March 30, 2007

Several topics of interest. Let’s discuss the recent rash of outbreaks in the food chain. Mad Cow disease, Ecoli outbreaks in fresh spinach, Ecoli at east coast Taco Bells’s and an Olive Garden in the Midwest and finally, the great Pet Food die off. First off, there is Mad Cow in the United States. The Department of Agriculture is well aware of it. The Secretary issued dozens of calming statements when they found one cow in the States, did her best and then quit to work for, of all things, the meatpacking industry. Typical of the Bush people. Some wealthy contributor’s factory dumping cyanide into the local water supply? Never mentioned in the media. The spinach and other Ecoli episodes? Massive cover-ups. The pet food? Again, the same thing. Tests by a very reputable lab showed rat poison but this was quickly played down by the government and rat poison was replaced with a harmless plastic additive that wouldn’t kill anything unless a 50 gallon drum of it fell off a shelf and onto a passing cat. Many millions of cans of food had to be recalled and many, many lawsuits are pending. Business is affronted so the Bush people issue calming statements and the press is instructed to pay more attention to the passing of Anna Nicole Smith or the Lost Girl from Aruba. There is a report floating around here that says that the episodes were deliberately caused and the suspects are illegal immigrants employed in the restaurant, farming and pet food canneries. Why? The recent statements on the part of ultra-right Republicans about rounding up all illegals and shipping them out of the country and the raids on companies hiring these people which leave children in day care centers and schools while their frantic parents are on a plane back to Guatemala.

Another interesting topic is the obvious forthcoming total collapse of the Bush administration, due entirely to the personality of the president. Bush is not the brightest bulb in the lamp but he is not going to budge on the Iraq business and Congress has gotten his measure and is attacking him. As they score hits, Bush gets nastier and nastier. You should hear him in the White House. If it were up to him, he would declare martial law and put all the Democrats, and defecting Republicans, into custody and let Karl Rove run the country as he has always wanted to do. Eventually, the impasse will get so intense and so nasty that the word ‘impeachment’ which is now being whispered in official circles, will sound like the last five minutes of the ‘1812’ overture. It’s the Nixon/Watergate mess all over again and it will not go away. Clinton, for all his faults, was clever enough to sway with the wind but Bush will not and in the end, he will not have the entire electorate after him but Congress as well.

March 26, 2007

Sometimes one can discover fascinating facts in unexpected placed. In the Business section of the New York Times on March 26, we see an ad for an auction on page C9. It announced that Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital, Inc. is auctioning off 13,200 residential mortgage loans on March 29. These mortgages were generated originally by NC Capital Corporation, New Century Mortgage Corporation, Home123 Corporation and New Century Credit Corporation. The aggregate face value of these items is $2.48 billion! What has happened is this: So-called “subprime” mortgages were made by these companies to persons with dubious, little or no credit. The initial lenders faked credit reports and persons holding them were often able to get a house with no down payment at all! What these lenders did next was to sell the mortgages to big Wall Street houses, take the money and run with it. The buyers had been bamboozled into thinking they had paper of value and when the time came to increase the payments, as they had every legal right to do, they quickly found out that the mortgages could barely make the small initial monthly payments and when the banks holding the paper, raised the rates, the holders were completely unable to pay (as the original mortgage brokers well knew) and the homes went into foreclosure and the Wall Street firms were stuck with billions of dollars of paper with nothing behind it but fake credit reports. Now, the small original lenders have folded up their tents, cackled with glee as they pocketed their loot and vanished into the night, leaving the respectable firms with billions in debt. This is as big a fraud as the rigged dot com frauds of the ‘90s. In that case, brokers would take an incorporated company, get their rich friends to buy large amounts of stock with the agreement they would, let us say, buy the stock at five dollars and sell out at twenty. Naturally, with huge purchases of an essentially worthless stock, the market reflected this and up the stock went. Eventually, because it had nothing behind it, gravity took over and it plunged, taking billions with it and doing damage to the American economy and the legitimate technical sector. Someone ought to compile a list of the names of the mortgage subprime lenders and publish it. My, I wonder if there would be anything in common?

March 23, 2007

There are two deadly financial scandals that will break or which are in the process of breaking. One is the so-called “sub prime mortgage” swindle and the other is the coming collapse of the hedge funds. In the first instance, unscrupulous mortgage vendors, deliberately target unsophisticated young potential home buyers or the elderly minorities and lured them with promises of very low rate mortgages. Of course the small print in light gray ink and 8 point type informed the poor sucker that, yes, you had a very low initial rate but soon enough, the rates could double or triple. And guess what, kids, they did. And all across America, the banks and final holders of these con jobs results found their mortgages were worthless because the holders could not pay. Of course this was well-known to the initial con men but very often not to the banks or the victims holding the mortgages. All across America, sub prime mortgages giants quietly took their profits and moved to Spain, leaving tens of thousands out on the streets and a growing number of unoccupied, and unsaleable homes. The greedy banks and other mighty financial institutions, seeing how many hundreds of millions the initial salesmen were making, rushed to invest, something they will very soon regret. While this drama is unfolding, another is in the wings, waiting to lumber onto the stage and explode. One of my friends in the FBI’s White Collar Crime told me that most of the huge hedge funds are nothing but shells as their owners are operating one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever. Hundreds of billions have been looted and many of the very flush ceos and their staffs have bought homes in foreign countries to be near the billions they have looted. In the first case, it is the poor that have been deliberately screwed and in the latter, the greedy rich.

March 18, 2007

Early last week, I was having dinner with an old friend of my wife’s who works for the Justice Department as an analyst. During the course of the meal, he mentioned a lengthy report he has on his desk about Vice President Cheney. It was compiled by a Department individual, known to him and considered to be very accurate.

It is a lengthy report on Cheney’s psychological makeup, his physical problems and a clear rationale for his very possible death, probably in the near future.

It is not a state secret that Cheney is in very bad health. He had suffered, to date, four major and three minor heart attacks, he has had quadruple bypass surgery, a pacemaker installed and two angioplasty surgical procedures (to clear badly plugged arteries.) The last available, but certainly not public, medical prognosis is that it would take very little for Cheney to have a final, and fatal, heart attack.

The recent discovery that Cheney suffered a blood clot in his leg and has undergone both a medical intervention and is now receiving anticoagulant medicines in addition to a significant regimen of other medications aimed at controlling his very high blood pressure and equally high cholesterol levels. He has been told by his doctors to lose at least 30 pounds, to be very careful of his diet and to engage in physical exercise, designed to improve circulation, on a daily basis. His age, lack of exercise and weight problems coupled with his psychological makeup are inevitably going to kill him, sooner rather than later.

Cheney’s psychological makeup is a contributory factor to his ongoing and escalating circulation problems.

He has an obsessive/compulsive personality that internalizes stressful episodes. Cheney has always been the powerful and driving force behind Bush’s disastrous Mid East policies. Cheney is a fixated Cold War personality who hates and fears the Russians, believing that they are still Communists, bent on the destruction of the United States. Cheney is also determined to enrich himself via his stock options with Halliburton, the oil company. Due solely to his actions in giving Halliburton many highly lucrative, no-bid government contracts, Cheney has effectively boosted the value of Halliburton’s stock and he now holds a significant number of stock options in that company, which he once ran, which, if liquidated, would make him very rich.

He has instigated a number of CIA operations against the Russian Republic, designed to gain US control over former Soviet republics that are rich in oil or who possess territory over which immensely profitable oil and gas pipelines must pass in order for these resources to reach western markets.

Cheney hates Russian President Putin because he sees Putin as a man who deliberately thwarted US plans to gain control over Russian oil and gas resources via the actions of the so-called Russian Oligarchs. The latter were all Jews and working with an Israeli-controlled bank in New York and with the cooperation of their co-religionists in the IMF and the World Bank, came very close to achieving this control.

Putin is now seen by Cheney and his associates as the one force blocking a renewal of US business control over Russian natural resources and Cheney has made no attempt to conceal his fury and frustration over what he sees as a major business and political defeat.

In addition to this problem, Cheney’s failing plans to set up a permanent US military base in oil-rich Iraq to secure the area and, in addition, serve as a badly-needed bulwark for an Israel who hates, and is afraid of, many of her very hostile Arab neighbors has added immensely to what has been a stressful career.

I knew Cheney during the Reagan years in power and even then he was a driven man, obsessive in his attitudes, completely intolerant of any opinions that ran counter to his own and determined to be the man whose decisions were the only correct ones and therefore must be implemented. Our of the government, he longed to return to the corridors of power and when he was asked to chair a committee to find a suitable vice president for the Supreme Court-appointed Bush, he naturally chose himself.

His aides have often spoken, sometimes in my presence, about Cheney’s contempt for what he sees as a weak and spineless president but he realizes that he is incapable of becoming chief of state though he once said,,,”If someone nails George, then you’ll see some royal ass-kicking!”

Cheney’s personal drive and his complete dominance over a weak president, coupled with the vicious and vindictive manipulations of Karl Rove, Bush’s poison dwarf, have wreaked havoc on the American diplomatic, military, political and now, economic, structures but he will never give up and never leave his White House office except on a gurney.

He has been further stressed by the departure and subsequent conviction of I. Lewis Libby, one of his closest associates and a good friend. Cheney in triumph was a study in arrogance and power but Cheney in growing defeat will only turn his rage and frustration inwards and, given his serious medical problems, is a certain candidate for an imminent state funeral.

This may sound cruel on my part, but given the damage Dick Cheney has done, and is capable of doing, his passing would be a blessing for the people of the United States and, indeed, the world.

March 16, 2007

For some comic relief, let’s consider the breathless statement carried by an awed American media about the alleged “terrorist leader” who had “confessed” to every terrorist action since the bombing of the USS Maine. Not even the True Believers in the White House have gone for this whopper. This is a typical Karl Rove ploy to take the heat off of him, his precious Georgie and Alberto the Wetback that is now erupting. Like the “liquid bombs,” the “bombing of the Sears Tower (in Chicago) and the hilarious “duct tape” follies, our Spiritually Inspired leaders are rapidly descending into slapstick. Oh, and let’s not forget the periodic “bin Laden tapes” that the CIA people make up in Texas and have a shelf-life of about ten minutes. These thieves have been stealing billions of dollars of American taxpayer’s money and one might think they could be a little more adult in their hysterical fabrications. Next, we will read, that the DoD has located a prisoner who has confessed to shooting Abraham Lincoln!

March 12, 2007

We are rapidly approaching a major confrontation here yet very few people are aware of it. The military has told Bush that to “retake” Baghdad” i.e., kick out the insurgents and, most important, secure the city against a return, the U.S. will need 50,000 new troops!

Bush wouldn’t dare risk a public explosion on top of the growing medical lack-of-care- scandal so he is shipping men over in small increments. He won’t stop until he had reached the 50,000 goal. The same military estimates that with luck, they can “fully secure” Baghdad within four months and then establish iron control over it to prevent any return of the insurgents.

Not only were an officially-recognized 21,000 sent over, most without proper weapons, no body armor of any kind or any serious urban warfare training, but an additional 4,000+ were also shipped over as “support troops” which are not considered combat troops.

Today, I learn that Bush is sending over another 7,000 men and in the end, the remainder will be send in small batches, the press told to keep this under wraps for “national security” reasons. On top of this, there are not any more armored Humvees, no body armor currently in stock and the ammunition is very low. Bush does not care about this but he does care about the rapidly collapsing on the Unknown Front, Afghanistan.

He stripped our troops out, leaving the British and other to confront a growing Taliban which is slowly, and viciously, retaking much of northern Afghanistan, killing anyone who is suspected of helping the U.S.

Now why is Bush doing this?

Some say the oil ,and Iraq has huge oil reserves, but this is not the real reason for the coming and obvious disasters.

The real reason are the frantic demands of Israel for the U.S. to remain in Iraq as a buffer to protect them. Bush, as is well-known here, is fanatically pro-Israel and the Jewish lobby and diplomatic corps here has been fiercely lobbying their co-religionists in Congress to support them by any means.

This is a terrible thing to say but I must say it: Every dead and mangled GI is the direct fault of Israeli demands. We are not bringing democracy to Iraq but security for Israel and there is no other explanation.

Any Congressman, and there are a growing number, who dares to oppose the wishes of Israel runs the very real risk of immediate reprisal from the Israeli lobby and, most especially, by the heavily pro-Israeli American media.

The Army has been tapping phones and DISA systems here and all of this sickening business is a fact, not some idiot blogger rantings.

It used to be said that the Voice of the People was the Voice of God but in 2007 Washington, it is the Voice of Israel that has become the Official Voice of Jehovah.

Bush, and Congress, hear and they obey.

I, and many, many others, think the time has come for the American public, not the politicians, to become aware of this ugly business and express their views in very loud and determined voices or the death and maiming tolls of their children, fathers and lovers will continue to soar.

Israel is buying her security with the blood of America’s youth, and neither Bush nor Israel care.

March 9, 2007

Several items here. What you ran on the Clinton White House has delighted many and, from the emails I get from tbrnews, enraged the few. Too bad. The outrage of a blogger, beaten to the punch by a real news source, it awesome to behold. They have no power at all but they puff up like blowfish and yap like Pomeranians. Apparently, from the number of viewers for this article, is has had an impact. You haven’t seen anything yet, kid. The Cambonne papers are a piss cutter and should encourage large number of outraged citizens to march on the Beltway with farm tools, pit bulls and Dick Cheney’s antidote for lawyers. Then we would see come action and the birds and stray dogs would have plenty to eat for a time. The hyped up fake-“Iran attack” is fading into the background as an increasingly declining (23% in the private White House opinion polls yesterday) Bush flails around, visiting South America where is he viewed as one would a dripping leper. Bush is not popular anywhere but with a small handful of nutty Jesus Freaks and, of course, the Fascist wing of the Republicans. And one other comment about the Libby business: It is now circulating around the same neo-nazis that the attack on Libby is not because he bald faced lied to grand juries and plotted with the evil Cheney to make wars, it is because poor Irving is being attacked because he is a Jew. (The family name was changed from Leibowitz) Yes, we must defend our co-religionists at all costs. The Rosenbergs, Mark Rich, Franklin, Pollard are to be defended at all costs because they did what they did for Blessed Israel! Note the Wall Street Journal is braying about an “immediate presidential pardon” for their co-religionist. If Bush listens to all the importuning calls from the Israeli Embassy and AIPAC, he will pardon the convicted purgerer. After all, Clinton pardoned Libby’s client, the swindler Marc Rich in the waning hours of his reign in return for a mattress cover stuffed full of big bills. Bush can do it for his own Beloved Israel but if he does, he will be prancing into a mine field, tutu flapping in the wind.

March 5, 2007

Note that Hilary Rodham Clinton (HRC) has much to say in the following minutes:

March 2, 2007

Whenever I am constipated, I do not take medicine but I prefer to read the blogs to hasten things along. I have noticed that the DailyKos seems not to believe I exist and has rushed into print breathlessly warning its two dozen readers never., never to read the Voice of the White House. Unfortunately for these soft-headed left wing “grassrooters” (hogs root but most bipedals do not.) I do exist and starting on Monday next, I will be publishing from time to time certain official memos, headings and all, taken from our precious archives. The first one is a great study of Hilary Clinton’s attitudes that ought to keep Obama’s team atwitter. Also, I have some interesting gen on Hilary taken from California law enforcement reports, via the San Francisco Chronicle. This concerns Hilary’s actions with certain Black Panthers while she was working at Bob Treuhaft’s Oakland-based law firm. Naughty Hilary got caught! And you can read it all here, starting next week. Enjoy! And for the brainless bloggers, my middle finger is extended upwards in fraternal greeting! Say hello to Wes Clark, won’t you, dudes?