[quote=sdduuuude][quote=partypup][quote=TheBreeze][quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
Of course, Breeze won’t read the article. It contains all those pesky facts. They do so get in the way of good polemics and propaganda.[/quote]
The facts are that Obama gave a 20-minute economic speech today and the market went up 600 points. The guy is a market maestro and he plays it like a fiddle. TGO the market maestro. It has quite a ring to it, don’t you think?
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I love how TGO the market maestro is forging his economic team with the execs who brought us the financial meltdown. LOL! Yes, this is definitely CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
This is a SNL skit waiting to happen. Just wait 18 months, Breeze. and keep plenty of liquor on hand. I have a feeling you are going to need it.
“Obama’s Bailout Bunch Brings Us More of the Same: Jonathan Weil”
“Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — It’s hard to believe Barack Obama would even think of calling this change.
Take a good look at some of the 17 people our nation’s president-elect chose last week for his Transition Economic Advisory Board. And then try saying with a straight face that these are the leaders who should be advising him on how to navigate through the worst financial crisis in modern history.
First, there’s former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Not only was he chairman of Citigroup Inc.’s executive committee when the bank pushed bogus analyst research, helped Enron Corp. cook its books, and got caught baking its own. He was a director from 2000 to 2006 at Ford Motor Co., which also committed accounting fouls and now is begging Uncle Sam for Citigroup- style bailout cash.
Two other Citigroup directors received spots on the Obama board: Xerox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy and Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons. Xerox and Time Warner got pinched years ago by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting frauds that occurred while Mulcahy and Parsons held lesser executive posts at their respective companies.
Mulcahy and Parsons also once were directors at Fannie Mae when that company was breaking accounting rules. So was another member of Obama’s new economic board, former Commerce Secretary William Daley. He’s now a member of the executive committee at JPMorgan Chase & Co., which, like Citigroup, is among the nine large banks that just got $125 billion of Treasury’s bailout budget.
There’s More
Obama’s economic crew might as well be called the Bailout Bunch. Another slot went to former White House economic adviser Laura Tyson. She’s been a director for about a decade at Morgan Stanley, which in 2004 got slapped for accounting violations by the SEC and a month ago got $10 billion from Treasury.
That’s not all. There’s Penny Pritzker, the Obama campaign’s national finance chairwoman. She was on the board of the holding company for subprime lender Superior Bank FSB. The Chicago-area thrift, in which her family held a 50 percent stake, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2001. The thrift’s owners agreed to pay the government $460 million over 15 years to help cover the FDIC’s losses.
Even some of the brighter lights on Obama’s board, like Warren Buffett and former SEC Chairman William Donaldson, come with asterisks. Buffett was on the audit committee of Coca-Cola Co.’s board when the SEC found the soft-drink maker had misled investors about its earnings. Donaldson was on the audit committee from 1998 to 2001 at a provider of free e-mail services called Mail.com Inc. Just before he left the SEC, in 2005, the agency disciplined the company over accounting violations that had occurred on his watch.
Telling Stories
So, by my tally, almost half the people on Obama’s economic advisory board have held fiduciary positions at companies that, to one degree or another, either fried their financial statements, helped send the world into an economic tailspin, or both. Do you think any of that came up in the vetting?
Let’s say we give Buffett a pass — smart move he made, skipping the group photo-op last week in Chicago. What about the rest of them? Donaldson, for one, was chairman when the SEC voted in 2004 to let the big Wall Street banks, including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos., lever up their balance sheets like drunks. Talk about blowing it.
And whom did Obama tap for White House chief of staff? Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman who was a director at Freddie Mac in 2000 and 2001 while it was committing accounting fraud.
Ideally, this job would go to someone who can’t be easily fooled. Think about it: Of all the people Obama could have chosen as his chief of staff, couldn’t he have found someone who wasn’t once on the board of Freddie Mac?
Renewed Confidence
The president-elect needs some new advisers — fast. We are in a crisis of confidence in American capitalism. These aren’t the right people to re-instill its sense of honor.
Many of them should be getting subpoenas as material witnesses right about now, not places in Obama’s inner circle. Did Obama learn nothing from the ill-fated choice of James Johnson, the former Fannie Mae boss, to lead his vice- presidential search committee?
Does he think people like Robert Rubin or Richard Parsons will offer any helpful advice on how to stop crooked bankers or sleep-walking directors from sinking our economy? Or that they won’t mistake the nation’s needs for their own corporate interests? Or that the people who helped get us into our long financial nightmare have any clue how to get us out?
Obama has created hope that our nation can stand for all that is good in the world again. It’s not too late to change course.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)—After heading out on the road for more than a month, the New Orleans Saints were unstoppable at home.
The Saints spent 43 days away from the Louisiana Superdome for a trip to London, a bye and three road games, then returned to New Orleans and put on one of the more memorable performances in franchise history.
Drew Brees threw for four scores, Deuce McAllister set a Saints record with his 54th career touchdown and New Orleans rolled to a 51-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.
“I mean, 40-something days on the road. It was great to get back in the dome,” Brees said. “You look at this game, so many things. Deuce getting the record, us just really feeling like we had our stride going the whole game.
“We’re kind of in the middle of pack, just like a lot of other teams,” Brees continued. “This is the time where a few of those teams start to separate themselves and we want to be one of those teams.”
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Brees dismantled a Packers secondary that came in ranked third in the NFL with 176.3 yards passing allowed per game. He was 20-of-26 for 323 yards as New Orleans tied a club record for points scored and touchdowns (seven) in a game. Two of Brees’ touchdowns went to Lance Moore, one for 70 yards.
“It’s a dream come true playing with him,” said Moore, who had 115 yards. “All we have to do is run our routes. We don’t have to worry about doing anything extraordinary.”
Brees remained on pace to break Dan Marino’s 1984 record of 5,084 yards passing in a season. He has 3,574 yards with five games remaining. He also has the Saints (6-5) feeling better about their hopes of rallying for a playoff spot now that they’ve won two games in a row for the first time all season.
“There’s an old saying, ‘10 and you’re in,”’ Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. “We’ve got to find a way to get to 10 wins and get into the playoffs.”
The Packers (5-6) dropped a game behind Minnesota and Chicago in the race for first in the NFC North.
“We didn’t slow them down at all tonight,” Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. “Give credit to the Saints and the play of their quarterback. He was on fire coming into the game and we didn’t cool him off any.”
Aaron Rodgers’ attempt to keep up with Brees’ torrid passing resulted in three interceptions, two by Jason David and one by Kevin Kaesviharn. David returned his first pick to the 3, setting up McAllister’s scoring run, which broke Dalton Hilliard’s club record set in 1993.
The sellout crowd erupted after McAllister’s score. The Saints’ career rushing leader kept the ball as he trotted to the sideline, where he was hugged by Payton.
“I didn’t want it to be anything out of the context of the game because I respect the game so much,” McAllister said. “I wanted it to come in the natural flow.”
It might have been McAllister’s final game in the Superdome this season. He has appealed a four-game suspension levied after he tested positive for a diuretic banned by the NFL because it could be used as a masking agent for steroids. It is not clear when the league will rule on McAllister’s case.
Rodgers was 23-of-41 for 248 yards and touchdown passes of 7 yards to Greg Jennings and 4 yards to Ruvell Martin. Rodgers also ran for a 10-yard score. Ryan Grant rushed for 64 yards in the first half, but the Packers were forced to throw more as their deficit grew and Grant finished with only 67 yards.
New Orleans Saints running bac…
AP – Nov 25, 12:46 am EST
“After the first half we knew we had to throw,” Rodgers said. “We tried to answer but we didn’t. We let this one get away from us.”
Leading 24-21 at the half, the Saints began to seize control with a long touchdown drive that ended with Brees’ 16-yard strike to tight end Billy Miller. McAllister then went in from the 3 and Brees hit Marques Colston in stride down the sideline for his second 70-yard TD pass of the game. It was Colston’s first score of the season after battling back from a thumb injury on opening day.
Pierre Thomas rushed for 87 yards and two touchdown runs, a 4-yarder in the first half and a 31-yard scamper in the fourth quarter that gave New Orleans a 51-29 lead. The Saints had scored 51 points twice before in their four-decade history and easily could have reached 52 if Payton had elected to kick the extra point. However, Payton called for a 2-point conversion that failed in an attempt to go up by 24 points.
The Packers scored first on a 1-yard touchdown leap by fullback John Kuhn. It was the first rushing touchdown for Kuhn in his three-year career and only his eighth carry.
But that would be Green Bay’s last lead. Moore’s 70-yard score came on the Saints’ next play, and New Orleans took the lead on Thomas’ first TD run. Green Bay tied it at 14 and again at 21 before New Orleans took the lead for good shortly before halftime on Garrett Hartley’s 30-yard field goal, set up by Courtney Roby’s 62-yard kickoff return.
Notes
Jeremy Shockey had one of his better games for the Saints with five catches for 57 yards. … Moore has a touchdown catch in four straight games. … Green Bay had won 10 of its last 15 road games coming in. … Reggie Bush was a scratch, missing his fourth game. The Saints are 3-1 without him.
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LISBON, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Barcelona have the chance to secure top spot in Champions League Group C and prove they are not dependent on striker Lionel Messi to win matches when they visit Sporting on Wednesday.
Barca’s nine-match winning streak in the Primera Liga came to an end with a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe on Sunday, as Pep Guardiola’s outfit struggled to open up their well-organised opponents.
Argentine Messi, who has four goals to his name in the group stage this season, was left in the stands as a precautionary measure after picking up a thigh strain last week, and although he was included for the trip to Portugal, remains a doubt. “Lionel is a very important part of the team and there is no doubt he is missed when he doesn’t play,” goalkeeper Victor Valdes told a news conference on Monday.
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“But we can’t always be waiting for, or dependent, on one individual. Every player has qualities to offer to the group as a whole.”
Teenage striker Bojan Krkic played wide on the right against Getafe but struggled to make much of an impression and was seen to be in tears on the bench after he was substituted in the second half.
He could start in Lisbon along with Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry up front. Midfielder Andres Iniesta and full back Eric Abidal are out injured.
Captain Carles Puyol and midfielder Yaya Toure have been rested from the squad suffering with minor complaints.
Barca beat Sporting 3-1 at the Nou Camp in September and are unbeaten over their four games, though they slipped up with a 1-1 draw at home to FC Basel last time out.
Both Barca and Sporting have already qualified for the knockout stage with the Catalans holding a one-point advantage over Sporting, who have progressed to the last 16 for the first time.
Sporting coach Paulo Bento is set to rest a number of players after an energy-sapping 1-0 league win over Naval on Saturday, a match in which the Lisbon team played with only nine men for the last 23 minutes.
“The aim in the League (Champions) is reached. We’ll fight for the first place in the group, but with other factors to be taken into account, most of all the attrition (in Naval’s match) to which the team was subjected, that may weigh on my options for managing the squad,” Bento told reporters.
Sporting will be without right-back Abel, central defender Tonel and Brazilian midfielder Fabio Rochemback due to injuries, while defenders Marco Caneira, Pedro Silva and Grimi are doubtful.
