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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (128167)	1/7/2010 9:13:53 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 542149

whatever It's just about words and definitions. It's not a political thing. But I guess you will remain bewildered.

To: slacker711 who wrote (128167)	1/7/2010 10:22:07 AM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542149

FWIW, I got you from the beginning and agree with the irony of the whole thing. On to more serious matters, it looks like Turbo Tim is about to get his due. Did you see this today? Geithner’s New York Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure By Hugh Son Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show. AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The New York Fed took over negotiations between AIG and the banks in November 2008 as losses on the swaps, which were contracts tied to subprime home loans, threatened to swamp the insurer weeks after its taxpayer-funded rescue. The regulator decided that Goldman Sachs and more than a dozen banks would be fully repaid for $62.1 billion of the swaps, prompting lawmakers to call the AIG rescue a “backdoor bailout” of financial firms. “It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information,” said Issa, a California Republican. Taxpayers “deserve full and complete disclosure under our nation’s securities laws, not the withholding of politically inconvenient information.” President Barack Obama selected Geithner as Treasury secretary, a post he took last year. Bank Payments Issa requested the e-mails from AIG Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche in October after Bloomberg News reported that the New York Fed ordered the crippled insurer not to negotiate for discounts in settling the swaps. The decision to pay the banks in full may have cost AIG, and thus taxpayers, at least $13 billion, based on the discount the insurer was seeking. The e-mail exchanges between AIG and the New York Fed over the insurer’s disclosure of the transactions show that the regulator pressed the company to keep details out of the public eye. Issa’s comments add to criticism from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, who wrote letters in the past two months demanding information from Geithner, 48, about the costs of the AIG bailout. Securities Lawyers AIG’s Dec. 24, 2008, filing was challenged privately by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which polices the adequacy of disclosures by publicly traded firms. The agency said in a letter to then-CEO Edward Liddy six days later that AIG should provide a Schedule A, which lists collateral postings for the swaps and names the bank counterparties that purchased them from the company. The Schedule A was disclosed about five months later in a filing. bloomberg.com

To: slacker711 who wrote (128167)	1/7/2010 10:46:52 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542149

<<<I was using Suma's example and the birthers as specific examples, >>> The birther and nigerian conspiracies are great examples. They are bookend examples of conspiracy theories on a political spectrum continium. Neither theories are monolithic but they have central characteristics. The primary birther theory allege that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and that his birth certificate is a forgery. While the nigerian conspiracy asks: "How did someone like this get through all the regulations and scrutiny UNLESS there was a big enough pay off to embarrass Obama during his vacation at Christmas" . While the birther conspiracy is far more developed, organised, and supported by far greater numbers the nigerian conspiracy is in it's infancy. But it is clear that birther belief stem from and require a heavy hate component that I don't see in the nigerian example for now. I am sure that if it gains traction, the hate mongers will be attracted. Right now, I don't see it.