Photos: CEOs Golden Parachutes From Failed Firms

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From: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/rnc-obama--acorn-fact/story.aspx?guid=%7B29569FA1-136D-4B95-9D51-4EF9E87ED547%7D&dist=hppr

Obama's Campaign Paid Over $800,000 To ACORN For Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts, But "Mistakenly Misrepresented" Their Work To The FEC:

Obama's Campaign "Paid More Than $800,000" To ACORN For Get-Out-The Vote Efforts; The Campaign Originally "Misrepresented" The Group's Work To The FEC. "U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports. An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in 'get-out-the-vote' projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary." (David M. Brown, "Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending," Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 8/22/08)

The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Unfortunately being stupid is not illegal. These employment contracts are negotiated at the time of hiring and usually there is no penalty for mismanagement unless it comes under the heading of fraud, etc. I would say that anytime the government or taxpayer has to become involved in bailing out an institution, all employment contracts become null and void. Some of these CEO's had only recently taken over from others that had been fired or stepped down. Too bad they get thrown into the mix of the incompetents.

If this election cycle has demonstrated anything, it is that in order to preserve democracy in this country, it is passed time we reconsidered the additional protections provided the media by the Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), which protects the media from most slander and libel suits. While perhaps noble at the time in its conception, the media has abundantly demonstrated that for the advancement of their own political agenda, on both sides, and to fill the demands of the 24/7 news cycle, they are willing to abandon any pretense of objectivity or, more importantly, of journalistic ethics. Since they cannot exercise the power they have been given responsibly on their own, perhaps it is necessary to return the threat of legal sanction under which they operated prior to 1954.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan

ACORN Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation
ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters has been raided by Nevada authorities looking for evidence of voter fraud.

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20081007/Voter.Fraud.Probe/

The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

Then there is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd who allegedly got special mortgage deals from Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to 'friends' of company's chairman.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25140560/

For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

"House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive."

The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And then there is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm.

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm.

Funny, the Democrats talk about how we have removed ourselves from the good graces of the world because of our foreign policy decisions. But the Democrats have done more to piss off the world because of their major contribution to the financial crisis that no only effects the U.S. but the global markets. The U.S. is not the only country that will suffer because of this! And the financial crisis gives Obama's campaign a boost how? There must be a lot of misinformed voters! But when the Democrats, with the assistance of George Soros, have the media in their pockets, who can blame them!

I got tired of reading all the comments, but in what I did read there were no doable solutions; no actions that I could see that made sense.
What about seeing how little we can live on; even if we can spend more, wear our clothes until they are rags, run our cars until they won't run, stay in our houses until they fall down--that would hurt many middle class workers but eventually it would reach the corporate people who could no longer boast of great profits.
Well, that might not work in time--what about voting for the candidate at the bottom of the poll instead of the ones near the top. Republicans could vote for Ron Paul and democrats for Dennis Kucinich. Someone once said that by the time a man reaches the presidency he has been bought aned sold 10 times over. Ron and Dennis may not have been bought and sold so much, might still have a few honest bones.

The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

For an interesting article purporting to detail the history of the House Financial Services Committee Chair's relationship with Fannie Mae, See

???House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive.???

http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

You may not like Bill, but sometimes you have to love him!
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html

A man of great wisdom:
http://www.atlah.org/broadcast/manningreport.html

How about punitive action for the politicians too? I'm with you guys on not believing ads from politicians. I also don't believe most things I see from the media either. I'm really not a big fan of anyone running either, so I tend to see things without much bias. I'm tired of seeing all of these posts (rationality) that talk about how everyone is biased and the proceed to spew a whole bunch of biased crap. You can't tell people not to only hear what they want when you're obviously just drinking a different flavor yourselves. Neither of these guys are anywhere near perfect people. Look at the facts that matter to you and try to chose what makes sense for your situation. I'd like to see more things out there that show what's really going on.

Here's a pretty good link to why I don't think the Dems are exactly innocent here either, try to ignore the Dems are evil crap. They're all evil.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

How is it possible for comments to keep misrepresenting facts about candidates and their roles in the mortgage crisis?

1. Re. the claim that McCain anticipated this mess and tried to do something about it in 2005, the non-partisan fact checking site PolitiFact.com says (see citation [1]):

We give McCain some credit for weighing in on problems surrounding Fannie Mae, even though he got involved after a comprehensive government report issued a loud alarm to anyone watching. However, his attempts to depict those efforts as some sort of early warning that could have lessened the current credit crisis just don't wash. All McCain was talking about then was the potential fallout of accounting troubles in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He didn't say anything about a freewheeling climate among creditors that had major financial institutions becoming badly leveraged on bad loans.


2. Re. the Obama connection to Raines and Johnson, FactCheck.org says (see citation [2]):

In an ad titled "Advice," the McCain campaign makes the claim that "Obama has no background in economics." Then it asks the question, "Who advises him?" The answer, according to the ad: "THE POST SAYS it's Franklin Raines, for 'advice on mortgage and housing policy.'"

The "Post" refers to the Washington Post. But the POST ITSELF SAYS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN AND RAINES ISN'T CLEAR. And Raines says he isn't an Obama adviser.

ACCORDING TO THE POST'S Michael Dobbs, who writes "The Fact Checker" column, "THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN IS CLEARLY EXAGGERATING WILDLY in attempting to depict Franklin Raines as a close adviser to Obama on 'housing and mortgage policy.' "


3. Also on PolitiFact.com (see citation [3]):

The New York Times looked at contributions from Fannie and Freddie's boards of directors and lobbyists, who are technically not employees. That analysis found Fannie and Freddie-related contributors gave $169,000 to John McCain and his related committees, compared with $16,000 to Obama and his related committees.

[Obama has received more money from EMPLOYEES, but it is a good bet most of these are just ordinary working people without political influence.]


People, if all you are going to do is trust the TV adds of the person you have the easiest time relating to, the USA is not going to be a prosperous nation. I'm all for punitive action against the bankers. But if you want to fix things going forward, you have appreciate that it was the underlying economic philosophy of the Republican party that created the mess. Do you really think that the power structure of that party is ever going to change if you keep putting them back in office? How about punitive action for the politicians too?


Citations:

[1] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/sep/17/mccains-warning-fannie-and-freddie/
[2] http://wire.factcheck.org/2008/09/24/obamas-connection-to-raines/
[3] http://www.politifact.co

All of these crooks should be thrown, not just in jail, but UNDER it. Make them do hard labor, old-school Soviet style: breaking rocks and making license plates while eating nothing but gruel for the next 20 years. If these men had been doctors, they would have long ago been sued and convicted for malpractice. To let these people walk away while leaving the public holding the bag is a sin.

Rather than giving the money to the banks why don't we help the people being put out of their homes. If we are going to spend millions, then let the people who defaulted on their loans renegotiate new affordable loans. W could put people back in their homes and pay what is owed to the banks and come out much better off as a nation. Let 's fill the empty homes and get people paying the banks again.

Excuse me, lets set the record strait . Mr. Senator Mcain is the one who has fought to deregulate the boy's on wallstreet. This started long before Barrock Oboma was even in polatics . So put the blaim were it belongs.

excuse me, I do believe that Mr. Mcains deregulations are a primary reason for this failure so put the blame were it belongs. tak9ng away watch dogs and letting






Excuse me. I do believe that Mr Mcain's deregulation of wallstreet is the primary reason for the finacial crissis. So put the blame were it lies . This started long before Barrack Oboma was even in polatics.

I totally agree with hardworking @ on 9/28/08. I also think these peoploe should be investigated, because if they were McCain's people rather than Ob amas you can bet they would be and you and your left stream media friends would be yelling the loudest.