttled President Obama’s goal of putting a price on carbon. The Environmental Protection Agency, while important, can only do so much. This leaves state and regional efforts as crucially important drivers — and if California pulls back, other states like New York that are trying to reduce emissions may do so as well.

The Kochs and their allies are disastrously wrong about the science, which shows that man-made emissions are largely responsible for global warming, and wrong about the economics. AB 32’s many friends — led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California — have therefore mounted a spirited counterattack in defense of the law. Another respected Republican, George Shultz — a cabinet member in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations — has signed on as a co-chairman of this effort. Mr. Shultz credits AB 32 for an unprecedented “outburst” of technological creativity and investment.

Who wins if this law is repudiated? The Koch brothers, maybe, but the biggest winners will be the Chinese, who are already moving briskly ahead in the clean technology race. And the losers? The people of California, surely. But the biggest loser will be the planet.

"While the rate remained at 9.6% for the country as a whole"

9.6% remaining 9.6% does not equal "crashing down..." by my math.

The irony in my region is that the biggest company benefactors of the stimulus, etc. moneys are major construction and highway project companies long haters of the Democratic party but happy to take tens of millions in taxpayer money to keep working, stay in business and keep their employees gainfully busy during this hard time for some...(remembering that there are, based on the above number, 90.4% still employed...). Getting a parking place at the mall or a good sporting event ticket is still not easy no matter what the doomsday talking heads tell you.

except of course that "it" did not come crashing down...sorry.

...to the point that the some of the loudest nay-sayers in congress are now trying to get on the band wagon to take credit for facilities still open or reopening...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#39279876

I paid $0.30/gal for diesel during the 1972 oil/gas crisis...bought from our local heating fuel co. @ their own vehicle fueling pumps...and no line.

OT: Dummies

Having travelled recently to "rural" america...it is tragic how many screens in hotel/motels are pinned on Fixed News...and how many folks swallow their "message" whole and without question. Interesting cleavage though...

PBS it is not.

OT: Kool...a President who actually has been there...Ollie North can't hold a candle to this bio...(if true...). Why hasn't the "right" siezed on this and embraced Obama as one of their own?

Someone always knows in advance...the charts will send the signal...

Closed up and back @ 200, 10 and Exp 10MA'S...indicators turning up

Northam43...this HS graduation speach might help on your journey...listen to parts 1 & 2...11 minutes out of your life that may add insight to the "other"....can't hurt.

U still don't get it...

would someone on the "right" help him out with tax liability re: net earnings v. retained earnings...and stock dividends.

check with your accountant about where you get cash to pay shareholders...by your accounting, all a company needs to do is grow dividends to offset net incomes to zero...bingo NO TAXES DUE!

SLICK.

Here's 44 cents...please deliver this envelope to New York, NY...thx

More than half of the country feels the same way

Probably the single biggest example of the sad state of education in the USA.

of the "50+1%"...I'd guess that 30% of those are the citizens that hate this President no matter what he does (a camp where you may be most comfortable), 15% are those who think he should have done nothing and let BP et al just go on making their $$ unencumbered by anything but store bought regulators and to heck with the gulf (the Grover Norquist pathology) and 15% who think he should have donned his superman wetsuit and gone down there and plugged this thing on his own.

And, what would you have had him do...?

He could have immediately nationalized the oil company(s), taken control of all offshore drilling/pumping and frozen BP's bank accounts...the opposite of what has happened so far...and which half of the country would have loved that? My guess is that you would have had to find a different part of your LMAO to laugh off.

BTW...1. I'm not your "pal"...and 2. You don't have to be in the majority to be on the right side of history....

Picassa...the reality in the Gulf is bad enough without this drivel...Jesus/God doesn't give a _________ (insert dissing language appropriate to your personal level of religeous sensibilities dejur) about vents/escalations or the NWO...

What is your agenda?

Wasn't clear in my comments...

I was using the example of rail v. overwater price/time points from US west coast to europe...using the land link.

Intracontinent rail traffic is still cheap/ton-mile and of course won't show in coastal port traffic but can very well be accountable for the increases in rail numbers w/in the US and N. America.

rail traffic as a cost per ton...

is very good vis-a-vis truck or air...

as is barge transport...

The load/unload costs are only a few pennies/pound so shippers and buyers doing the math on large loads ei...container size and larger get good transport value from the rails, barges and large ships.

Historically, it has been cheaper to ship container sized loads from the west coast USA to Europe first by rail to the East Coast USA then by ship to European ports...

Just a thought/comment from experience...

Housing Bubble Genesis: 5 Reasons that Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble and 5 Reasons that did.

Click Link at the bottom for graphs

Posted by mybudget360 in bailout, banks, california housing, economy, foreclosure, government, housing, monetary policy, psychology, real estate, wall street, world markets
2 Comment
..There is a danger in having power. Credit at least many decades ago was seen almost as an extension of the morality of the borrower. That is, the way credit was given many times reflected the capacity, collateral, and character of the borrower. Main Street is already feeling this recession like the worst since World War II and credit is tight for most average Americans just like it was back then. In this recent bubble, all 3 historical credit factors were disregarded. Capacity was never examined in many cases. Collateral? Not much collateral with zero down mortgages. And character was never evaluated. How can one expect unethical lenders to judge the character of a borrower? Their primary concern was getting a fee.

There is much blame to go around regarding the housing bubble. I am certain over the next few years we will hear much written as to why this bubble was caused and have historical studies examining this in detail. Losing $50 trillion in wealth in one year warrants a deeper analysis. Yet we are now hearing revisionist theories as to why this bubble was caused. Let us first look at 5 reasons that didn’t cause this housing bubble.

5 Reasons That Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble:

(1) Incomes Rising



*Click for larger image

The first theory regarding rising incomes can be easily put to rest. First, we can measure over the past 13 years purchasing power versus incomes. As you can see from the above chart, the purchasing power of someone from 1995 to 2006 tripled while incomes only went up 30 percent. Incomes did not triple. The median household didn’t start making $100,000, in fact the median income for a family in the U.S. in 2008 is $46,000. There is no merit to this argument. Incomes did rise but not to the point of justifying the prices we saw in the current housing market.

(2) Land Shortage



This was another argument that never held water. The notion that we were somehow running out of land. This argument was made in Japan during their real estate bubble and they actually had more ground to stand on with this argument since they are after all an island. Yet the U.S. has none of these limitations. In fact, take a look at the Southern California map above. This was one of the preposterous notions going around California during the epic bubble here in the state. All the circled areas for anyone who has flown or driven through the area, are places where theoretically homes could be built. Hey, if we can build a gambling paradise in the middle of the desert with Las Vegas, there is no reason for homes not to be placed here.

Yet the truth of this argument is people wanted to live in coastal regions. So the argument should have been rephrased to say land shortages in prime coastal regions. Well, that is always the case. Yet many areas that were never prime or even near the coast went through the roof.

Many studies have come out saying that we have a shortage of “affordable” housing, not mega priced bubble homes. The fact that California will see at least a 50% peak to trough drop in price should cement any notion that prices went up because of land shortages. Clearly, there is plenty of land.

(3) Poor People



For a few months, we had some absurd notion that poor people caused this global credit calamity. $50 trillion in global wealth evaporated because some people in the inner-cities of America bought too much good property. Show me a poor person buying a $10 million home in the Hamptons or Beverly Hills. By the way, many of those properties are now selling for millions off but I doubt someone making $46,000 a year is going to buy that up.

First, take a look at the above chart. The subprime problem, or loans made to those with poor credit or weak incomes was only a tiny portion of this global mess. In fact, most of the subprime problems have already washed out. They were the first to default since many of these people were marginal to begin with. They had no buffer to back them up from any economic calamity. Most of the subprime debt has already been written down by originators since the likelihood of collecting is very slim.

Yet this notion that somehow poor people through down payment programs or government encouragement caused this bubble is flat out condescending and points the blame on the wrong group. Where there many lower income people that bought homes that shouldn’t? Of course! But look at the above chart and you tell me that this was the reason for the housing bubble. It wasn’t. Most of that has already washed out of the system. Now we are seeing prime and Alt-A loans go bad. Why? Many hard working Americans, middle class Americans are losing their jobs. If you want to call someone that went from middle class to poor as causing this housing bubble then you are probably left with little evidence to justify your argument. The data simply does not back you up.
(4) New Paradigm

The fact that the bubble has now exploded is proof enough that this idea is wrong. There was and is no new paradigm with housing. Historically housing has always been a relatively boring investment. This housing bubble was sold on similar ideas of the 1920s Florida housing bubble which also included Charles Ponzi, the person who now is referenced when we talk about Mr. Madoff and his $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

The new paradigm was based on this notion that housing and finance have somehow through financial alchemy created a new way of looking at the world. Through risk management all problems were washed out of the system by creative financial tinkering. This of course is wrong and made no sense.

The bubble bursting is enough reason to put to rest this argument.

(5) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big government sponsored entities are still taking much of the blame for this housing bubble. In fact, these two entities came late to the toxic mortgage party. It is true that these 2 agencies have extreme problems yet they were egged on to get into the toxic mortgage party and fortunately, did not jump in head over heels. Most of the truly toxic stuff like option ARMs and subprime stayed out of the books of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In fact, the next big problems we will see will come from the option ARM front, something Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have nothing to do with. So blaming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for our problems is missing the point. The fact that many so-called cautious business people were encouraging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to step into the toxic mortgage lender vacuum was absurd but proves again how looking at them is barking up the wrong tree.

For the most part, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase relatively safe mortgages. Yet what is truly safe when we have a global calamity and market volatility not seen in over a century?

5 Reasons That Did Cause the Housing Bubble:

(1) Wall Street

Remember that chart above when we talked about poor people? Well that chart also includes many kinds of mortgage debt. If you add every area above you won’t come close to matching the credit default insurance market which was a pet project of Wall Street. Now take a look at this chart:



This market is huge, unregulated, and a financial bomb that has been going off. In fact, when Lehman Brothers collapsed one of the fears was the collateral it will cause with other folks making these bets. Where you making these bets? Do you think poor people were investing here? Do you think average Americans have any money here? Sure, we can argue that some top mutual fund investors placed the money of many Americans here but that was stupid to begin with. This market is an absolute mess and larger than any can imagine.

The fact that the credit default insurance market is twice as big as the U.S. stock market should tell you something.

Many times Wall Street made bets on non-existent things, derivatives (as in derived from phony make believe notions) and placed large amounts of money on these make believe securities. Since they needed some substance for this make believe, they had a never ending appetite for mortgage backed securities. That is, their hunger allowed lenders to make the most absurd loans and find a market for it. After all, if a lender needed to hold a mortgage on their books, do you think they would make it? Of course not.

Now, standards are back into place and we are seeing that Americans even with historically low interest rates still have a hard time buying homes in this current market. They were able to push prices higher because of the leverage we discussed earlier. It wasn’t income. It was the ability to get these loans. Yet Wall Street never exercised restraint or caution here. In fact, they put the world economy at risk here and now are complaining to our government for bailouts which include nice little paychecks for them. Shouldn’t we be throwing these people into jail like the criminals they truly are?

(2) Lenders willing to allow higher debt-to-income ratios



You need to remember that lenders did not operate in a vacuum here. Taking reason number 1 above, you can understand why lenders were so willing to make these toxic mortgages with no hesitation. In fact, if you look at the credit default insurance market, there is almost a perfect correlation between the growth in CDS and toxic mortgages. After all, the geniuses at Wall Street figured that you can take a toxic mortgage and with the right kind of insurance, insulate yourself off from any problems. This is like a fountain of youth argument. Life is full of risks. You can’t make a toxic loan turn into gold yet this is what they believed. They believed it because they made bets on this assumption.

Lenders of course not caring about collateral, capacity, or character were driven strictly by fees. That is why many once mighty lenders like IndyMac and WaMu are now gone in the ash heap of banks who believed their own hype.

So lenders followed the “well X should have known better” mantra meaning Wall Street should have done THEIR due diligence while they collected their absurd fees while doing zero due diligence. They were complicit just as much as Wall Street. But in raw numbers, they were merely puppets in the game of Wall Street if you look at the nominal values. Many smaller lenders are realizing you need big sums of money and political connections to receive bailouts. Many of the i-banks had this aside from Lehman Brothers.

So lenders were all the willing to make toxic loans and Wall Street was more than willing to oblige to purchase these loans to make more stupid side bets on loans that really never had any chance of ever being repaid.

(3) Falling interest rates encouraged by the Fed



Let us first say something. The Federal Reserve cares nothing about the U.S. Dollar. The U.S. Treasury doesn’t care if the U.S. Dollar carries the same value as toilet paper. As I’ve argued before, their policies in fact are hoping to destroy the U.S. Dollar.

Alan Greenspan once stated publicly how fantastic adjustable rate mortgages were and encouraged the use of these. Recently, he has been on a legacy tour yet thanks to the speed of the modern press his reputations is taking the much deserved hits it needs. He is an accomplice to this housing bubble. His record low rates and notion that adjustable rate mortgages were good demonstrate his responsibility in knowing that lower rates would thus fuel more borrowing. Remember that crazy leverage chart above? He was totally okay with this.

He took rates to record lows and thus created an environment that was still hungry for another bubble. He could have easily stopped any bubble from forming by taking rates a bit higher and making money harder to come by. We would have had a recession, maybe minor but now we are left with dealing with the worst recession since World War II.

Greenspan is gone and so is his reputation. Bernanke is now taking the ship and he is even less shy about destroying the U.S. dollar. The fact that rates are now at basically zero, shows how low he is willing to go. There is no bottom. In fact, now that we have reached bottom he is discussing more absurd notions of taking on more debt onto the books of the U.S. even though we already have $3 trillion of questionable assets on the books! By the way, Bloomberg and Fox are suing the Fed to release this data. After all, it is our money that is at risk.

The Fed is another party responsible for the housing bubble.

(4) Toxic mortgages



Toxic mortgages of course, were simply the weapon of choice of the above reasons. After all, you need an effective vector to gather and collect mortgages. Your army? Mortgage brokers and banks that have the ability far from Wall Street to find souls, any soul to sign their name on the dotted line to buy a home. The buyers have been primed by reality show drivel like Flip this House or napkin real estate analysis like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the ground was set for nearly 3 decades to create this epic housing bubble. The bank and lender foot soldiers were easy to gather. All they wanted was a quick hit like a junkie. They wanted a fee and that was it. That is why many of these people now find themselves out of work. Very few invested wisely and many are now left broke or getting foreclosed since they bought into their own delusional analysis.

Yet lenders were the street dealers. Wall Street was the head capo at command central dishing out the orders on toxic mortgages. As you can see from the above chart, what we have recently seen is the world markets have done a global intervention and the game is over. The supply is finished. Now we are left dealing with this.

(5) Greed

None of this could have happened without the last ingredient. Human greed. That is why we have placed strong regulations on Wall Street since the Great Depression. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 established the FDIC and also included banking reforms which were designed to control speculation. This was all repealed in 1999. The major item was the ability for banks being prohibited from owning other financial companies. Why do you think JP Morgan Chase was able to gobble up Bear Stearns? Or Bank of America’s ability to buy Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch? Is this really good? Having these mega entities?

Either way, the profit motive is what drew many people to buy homes for speculation. It is the reason Wall Street created a credit default market that now rivals global GDP! Greed was the main reason banks and lenders pumped toxic mortgages onto the street in place of more traditional and safer conventional mortgage products. To say we are all to blame is too simple of an explanation. Some are much more culpable than others here. That is how we assign blame in our country. We don’t expect someone that stole $10 from their mom to be punished the same way someone who stole $50 billion from others. Or is our analysis going to believe the simple minded notion that poor people looking for land created this housing bubble?

http://www.mybudget360.com/housing-bubble-genesis-5-reasons-that-didnt-cause-the-housing-bubble-and-5-reasons-that-did/

It is a tremendous mistake to think that the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will help convince Americans of Barack Obama's incompetence.

Totally true...

you have to be delusional to think that the current President is incompetent because of the BP disaster.

The incompetence lies squarely at the feet of Dick Cheney and W. The rest of the story is just the consequence. The southern states Governors have facilitated the mess by preaching no Gov't oversight in their neighborhoods...and now, since the chit hit the fan, they're screaming for Uncle to come and save their butts...hypocritical and disingenuous at a minimum.

As for the rest of your fantasy, there are meds out there that can help you get some clarity and relief.

KBR - Boots and Coots - Halliburton

Dick Cheney and Halliburton: A Chronology

“The good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratic regimes
friendly to the United States” - Richard Cheney1
1992
Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root is paid $9 million by the Pentagon (under Cheney’s
direction as Secretary of Defense) to produce a classified report detailing how private companies
(like itself) could provide logistical support for American troops in potential war zones around the
world. Shortly after this report, the Pentagon awards Brown & Root a five-year contract to
provide logistics for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The General Accounting Office estimates
that through this contract, Brown & Root makes overall $2.2 billion in revenue in the Balkans.2
1995
Without any previous business experience, Cheney leaves the Department of Defense to become
the CEO of Halliburton Co., one of the biggest oil-services companies in the world. He will be
chairman of the company from 1996 to October 1998 and from February to August 2000. Under
Cheney’s leadership, Halliburton moves up from 73rd to 18th on the Pentagon’s list of top
contractors. The company garners $2.3 billion in U.S. government contracts, which almost doubles
the $1.2 billion it earned from the government previously. Most of the contracts are granted by the
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.3 Halliburton’s overseas operations go from 51% to 68% of its
revenue.
According to the Center for Public Integrity,4 under Cheney’s leadership the company also
receives $1.5 billion worth of assistance from government-sponsored agencies such as OPIC
(Overseas Private Investment Corporation) and the Export-Import Bank, a huge increase compared
to the $100 million that the company had received in federal loans and guarantees in the five years
prior to Cheney’s arrival. Years later, during the 2000 campaign in a broadcasted vice presidential
candidates’debate with Joe Lieberman, Cheney asserts that “the government has absolutely
nothing to do” with his financial success as chairman of Halliburton Co.5
Halliburton pleads guilty to criminal charges of violating a U.S. ban on exports to Libya by selling
Col. Qaddafi six pulse neutron generators, devices that can be used to detonate nuclear weapons.6
Halliburton pays a $3.8 million penalty to settle alleged violations of the U.S. trade ban.7
1996
Halliburton subsidiary European Marine Contractors (EMC) helps lay the offshore portion of the
Yadana natural gas pipeline in Burma. Several human rights organizations allege that tremendous
human rights abuses are associated with the project, as thousands of villagers in Burma are forced
1 “Defending Liberty in a Global Economy”, speech at the CATO Institute, http://www.cato.org/speeches/spdc062398.
html, June 23, 1998
2 GAO report, http://www.gao.gov/archive/2000/ns00225.pdf, September 2002
3 Pratap Chatterjee, Dick Cheney: Soldier of Fortune, www.corpwatch.org, May 2, 2002
4 Knut Royce and Nathaniel Heller, Cheney Led Halliburton to Feast at Federal Trough, Center for Public Integrity,
August 2, 2000
5 see note 20 below
6 William Baue, Pay Dirt or Payola? How Halliburton Strikes it Rich, http://www.socialfunds.com, April 11, 2003
7 The Houston Chronicle, July 15, 1995
2
to work in support of the pipeline and related infrastructure. Many lose their homes due to forced
relocation, and there are reports of rape, torture and killings by soldiers hired by the companies as
security guards for the pipelines.8
1997
Cheney contributes to the creation of an influential right-wing policy group called the Project for
the New American Century (PNAC). The group advocates for the removal of Saddam Hussein’s
Iraqi regime as early as January 1998, and is later revealed to be the intellectual center of the drive
to war in Iraq.9
March: The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. government agency, helps
Halliburton by providing “political risk insurance” worth up to $200 million for the development
of natural gas in Bangladesh.10
Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root (now Kellogg, Brown & Root, KBR) launches a major
Caspian project for the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, despite congressional
sanctions against aid to Azerbaijan for human rights violations.11
Indonesia Corruption Watch names Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton’s engineering division) as
one of 59 companies using collusive, corrupt and nepotistic practices in business deals involving
former president Suharto’s family.12
Even with the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act in place, Halliburton continues to operate in Iran. It pays
the Department of Commerce $15,000 to settle allegations that the company has broken antiboycott
provisions of the U.S. Export Administration Act for an Iran-related transaction, without
admitting wrongdoing.13 Halliburton also continues to do business in Libya throughout Cheney’s
tenure.
The GAO (General Accounting Office), the auditing arm of Congress, reports that KBR has overbilled
the Army for costs associated with its work in Kosovo. It is revealed that the firm used more
workers and equipment than necessary to clean offices and provide electricity and backup power
supplies to bases, and charged nearly $86 per sheet for plywood that it bought for $14.06.14
Cheney appears in an Arthur Andersen promotional video praising the firm’s accounting practices,
saying: “I get good advice, if you will, from their people [Arthur Andersen], based upon how we
are doing business and how we are operating, over and above the normal, by-the-books auditing
arrangement”.15 KBR is later investigated by the SEC for accounting fraud – in a case similar to
the charges leveled against Anderson’s other client, Enron.
8 Earthrights International, http://www.earthrights.org/halliburton/hallintro.shtml
9 William Bunch, Invading Iraq not a new idea for Bush clique, Philadelphia Daily News, January 27, 2003
10 John Rega, Government Ties Helped Cheney and Halliburton Make Millions, in: Bloomberg News, October 6, 2000
and OPIC press release, http://www.opic.gov/pressreleases/archive/press97/press/press97/7-11.htm
11 ibid.
12 ibid.
13 Jason Leopold, Online Journal, http://www.onlinejournal.com, April 20, 2003
14 David Morris, Congress Daily, April 16, 2003 and GAO reports GAO/NSIAD-97-63 and GAONSIAD-00-225,
http://www.gao.gov
15 Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2002
3
1998
Cheney oversees Halliburton’s merger with Dresser Industries, one of the companies that helped
Saddam Hussein rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure after the First Gulf War, despite economic
sanctions against Iraq. Dresser also had faced major liability issues concerning asbestos.16
Halliburton uses two foreign subsidiaries to do $23 million worth of business with Iraq.17
1999
Halliburton’s KBR division is awarded a $180 million a year to supply U.S. forces in the Balkans
with logistical support.
The company is also working on major contracts to build oil infrastructure in Brazil and Nigeria
for companies like Chevron, Petrobras and Shell. It has a $200 million contract with Chevron and
its partners in the enclave of Cabina (Angola), where the company services over 330 wells in 30
fields, which provide eight percent of U.S. oil imports; the concession is the source of 80 percent
of the Angolan government’s revenue.18
2000
August: Cheney leaves his position as Halliburton’s CEO to run as Bush’s Vice President.
Halliburton announces that it is giving Cheney a retirement package worth more than $33.7
million.19 Under public pressure, Cheney sells company stock worth $30 million.
October 5: In a broadcasted debate with Joe Lieberman, Cheney asserts that “the government has
absolutely nothing to do” with his financial success as chairman of Halliburton Co. 20
Halliburton is by now the world’s largest diversified energy services, engineering, construction
and maintenance company, with some $15 billion in revenues annually, 100,000 employees, and
7,000 customers in over 120 countries.21
2001
KBR wins a $300-million exclusive contract to supply logistics to the Navy, providing services
like cooking, construction, power generation and fuel transportation.22
One of Cheney’s largest projects as Vice President is to coordinate the development of a new
National Energy Policy (NEPDG). According to the former climate policy adviser in the
Environmental Protection Agency, who was present at the task force’s sessions, Cheney
“continually pushed plans to increase […] oil supplies while paying little heed to promoting
energy efficiency and clean energy sources”.23 Casting as an inevitability that by 2020, the United
16 New-York Times, August 1, 2002
17 ibid.
18 Pratap Chatterjee, Dick Cheney: Soldier of Fortune, http://www.corpwatch.org, May 2, 2002
19 Robert Bryce, The Candidate from Brown and Root, in: The Texas Observer, October 6, 2000
20 Bloomberg News, October 6, 2000
21 Earthrights International, http://www.earthrights.org/halliburton/hallintro.shtml
22 Jeff Gerth, Van Natta Jr., In Tough Times a Company Finds Profits in Terror War, in: New York Times, August 13,
2002
23 Jeremy Symons, How Bush and Co. Obscure the Science, in: the Washington Post, July 13, 2003
4
States will need to import two-thirds of its oil, mainly from the Arabic peninsula, the NEPDG
recommends “that the President make energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy”.24
April: After having unsuccessfully requested information on recent secret meetings between the
Cheney-led National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) and executives of several
energy industry companies, Representatives John Dingell and Henry Waxman ask the GAO
(General Accounting Office) to request information about those meetings.
July: GAO Comptroller General Walker request records from Dick Cheney providing the names of
the attendees for each of the meetings.25
November: Kellogg, Brown & Root is paid $2 million to reinforce the United States embassy in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under contract with the State Department.26
December: Kellogg, Brown & Root secures a 10-year deal with the Pentagon with no cost ceiling
to provide support services to the Army.27 The contract is known as the Logistics Civil
Augmentation Program (LOGCAP). This contract is a “cost-plus-award-fee, indefinitedelivery/
indefinite-quantity service,” which means that the federal government has an open-ended
mandate and budget to send Kellogg, Brown and Root anywhere in the world to run humanitarian
or military operations for profit.28
2002
February: Kellogg, Brown & Root pays out $2 million to settle a lawsuit with the Justice
Department, which alleged that the company defrauded the government in the mid- 1990s by overbilling
expenses.29
February 27: The New York Times reveals the identity of some of the top executives from the oil
and gas industry that met with Cheney on Feb. 8, 2001.30 One of them is Robert J. Allison Jr., the
Chairman of Anadarko Petroleum, with which Halliburton has been doing business since 1959.
The Times also reports that Cheney’s wife Lynne had been a director and significant stockholder
of Union Pacific Resources, an energy company that had merged with Anadarko in 2000, and that
she received Anadarko stock worth $250,000 to $500,000 from the merger.
March: The press identifies the names of 22 oil and gas companies whose officials met in secret
with the NEPDG.31 Nineteen of these were among the top 25 energy industry financial contributors
24 U.S. Department of Energy, Report of the national Energy Policy Group, Chapter 8: “Strengthening Global
Alliances” http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy
25 David Walker, Letter to Vice President Cheney,
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs/pdf_inves/pdf_energy_cheney_chrono_july_18_gao.pdf, July 18, 2001
26 Pratap Chatterjee, The War on Terrorism’s Gravy Train, http://www.corpwatch.org, May 2, 2002
27 New-York Times, In Tough Times, a Company Finds Profits in War, July 13, 2002
28 Pratap Chatterjee, the War on Terrorism’s Gravy Train, http://www.corpwatch.org, May 2, 2002
29 Department of Defense, Criminal Investigative Service, Press Release, February 7, 2002
30 New-York Times, Oil Executives Lobbied on Drilling, Feb. 27, 2002
31 New-York Times, Top G.O.P. Donors in Energy Industry Met Cheney Panel, March 1, 2002; Energy Firms Were
Heard on Air Rules, March 2, 2002; and Oil Executives Lobbied on Drilling, Feb. 27, 2002
5
to the Republican Party. Among the nineteen were Enron, ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, Anadarko
Petroleum, Shell Oil, and Chevron.32
David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the GAO, as well as Judicial Watch, launch lawsuits
against Cheney because he refuses to turn over to Congress documents that reveal the identities of
industry executives involved in the National Energy Strategy.33 The GAO’s lawsuit will be
abandoned in February 2003, after Republican threats to cut the GAO’s $440 million budget.34 But
Judicial Watch’s legal efforts continue. (see below)
May 22: A New York Times article alleges that Halliburton artificially inflated its stock price
between June 1999 and May 2002 and counted cost overruns on construction projects as additional
revenue.35 Following these allegations, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) launches
an investigation into Halliburton’s accounting practices.36 The company’s then-accountant was
Arthur Andersen.37 Despite the ongoing investigation and previous revelations about cost overruns,
Halliburton continues to receive government contracts worth billions.
June: Brown and Root is awarded a $22 million deal to run support services at a military camp in
Uzbekistan. This is the first LOGCAP contract in the “war on terrorism”.38
July 15: Newsweek publishes the article, “Halliburton CEO Says Cheney Knew About Firm’s
Accounting Practices” revealing that Cheney was aware that the firm was counting projected costoverrun
payments as revenues.39
July 29: A New York Times article quotes Cheney about corporate fraud: “the American people
can be certain that the government will fully investigate and prosecute any wrongdoers”. Cheney
says the reform measure will “protect investors, bring more accountability to corporations and
toughen controls of the accounting industry”.40
July/August: It is revealed that while Vice President Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO, the number
of its subsidiary companies in offshore tax havens increased from 9 (in 1995) to 44 (in 1999). One
of these subsidiaries (Halliburton Products and Services Ltd.), incorporated in the Caiman Islands,
is used since 2000 to get around sanctions on doing business in Iran.41 At the same time,
Halliburton’s federal taxes dropped dramatically from $302 million in 1998 to an $85 million
rebate in 1999.42
32 Report of the Minority Staff of the Committee on Government Reform, http://www.house.gov/reform/min, March
22, 2002
33 New-York Times, Top G.O.P. Donors in Energy Industry Met Cheney Panel, March 1, 2002
34 Peter Brand and Alexander Bolton, GOP threats halted GAO Cheney Suit, in: The Hill, http://www.thehill.com,
February 19, 2003. For more information on this case, see the Natural Resources Defense Council’s website,
http://www.nrdc.org, and Judicial Watch (http://www.judicialwatch.org)
35 New-York Times, Under Cheney, Halliburton Altered Policy on Accounting, May 22, 2002
36 New-York Times, Cheney Promises Corporate Crackdown, July 29, 2002
37 William Baue, Pay dirt or Payola? How Halliburton Strikes it Rich, http://www.socialfunds.com, April 11, 2003
38 Pratap Chatterjee, Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War, http://www.corpwatch.org, March 20, 2003
39 Newsweek, Halliburton CEO Says Cheney Knew About Firm’s Accounting Practices, July 15, 2002
40 New-York Times, op.cit., July 29, 2002
41 Erwin Seba, Reuters, March 20, 2003
42 Arianna Huffington, Holding Dick Cheney ‘Accountable’ http://www.Alternet.org,, August 5, 2002
6
Despite these revelations, the company continues to be awarded massive government contracts,
including a new 10-year deal with the Army with no lid on potential costs. In the year 2002 alone,
Brown & Root received $1.3 billion for services to the U.S. government.43 These services include
a $115 million contract to design and construct an embassy compound in Afghanistan; $37.3
million to build 816 detention cells at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and $2 million to reinforce the U.S.
embassy in Uzbekistan.44
As the press and Democratic Party leaders increasingly focus on Cheney’s role in alleged
accounting violations at Halliburton,45 the Bush administration turns the nation’s attention to Iraq.
August 26: Cheney delivers a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nashville, warning that
“seated atop of ten percent of the world’s oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to
seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world’s energy
supplies, […] and subject the United States to nuclear blackmail.”46
October: A Washington Post article describes Cheney as the “fulcrum of foreign policy”, and that
his influence for a pro-war policy comes to the fore on the eve of a possible conflict with Iraq.47
Cheney’s wife Lynne is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a “right-wing thinktank
exercising significant influence in Washington circles”48 which is one of the leading architects
of the Bush administration’s foreign policy and one of the leading voices pushing the Bush
administration’s plan for “regime change” through war in Iraq.49 The AEI has received funding
from the Bechtel Foundation and ExxonMobil.50
November: Brown & Root begins a one-year contract, estimated at $42.5 million, to cover services
for troops at bases in Bagram and Kandahar, Afghanistan.51
2003
January: The Wall Street Journal reports that Halliburton officials met informally with
representatives of Vice President Cheney’s office back in October to figure out how best to jumpstart
Iraq’s oil industry following a war.52
March: Congressman Henry Waxman launches an inquiry into the fact that the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers has secretly awarded a no-bid contract to KBR to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq. The
contract has a huge cost ceiling of $7 billion, with additional fees of up to seven percent ($490
million). The mission and the contract have been “awarded without any competition or even notice
43 CBS News, Halliburton: All In The Family, April 27, 2003
44 Keith Ashdown, Halliburton’s Road to Riches, http://www.taxpayer.net, May 8, 2003
45 Among others: Wall Street Journal July 11th, 17th and August 8th, Houston Chronicle July 10th, 12th and 29th,
Washington Post July 18th, New-York Times July 20th, 29th and August 1st, San Francisco Chronicle August 4th,
Boston Globe August 8th
46 Cheney’s speech, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020826.html
47 The Washington Post, October 13, 2002
48 Media Transparency, http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipients/aei.htm
49 Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org
50 Media Transparency, http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipients/aei.htm
51 Pratap Chatterjee, Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War, http://www.corpwatch.org, March 20, 2003
52 Thaddeus Herrick, U.S. Wants to Work in Iraq, in: Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2003
7
to Congress, [… and] were entered into on March 8, but not disclosed publicly until March 24”.53
This contract is open-ended. It is also a “cost-plus” contract, i.e. the company is guaranteed to
recover costs plus an additional percentage of those costs as its profit.
It is later revealed that the contract not only includes fighting fires, but also operating the oil fields.
The administration replies to Waxman’s questions on the lack of competition: “To invite other
contractors to compete to perform a highly classified requirement […] would have been a wasteful
duplication of effort. […] Only Kellogg Brown & Root Services […] could commence
implementing the plan on extremely short notice” and “No other contractor could satisfy mission
requirements in the time available”.54 However, CBS reports that other qualified companies had
attempted to bid on the contracts, but were shut out of the process. Bob Grace, president of GSM
Consulting, after having contacted the Pentagon to inquire about the contracts, received a letter
from the Department of Defense dated December 30, 2002 saying that it was “too early to
speculate what might happen in the event that war breaks out in the region”.55 This was “more than
a month after the Army Corps of Engineers began talking to Halliburton about putting out oil well
fires in Iraq”,56 and in fact one month after the Secretary of Defense had granted such a contract to
Halliburton.57 Furthermore, KBR did not actually put the fires out itself, but subcontracted the job
to other companies: Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc., and Wild Well Control Inc.58
Thousands of employees of Halliburton are working alongside U.S. troops in Kuwait and Turkey
under a package deal worth close to a billion dollars. KBR is also supporting operations in
Afghanistan, Djibouti, Georgia, Jordan and Uzbekistan. The overall anticipated cost of task orders
awarded since the contract award in December 2001 (LOGCAP) is approximately $830 million.59
May 8: Halliburton admits having paid 2.4 millions of dollars in bribes to a Nigerian official in
return for tax breaks.60
May 30: Twenty shareholder class-action lawsuits accusing Halliburton of using deceptive
accounting practices while Dick Cheney led the company are settled for 6 million dollars.
Halliburton doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing.61
July 8: Following Judicial Watch’s attempt to force the White House to disclose the names of
nongovernmental officials who were consulted by the task force in 2001, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirms a lower court judge’s order and thereby rejects
Cheney’s bid to keep all the workings of the Energy Task Force secret.62
Agnes Christeler, Citizen Works?
53 Rep. Henry Waxman, letter to Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers,
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_admin/admin_contracts.htm, March 26, 2003
54 ibid.
55 CBS News, Halliburton: All In The Family, April 27, 2003
56 ibid.
57 On November 15, 2002 the Office of the Secretary of Defense awarded a classified Iraqi oil Field Plan work order to
Halliburton, worth $1.8 million. (Work Order number T.O. 0031)
58 Los Angeles Times, After The War: Getting Iraq’s Oil Pumping Again, April 22, 2003
59 Pratap Chatterjee, Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War, http://www.corpwatch.org, March 20, 2003
60 Oliver Burkeman, Cheney firm paid millions in bribes to Nigerian official, in: The Guardian, May 9, 2003
61 Associated Press, May 31, 2003
62 Henri E. Cauvin, Cheney Loses ruling on Energy Panel Records, in: The Washington Post, July 9, 2003

A bit dated, but relevant...I support the right of workers to unionize if it is warranted...I also support the right of a business to match or exceed union wages and benefits as it sees fit...the right wing fantasy untruth of $71/hr wages for union works still lingers in the air so the bright light of day is the best medicine to aid us all in a valid fact based opinion...

Toyota Powers Ahead at Kentucky Plant
by Frank Langfitt

December 20, 2005
Frank Langfitt, NPR.
Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman who started at Toyota in 1990. He once thought unions weren't necessary. Now he'd like to see one at his Kentucky plant.
While General Motors and Ford are preparing to slash jobs and close plants, foreign carmakers like Toyota continue to build new facilities in the South.

Targeting rural areas, companies from Honda to Hyundai have tapped an eager labor force in a region where it's easier to keep costs down.

More GM vs. Toyota comparisons
Toyota — now nipping at the heels of the world's largest auto company, GM — built one of its first U.S. plants in Kentucky, where it started producing cars in 1988.

More Coverage
Shrinking GM Means Pain for Factory Families

Dec. 19, 2005
Renee Brown works assembling the Camry — the nation's best-selling car. She puts in seat belts and cup holders at Toyota's plant in Kentucky horse country.

Brown grew up in Beattyville, a tiny, struggling town in the state's Appalachian coalfields. The town doesn't have many good jobs today.

Brown previously worked as an assistant manager at Dairy Queen, where she made $20,000 annually. Six years ago, she got a job at Toyota.

Now, Brown makes $70,000 a year — more than twice the average manufacturing wage in the area.

The United Auto Workers have tried to crack the Toyota plant since before it opened. Last spring, they opened their own organizing office just down the road.

But Brown says that Toyota's wages are so close to the union's, she doesn't see the advantage.

That workers like Brown aren't interested in unions is no accident. Manufacturers like Toyota locate their plants in regions hungry for jobs with good salaries. It's the result of a strategy foreign car companies have used for years to avoid unionization.
Gary Chaison, who teaches industrial relations at Clark University in Masachussetts, says Toyota and its peers also try to treat workers well, take their opinions into account and give them a stake in the plant's success.

Despite the wages, some Toyota workers say they need a union. They complain the company drives them so hard that people get injured, and when they can't work anymore, Toyota pays them off to leave

Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman and makes up to $85,000 per year. When he came to Toyota in 1990, he didn't see why he needed a union. But after years of service in which he says he has seen people injured and forced out of their jobs, he now believes the plant should unionize.
The plant employs 7,000 people and is slated to build 340,000 Camry's this year. Next year, it will produce the new Camry hybrid, a point of pride among all employees.

Pete Gritton oversees human resources at the plant. He says attrition among workers is below 3 percent. He estimates about 15 workers leave because of injuries each year.

Gritton says the company tries to find them other jobs, but can't always make a match.

If organizing workers was tough before, Habermehl says it's even harder now with the UAW under seige. Ford and GM are looking to cut tens of thousands of jobs. Delphi, the world's largest auto parts maker, only recently backed off demands for union wage cuts of more than 50 percent.

Habermehl says future wages at Toyota depend on the UAW, whether plant employees realize it or not. When wages rise at the Big Three, they're also likely to rise at Toyota. And when they fall in Detroit's plants, Toyota could reduce them as well.
Habermehl isn't optimistic about unionizing Toyota. Once an activist, he doesn't spend as much time around the organizing office these days. He says the UAW is so distracted by the U.S. automakers, it probably won't be able to make a serious run at Toyota.

dickmilde you are pathetically transparent...