What would Keith Stone say?

Been away from CoD for awhile and just a couple of things….
The top six executives at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were charged by the SEC with fraud for failing to disclose billions of dollars in risky subprime mortgages.

“Investors were robbed of the opportunity to make informed investment choices on whether or not to invest in the companies,” said Robert S. Khuzami, the SEC’s director of enforcement. “All individuals, regardless of their rank or position, will be held accountable for perpetuating half-truths or misrepresentations about matters materially important to the interest of our country’s investors.”

From the Senate Levin-Coburn Report On the Financial Crisis.
‘Starting in 2004, federal law enforcement agencies also issued multiple warnings about fraud in the mortgage marketplace. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made national headlines when it warned that mortgage fraud had the potential to be a national epidemic and issued a 2004 report describing how mortgage fraud was becoming more prevalent."

The report detailed Goldman Sachs' role in the financial crisis, which found the investment bank profited off purposefully deceiving its own clients at the height of the financial crisis. Levin then said he would recommend some of the investment bank's executives for possible criminal prosecution

 Hopefully this is just the beginning of accountability for executives and companies

Can I get an amen….

‘‘Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011’’

As part of this bill the Keystone XL pipeline would be fast-tracked – looking a little deeper it appears there are some issues that need consideration and some claims that may not be true.

 Producing tar sands oil creates 82 percent more carbon pollution than conventional oil, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. NASA scientist James Hansen says exploiting the tar sands would be ‘game over' for our efforts to reverse global warming.

 Pretty eye opening huh? The EU has banned tar sand oil – it appears that the biggest customer for the oil is China – which I think it can be agreed is hardly one of the more environmentally conscious countries. Right?

So aside from the issue of tar sands oil being one of the more polluting forms of fossil fuel we have the issue of job creation.

"This pipeline is one that would have brought at least 20,000 jobs, at least $6.5 billion worth of economic activity," Rep. Michele Bachmann said. "His entire calculus was based upon his reelection effort. Because quite frankly, the radical environmentalists said to President Obama, you pass Keystone, we're not going to do your volunteer door-to-door work."  Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called any reluctance about the project "utterly irrational."

He accused the president of making a decision for reasons of politics rather than national interest. 

But an independent report from Cornell University Global Labor Institute raises serious questions about Republican claims.  http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_Reportpdf.pdf

 Here are some of the main findings

» The project will create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years, according to TransCanada’s own data supplied to the State Department.

» The company’s claim that KXL will create 20,000 direct construction and manufacturing jobs in the U.S is not substantiated.

» There is strong evidence to suggest that a large portion of the primary material input for KXL—steel pipe—will not even be produced in the United States. A substantial amount of pipe has already been manufactured in advance of pipeline permit issuance.

» The industry’s claim that KXL will create 119,000 total jobs (direct, indirect, and induced) is based on a flawed and poorly documented study commissioned by TransCanada (The Perryman Group study). Perryman wrongly includes over $1 billion in spending and over 10,000 person-years of employment for a section of the Keystone project in Kansas and Oklahoma that is not part of KXL and has already been built.

» KXL will not be a major source of US jobs, nor will it play any substantial role at all in putting Americans back to work. Even if the Perryman figures were accurate, and all of the workers for the next phase of the project were hired immediately, the US seasonally adjusted unemployment rate would remain at 9.1%—exactly where it is now.

» KXL will divert Tar Sands oil now supplying Midwest refineries, so it can be sold at higher prices to the Gulf Coast and export markets. As a result, consumers in the Midwest could be paying 10 to 20 cents more per gallon for gasoline and diesel fuel. These additional costs (estimated to total $2–4 billion) will suppress other spending and will therefore cost jobs.

Obviously there is a large sum of money at stake here but who stands to gain?

The EPA announced Thursday for the first time that fracking may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.

 That “awful job killing entity” once again doing its job – protecting our environment. How did that go before they were around?

Who do you trust to protect your water, your air?

Before 1970, a factory could spew black clouds of toxic into the air or dump tons of toxic waste into a nearby stream, and that was perfectly legal. They could not be taken to court to stop it. There was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, no Clean Water Act. There were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our environment.

Worldwatch Institute reports “A handful of countries have emerged as leaders in renewables development, thanks to strong government support. A study commissioned by the German government found that in 2006 the country had some 259,000 direct and indirect jobs in the renewables sector.6 The number is expected to reach 400,000-500,000 by 2020 and then 710,000 by 2030.”

I would love to see what we could do if we had a Manhattan project for green energy. Better not hold my breath - I think I'll just go to the fridge and have myself a beer.

You're gonna be doing alot of doobie rolling when you're living in a van down by the river!"

Kudos to two members of the “Super Committee” ; Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.).  It has been reported that they have been fairly quiet as of late.  Way to go boys – I respect that.

Knowing when to shut your big yapper.....

You were given a simple task of finding 1.2 trillion dollars of deficit reduction over the next ten years.

One analysis I saw claimed based on next years projected budget increase of 8% that they just had to cut the budget by 3.4% resulting in a reduced percentage increase of 5.6%.

They can’t increase spending by merely 5.6% next year?

Meanwhile other members of the Supercommitee are going around spinning their side of the story.  The blame for the deficit has been couched like this….

(R) Sen. Pat Toomey said last Tuesday: “What happened that brought about the massive budget deficits and the mounting debt that caused this committee to come into being, was, fundamentally, a spending spree. Remember, it’s been this sequence of stimulus bills, and bailouts, and government takeovers—a huge surge in discretionary spending.”

But there was a template for compromise.

Supercommittee member (D) Chris Van Hollen stated in his op-ed piece in the Washington Post last Sunday “Often in politics there is no objective measure for reasonable compromise. Fortunately, in this case the public has a measuring stick against which to judge competing claims. The recommendations made by the president’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (known as Simpson-Bowles, after the Republican and Democratic co-chairs) provide a model for comparing the major plans offered by both sides during the Supercommittee deliberations.”

Obama’s “grand bargain” that Speaker John Boehner wanted as well last summer that cut entitlements and raised taxes, the one that could have averted the debt crisis, couldn’t pass a Republican Congress.

Really what hope did we have for success for the Supercommittee?  Anyone who has signed the Grover Nordquist no tax pledge should have not been allowed to participate in the Supercommittee.  This intransigence is largely motivated by the shadowy influence of lobbyist Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, who threatens to serve any Republican who breaks his anti-tax pledge with electoral defeat.

GOP Rep. Mike Simpson (ID) said regarding Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, “I didn’t know I was signing a marriage agreement.” Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) blasted Norquist for “paralyzing Congress.” Freshman Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) vowed to never sign another pledge, noting the last straw came when Norquist wouldn’t let Republicans close tax loopholes that subsidize ethanol production. Former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson simply said, “If Grover Norquist is the most powerful person in America, he should run for president” rather than peddle his influence backstage.  I don’t remember voting for Gordo???

One other thing that bugs me is the post-failure blame Obama.  But Republicans need to convince us he was part of the equation. Gov. Chris Christie blamed both parties for the failure, then blamed the president for not knocking heads together the way.

I do remember as the Supercommittee convened that it was made pretty well clear that for any chance of success that Obama had to stay well clear of the deliberations —anyone care to factcheck that one?  I am pretty sure that my sister (on the right) and myself (on the left) could have sat down and got this done.

The failure of the Super Committee by making this a political issue rather than a simple bookkeeping matter should be considered a treasonous act.  They should have just put Simpson and Bowles in a room and locked it until they came up with compromise if not - they would be sent to live in a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!