Category: Wealth

This is one of those times, when you could not pay me to work in the White House

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That’s right folks, the President and his Administration are in one hell of a huge bind. If they do not do something fast; they are going to be sunk come the midterms and possibly come 2012.

Here’s your video:

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Now, for the Stories….

Via the New York Times:

American businesses added more jobs in the last three months than originally estimated, but the wheels of the economic recovery are still spinning in place.

The private sector added 67,000 jobs in August, according to the Department of Labor, higher than consensus forecasts, and the government upwardly revised its numbers for June and July, suggesting that job creation was slightly stronger over the summer than originally reported.

But the continuing wind-down of the 2010 Census, as well as state and local government layoffs, led to an overall loss of 54,000 jobs in August.

With businesses adding about half the number of positions needed simply to accommodate population growth — much less dent the ranks of the jobless — the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent.

“The overall picture is one where the labor market is still kind of treading water,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR Inc. “It’s better than sinking, but it’s certainly not surging ahead.”

Given the continuing addition of private jobs — albeit at a tepid pace — Friday’s monthly snapshot of the labor market seemed to calm fears of a double-dip recession. But the numbers are likely to do little to assuage political pressure on the Obama administration in the run-up to the midterm elections.

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden on Friday morning, Mr. Obama called the latest job report “positive news,” but said he would be unveiling “a broader package of ideas next week,” to shore up the flagging economy, although he declined to give specifics. The president once again urged Congress to pass a stalled bill that would offer tax breaks to small businesses and create a $30 billion program to encourage community banks to lend.

“There’s no quick fix for this recession,” he said. “The hard truth is that it took years to create our current economic problems, and it will take more time than any of us would like to repair the damage.”

Responding to the higher-than-expected private sector numbers and revisions, investors pushed up the major stock gauges. By early afternoon, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 1 percent. Market reaction to the jobs data was tempered somewhat by a report that said growth in the services sector had slowed in August.

The Labor Department revised its private sector number for July, raising the number of jobs added to 107,000 from the 71,000 originally reported. And private sector hiring in June, originally reported at 83,000 and lowered to 31,000, was raised again to 61,000.

This is not making Democrats happy at all… Jack Tapper Reports:

Flanked by members of his economic team – including outgoing Council of Economic Advisers Dr. Christina Romer, whose replacement has yet to be named – President Obama chose to look at the silver lining in the economic clouds of today’s jobs report – not even mentioning that August saw a net job loss of 54,000 jobs.

“In the month I took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month,” the president said. “This morning, new figures show the economy produced 67,000 private sector jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private job growth. Additionally, the numbers for July were revised upward to 107,000. Now that’s positive news, and it reflects the steps we’ve already taken to break the back of this recession.”

The net job loss for August is largely because of the layoffs of 114,000 Census temporary workers.

….and from David Corn:

Democrats are spooked by recent polls and predictions indicating the GOP may slam the Dems so badly that the D’s lose the House and possibly the Senate. The Republicans need to gain 39 seats to seize the House, and it’s not difficult these days to find nonpartisan handicappers who predict the R’s could gain 40 to 50 seats. The conventional wisdom in D.C.: A tsunami is heading toward the Democrats. A Democratic strategist toiling on the party’s House efforts refers to working on the “Titanic” (though he claims there may be some hidden life rafts). “The president keeps saying it’s a tough environment,” says a Democratic House staffer. “We know that. We want to know what he’s going to do about it.”…

“He still wants to be seen as post-partisan and bipartisan,” says a House Democratic leadership aide. “But we’re in a fight here.” Democrats expect Obama to come out swinging nonstop — bashing the R’s repeatedly and proposing economic initiatives that actually register with voters. At the same time, members of the House Democratic leadership are worried that Obama will cave and yield to GOP demands that George W. Bush’s expiring tax cuts for the wealthy be extended. “If he doesn’t do something immediately, our members will be livid,” says a House Democratic aide. “And when there’s fear of a bloodbath, it’s never too early to start the blame game.”

I just blogged about how the Democrats can fix this mess. However, knowing them like they do; they would rather let the Nation suffer and blame the Republicans for the entire mess, while living large on the taxpayers dime —- than to actually do something to fix the problem. FDR did this, to a certain extent as have many other Democrat Party Presidents; I mean, it is not like Obama is going to be affected by any of this economic downturn.

One there is very certain, the tide is turning, Democrats had the chance to actually fix things and they have failed at it miserably. The Tea Party has now crystallized into a political force to be reckoned with — even among Republicans. RINO’s are being flushed out and true-blue Conservatives are being brought to the battle. It is so bad that the liberal media is gone to terrible spinning facts, an example:

It is possible that coming at the end of the summer an uptick in people looking for work is not as positive as it appears. This is the time of year, after two hot months, when recent graduates start to actually think about their future and send out resumes. And you can image many other out of work people deciding to take off looking for a job in the summer. In August, with the summer ending, some of those people started looking again in earnest. But you would expect the big uptick in post-summer people searching for work to come in September. So the fact that it is coming early is a good sign.

Oh Yes, it is that bad on that that side of the political aisle. When you start reading that sort of idiotic spin in a liberal publication, you know that things are horrifically bad right now for the Democrats. This midterm election and possibly in the general election; will most likely go down as the worst ever failure of the Democrat Party ever. The Democratic Party roared into power in 2006 to take the keys away from the Bush Administration, then they won the General election in 2008. They then got the entire key chain of the Country —- and proceeded to drive the Country as a whole over a cliff!  Because of that and because of this economic that we are in, which was, in fact, created by the Carter and Clinton Administrations; whom were, Democratic Party Administrations — we are about to see a major collapse of a party’s authority in the political realm. I have written here, time and time again; that the Democratic Party has horribly overreached…..again. This happens just about every time the Democrats get into power. To be fair and as non-partisan as I can be; Republicans have done it too — Nixon did it, Bush did it and some others. However, this administration took it to another more frightening level.  Because of this; they are about to do what many call, “Paying the Piper.”

The ship is sinking and the rats are jumping. It should be very interesting to watch. 2010 looms and they have no answers.

Welcome to the meltdown. Get popcorn. Hold on tight and enjoy the show.

(H/T to HotAir on the story leads for this posting. Good show AP! 😀 )

It is amazing what terrible economy will do to a Democrat President

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If there is any truth to this; it can turn the most rabid Democrat into a Republican, real quick:

Administration officials have struggled to develop new economic policies and an effective message to blunt expected Republican gains in Congress and defuse complaints from Democrats that President Obama is fumbling the issue most important to voters. Following Obama’s vacation and focus on foreign policy in recent weeks, White House advisers have arranged a series of economic events for the president next week, including two trips to swing states and a news conference.

“We’ll continue to do everything we can, understanding that recovery will require persistent effort. There are no silver bullets,” senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said in an interview Thursday. “At the same time, we have to make clear our ideas and theirs, and the fact that the Washington Republicans, having helped create this recession, have attempted to block our every effort to deal with it.”

But with the unemployment rate expected to rise again in jobs numbers due out Friday, panic is setting in among many Democratic candidates who fear it is too late for Obama to convince voters that he understands the depth of the nation’s economic woes and can fix them.

[….]

Last November, Obama announced that he would turn his attention to unemployment, calling it “one of the great challenges that remains in our economy.” He declared the same intent two months later, telling House Democrats he would focus relentlessly on job creation “over the next several months.” Senior aides went on television pledging that the mantra would become “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

But other matters – health care, the BP oil spill – continually stole the limelight, creating the impression, some Democrats complain, that the president was barely focused on the economy at all.

His advisers described his attentiveness – noting, for example, that he discussed the economy with New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) for 15 minutes before golfing – but got little traction.

“Obviously it’s going to be hard to get anything done before the election, but it’s really important for him to try, and to make the case to the American people that he’s trying to do something and the Republicans aren’t letting him,” said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist. “We are at the final moments here.”

Obama has another incentive to act: Tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration are scheduled to expire in January, and Democrats – accused by Republicans of plotting to let them vanish – feel compelled to do something before the midterms.

Obama campaigned on a pledge to let cuts expire for the richest 2 percent of households, but some Democrats say the economy is too weak to raise anyone’s taxes right now. And they fear a backlash from small-business owners who could be hit with higher taxes.

Pairing targeted business tax breaks with an extension of middle-class tax cuts could help alleviate those problems.

This article alone, ought to be a lesson for any Democrat thinking about running for office. That raising Taxes in a recession, just does not work. Only tax breaks for the wealthy and making the business climate more healthy will help. Also cutting spending is another way to bring down inflation. This article alone, should be a text book example of why Keynesian Economics does not work in a recession, at all. If you tax businesses to death, you spur growth, if you spur growth, jobs disappear — it is a vicious cycle. Democrats have been making these same stupid mistakes for years.

Which is why we need to vote them out, come November of 2010. Especially here in Michigan, where job growth is desperately needed.

Stock, Gold, and Oil Trading Advice: High Volume Resistance Plagues Precious Metals, Oil & SP500

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Please Note: This is a sponsored posting. If you click a link and go to the service and sign up; I get paid.

———-

Some great analysis by the Technical Traders:

Last week was a relatively strong week for stocks and commodities. Although the SP500 closed slightly lower on the week the price action Friday was strong. The recent pop in commodities has everyone feeling good and bullish again and we all know how the market works… When everyone is feeling good the market has a way of shaking things up.

Below are a few charts showing heavy volume resistance levels that will most likely cause the broad market & commodities to pullback or trade sideways for a few days as buyers and sellers play tug-o-war.

SLV – Silver Bullion ETF Trading

Silver had a very nice pop last week but if you step back and look the recent price action you can see that it’s still trading below the previous major bounce from back in June. It looks as though silver is a little over extended as large percentage moves tend to give back 25-50% of the mover shortly after.

Take a look at the price by volume bar. It shows there has been heavy volume traded at that $19.00 level and the previous time it was reached sellers stepped back in pulling silver down.

GLD – Gold Bullion ETF Trading

Gold is trading deep into the resistance level and struggling to hold up. Last week we went long GLD after the bullish engulfing candle and took profits near the high two days later on Thursday’s price. Although gold is trading at resistance the intraday price action remains somewhat bullish/neutral for the time being.

USO – Oil ETF Trading

The oil ETF broke down from its large multi-month bear flag and is now bouncing up to test that breakdown/resistance level. This could be a possible kiss good bye. I will keep my eye on this commodity as it could provide us with a great shorting opportunity in the coming days.

SPY – SP500 ETF Trading

The equities market has been tried to bottom all week and Friday’s price action looks strong. While the chart looks strong the market internals are telling me the opposite. Last week we saw a gap down and Friday that gap window was filled. With heavy volume resistance just above the current price the odds are pointing to lower prices.

Weekend Equities and Commodities ETF Trading Report:

In short, it looks as though everything is trading just under or at resistance levels. That means sellers will start to enter the market and cause prices to stall (trade sideways/choppy) and or reverse lower.

That being said, with Friday’s strong close for oil and the sp500 I am expecting a gap higher in the morning because traders will review those charts this weekend and enter the market Monday feeling bullish.

—————————————–

Please note: You can get more great analysis like this by going to the Technical Traders website and signing up.

Also please direct all question regarding this posting to the Technical Traders, as I know little or nothing about this stuff. I just post it. 😀

Because the first Stimulus worked so wonderfully well!

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Some liberal moron over at the New York Times thinks it is time for a second stimulus! Because the first one worked so oh wonderfully well! 🙄

OUR national debate about fiscal policy has become skewed, with far too much focus on the deficit and far too little on unemployment. There is too much worry about the size of government, and too little appreciation for how stimulus spending has helped stabilize the economy and how more of the right kind of government spending could boost job creation and economic growth. By focusing on the wrong things, we are in serious danger of failing to do the right things to help the economy recover from its worst labor market crisis since the Great Depression.

The primary cause of the labor market crisis is a collapse in private demand — the same problem that bedeviled the economy in the 1930s. In the wake of the financial shocks at the end of 2008, spending by American households and businesses plummeted, and companies responded by curbing production and shedding workers. By late 2009, in response to unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, household and business spending began to recover. But by the second quarter of this year, economic growth had slowed to 1.6 percent, according to a government estimate issued Friday. Clearly, the pace of recovery is far slower than what is needed to restore the millions of jobs that have been lost.

via Op-Ed Contributor – Why We Need a Second Stimulus – NYTimes.com.

When are these farking liberal morons going to ever learn? That is that Keynesian pump priming of the economy just does not work at all.  You would think that by now the Liberals would have figured that out. Heck, even a liberal blogger thinks that is a bad idea! When the liberals are saying, “Dude, you are wrong,” then I believe that is a good sign to frankly give it up.

I’ve said this a good number of times on this blog, and I will most likely say  it another good hundred times. Liberalism is a MENTAL DISORDER! Micheal Savage said it first, and man, is he ever right.

If anyone deserves it, it is those guys

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It appears that the founders of Google are, like the guys that created Facebook, are going to get a feature film.

From Dateline:

EXCLUSIVE: The founders of Facebook aren’t the only game-changing geeks poised to have their story told on a movie screen. Michael London’s Groundswell Productions has teamed with producer John Morris to acquire movie rights to the Ken Auletta book Googled: The End of the World As We Know it. They will use the book as the blueprint for a feature film that tells the story of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and the fast rise of the juggernaut web business that made them billionaires.

The book was published last fall by Penguin. Auletta, the media columnist for The New Yorker, chronicled a business that grew into a search engine-driven octopus whose $20 billion in ad revenue last year was more than the major broadcast networks combined. CEO Eric Schmidt predicted to Auletta that Google will become the world’s first $100 billion media company.

Some of you might expect me to snarl and say that these guys do not deserve the fortune that they have; because they are liberals — or at least from a State that is quite known for it’s liberalism.

Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you; but I do not fault these young men one lousy iota. Why? Well, it is like this here:

First off, I am not a progressive, who believes that anyone that makes or has more money than me, is someone to be loathed. Those guys have that sort of money, because they worked their rear-ends off for it. They just did not stand around and all just luckily all of that success came to them; for nothing. No, they worked for it. They spent hours coding and recoding that software to make it work better. That my friends, is just honest to goodness work. Work, that I could never do in million years, if I wanted to. Why? Because I am not a coder; I am a writer —- or at least I try to be one anyhow. There are some however, that think that I couldn’t write my damned way out of a paper bag; and you know, sometimes I think they just might be right. 😉

There is another angle to this as well; whether we want to admit it or not — Twitter, Facebook and Yes, even Google revolutionized the way we use the internet. Before these services were created; an era known affectionately among us old duffers as the “Web 1.0” era — the Internet was a patchwork of websites, that were, quite honestly, awful. You see, this was also before the days, when HTML was actually quite intelligent. The internet, for better or for worse — has grown and got much smarter by enormous leaps and bounds, since back in the mid-1990’s when I began to use it. Honestly, to me, it seems like one day, I was using Microsoft Frontpage 2000 to create my website; and now I am using WordPress to do what I do now.  The awesome part is; WordPress does everything, and I do mean, everything for you. WordPress is a writer’s dream and it too, has changed the way writing and yes, the internet is done.

Speaking of WordPress; if anyone deserves a Movie made about him — It is Matt Mullenweg. Now as for Matt; whether you love him or hate him, you cannot argue this fact; Matt changed the game with WordPress. Matt basically took a piece of software, that someone else had stopped development on, did what is known as “Forking” in programming talk, and made it his own and made enormously better product out of it.  Matt for all of his quirks; and that god-awful, “R.E.M. Shiny Happy People” looking template he is using on his blog — is actually an awesome person. 😀

In closing: (Said in my best drunken Ted Baxter voice) We as Conservatives should not be the one’s deriding these young people, we should be the one’s extolling their fortunes and encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.

Others: Crikey, Speakeasy, New York Magazine, VentureBeat, Fortune, Gizmodo, Underwire, The Wrap, ScreenCrave.com, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Just Jared, VentureBeat, Fortune, Gizmodo, L.A. Times Tech Blog and Gizmodo Australia.

Market and Gold Advice: Updated Forecasts for Gold and SP 500

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Please note: This is a sponsored posting, to promote a website and it’s offerings. If you click and sign up, I get paid.

The article which is found over at The Market Trend Forecast.com:

In my last article a few weeks ago for Kitco.com, I was concerned that the market could have a hangover after the recent rally.  Apparently, my concern was not un-founded as we dropped from a rising bearish wedge near 1130, to the 1070 Fibonacci pivot earlier this week.  Although my subscribers were prepared for this drop by shorting the SP 500 in advance of that move, we covered our short near 1070 on the SP this week.

Bringing things up to speed, the market rallied up from July 1st to near 1130, which was a maximum target I mentioned in my last article.  This completed a 3-3-5 elliott wave pattern that I identified, and broke the rising wedge on cue.  At 1130, the SP 500 had re-traced a Fibonacci 61% of the April highs to Jul 1st lows, and had completed that re-tracement over a Fibonacci 5 week window. At TMTF, we believe that markets move in extremely reliable patterns and are not at all random.  At the 1221 SP 500 top in April, it landed exactly at a 61% Fibonacci upward re-tracement of the 2007 highs and the 2009 lows.  At the 2009 lows, the SP 500 had corrected 61% of the 1974 lows to 2000 highs right on the nose at 666!

Check out the rest of that and also head on over to Trend Market Forecasts Dot com for the latest in Stocks, Gold, Futures and other stock related advice.

Stock Trading Secrets

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Please note: this is a Sponsored Posting…

Some great trading advice from The Technical Traders:

At Active Trading Partners, we take a different approach to trading than most online services in terms of advising our subscribers.   Our methodology revolves around behavioral characteristics of the crowd, and taking advantage of the extremes in sentiment, whether bullish or bearish.

In the case of ETF trading, we often work with 3x Bull or Bear ETF’s like BGZ, ERY, ERX, TZA, TNA and so forth.  Using a combination of Fibonacci re-tracements and Elliott Wave theory, we look for high probability set-ups and extreme overbought or oversold situations to trigger a trade recommendation.  A most recent example with ETF’s was a short position we took against the rising energy stock index, the XLE.  This index had become incredibly overbought in just a few weeks, and looking at prior topping indicators and fibonacci trading day cycles, we felt it was a “Low Risk” bet to short the rally.  We recommended ERY at $45.40 as the XLE headed over $56 and was becoming overbought.  Within 7 days we had a 15% plus gain by going against the crowd.  I saw a 13 fibonacci day trading rally at extremes, so we used the XLE chart below, to identify the timing to enter into ERY.

Read the rest at Active Trading Partners.

Sorry, but, no one rescued me

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I feel the need to write about this, but I am not. I am going to post a video reply.

Over at “The Other McCain”, I saw this headline:

EMERGENCY: SAVE STOGIE!

Aside from the “ZOMG! Eleventy!!!!” element to it. I didn’t think much of it. So, I went over and looked:

Home foreclosures are continuing at a brisk pace, according to an article by McClatchy News.   Many of the first foreclosures that began three years ago, when the housing bubble began to burst, were for subprime mortgages.  Now, however, a fresh batch of foreclosures is occurring because people have lost their jobs and can’t pay them.  I am now in that category.  I didn’t pay my July mortgage payment and probably will miss August as well.  I haven’t been answering the phone, which rings constantly from bill collectors.

Our savings kept us afloat for a year.  When it was gone, I borrowed the equity out of my life insurance.  That’s gone too.  We were hoping to ride out this recession, to survive until it was over.

This prompted a back and forth between me and Robert Stacy McCain:

Pat
July 31st, 2010 @ 6:30 am

Meh, No pity…

Maybe Rupert Murdok or one of his Zionist friends can bail him out.

—-

Robert Stacy McCain
July 31st, 2010 @ 6:50 am

Dammit, Pat, if you knew what a great guy Stogie is, you wouldn’t say useless crap like that. I was tempted to delete your comment, but I’ll leave it up, just to chastise your conscience when you see the testimonials to Stogie’s valiant character.

Pat
July 31st, 2010 @ 7:10 am

I’m sure he is a great guy. But nobody bailed my ass out when I was over 18 grand in the hole back in 2004. I filed for chapter 7 and started over.

I’m just sayin’…

Of course, McCain’s sock puppets came out in full force against me; which is of no surprise.

Here’s my video reply on the subject and my apologies in advance for the poor audio quality and picture:

That’s my opinion, and I welcome yours.

Paul Ryan and Chris Matthews holler at each other about spending

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(H/T HotAir)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Psychotic ramblings of Andrew Sullivan about Sarah Palin

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The man is just plain crazy. Now why do I say this? This is why:

Because the people that were on that thing called the Journalist, decided that they would show some morals and NOT touch the Palin Trig false rumor:

Ezra Klein:

Seriously, folks? Best case scenario, what’s your outcome here: Her daughter, hounded by the tabloids, breaks down that it was her child, and her mother heroically took on the burden and welcomed the disabled boy as one of her own? Palin’s relationship with her children — however they may have come to her — strikes me as pretty far out of bounds. By all accounts she’s a wonderful mother, and devoted to her fifth son. Leave this be.

Katha Pollitt:

I like what you said about this possibly being a dirty trick, intended to blow up in our faces. so let’s just leave it alone…

Unlike Andrew Sullivan; these liberals actually had some morals, once again our favorite Faux Conservative  descends into madness:

Remember all those liberals and lefties huffily denouncing this blog’s attempts to make sense of Sarah Palin’s bizarre stories about the pregnancy and birth of her alleged fifth child? I was nuts, crazy, vile, disgusting, etc etc to indulge in what Dave Weigel, with no working knowledge of the story, calls “nonsense.” You may also recall that the liberal media didn’t touch this with a barge-pole  – and still hasn’t (apart from a NYT puff-piece that I found utterly credulous at the time). Newsweek has even put its entire reputation behind the details of the story as outlined in Going Rogue, without doing any independent reporting on the subject.

Well, we now know, that, for some at least, I wasn’t crazy. I was just not disciplined enough to curtail what this blog airs in order to conform with what many Journo-listers believed were the interests of the Obama campaign. Any delusions that Journo-List was not, in part, a collusory venture to shape the media narrative in ways to benefit Obama, above and beyond ferreting out the truth about any and all candidates, must now be abandoned. Ezra Klein has already been caught in a bald-faced lie about his discretion in picking members; and the notion that this was simply a water-cooler collection of journalistic thoughts is also belied by the emails now published by the Daily Caller.

One should say this, however: I have no way of knowing what the DC has omitted, and how it has shaped this information. The thread stops rather abruptly. Maybe there is context that adds to what we know. I do not trust in any way the ethics of the Daily Caller. Nonetheless, I was obviously not alone in those August days, when I was pilloried for saying out loud what the entire chattering class was saying in private.

[..]

If you want to know why the allegedly liberal media didn’t touch – and still won’t touch – this story, look no further. It has nothing to do with the facts, and everything to do with their politics. Notice the core modus operandi of the political operative, not the journalist. When dealing with a story: first ask yourself not if it is true but whether the outcome benefits your side. Second, write things in defense of this that you cannot possibly know. Palin a “wonderful mother”? How on earth did Klein know that?

[…]

This is your liberal media, ladies and gentlemen: totally partisan, interested in the truth only if it advances their agenda, and devoid of any balls whatsoever. And people wonder how this farce of a candidate now controls one major political party and could well be our next president. One reason is that we do not have a functioning adversarial media uncorrupted by partisan loyalty and tactics.

The man is totally insane. That is correct; I happen to believe that Andrew Sullivan is mentally unstable, should be considered a security risk and deported from the United States of American immediately back to Great Britain; where he can get the care he needs from the British nationalized heath-care system —– If that is even possible.

The reason why the Liberal media did not run with this story, is because there was not an ounce of truth to it. Because the is such a thing as journalistic standards. You simply do not report something that you cannot prove. You would think that Sullivan and his years of college education would have taught him that. However, I believe that this is a sign of something more deep. I believe it is sign that the man has an inbred hatred of Conservative Christians and more specifically women in general. I really wonder if the man was sexually abused as a child by a female family member of his or something. (His Mom?) Because this man’s unrelenting stalking and obsessing of Sarah Palin has been quite a disturbing things to watch, especially this long after the election.

Of course, we all know that Andrew Sullivan was already busted on drug charges for trying to buy pot, and should have been deported then. But because the man has connections, he was able to beat the deportation charge and is still in the Country. That, in itself, is a story there. However,  because Sullivan is well-connected within the liberal media, they would not touch the story. I believe this would be a good time for the liberal media to do its job, when it comes to Andrew Sullivan. However, Because I know that Andrew Sullivan is among the liberal elite, he will, as always, avoid the scrutiny that was placed upon Sarah Palin and the John McCain campaign.

Such a twisted world we live in.

Others: Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Conservatives4Palin.com and POWIP (Via Memeorandum)

Some words of wisdom from Ronald Reagan

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This comes from Blogs for Victory:

….and considering this recent poll; Ronald Reagan was a very smart man…. 😀

Sarah Palin needs help with her legal bills

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I received this via e-mail:


Dear Pat,

Time is running out.

Since the first frivolous ethics charges were filed against Sarah Palin two years ago, legal bills for the Palin family have mounted into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last year, friends of the family set up the Alaska Fund Trust to help pay legal fees. They used the words “official legal fund” so that supporters would know it was the fund trusted by the Palins.
But now — because Governor Palin used the word “official” —  an independent counsel decided that Sarah Palin “violated” the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act when she served as governor of the state.
Funds donated to the Alaska Fund Trust were immediately frozen until the legal challenge was sorted out.
Governor Palin has now agreed to send the money back to the donors. This means that not a single dollar of the trust fund went to pay the Governor’s massive legal fees.
On June 24, 2010 a new legal defense fund — The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund — was created to pay these urgent legal bills.
We set up the new fund to cover the Palin’s legal bills for past, present, and future attacks.
The fund has been set up by friends and trusted advisors of Governor Palin.
Let’s help Governor Palin with this incredible burden that no citizen should have to bear and  free her to speak out on behalf of conservatives all across this great country.
Will you help us relieve Governor Palin of this burden?

Pat, as a supporter of Governor Palin, help us with the legal fees stemming from those frivolous charges against Governor Palin.

Yours truly,

Tim Crawford

Trustee

The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund


 The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund | www.SarahPalinLegalDefenseFund.org | info@sarahpalinlegaldefensefund.org

645 G Street | Suite 100 # 711 | Anchorage, AK |  99501

Now, I will tell you this; I was never really a huge Palin fan. But I thought the gal got a raw deal with the liberal media and from idiots that put this Lady through the mill. I am asking those who actually read this blog to help Palin out. Further more, because of hateful bastards like these twits here, I am asking that you double your support for Palin.

The main reason why I even wanted to get involved with this; is this fact right here:

They called it the Alaska Fund Trust, the “official legal fund” for Governor Palin.

In fact, they added the words “official legal fund” so that supporters would know it was not just approved by the family, but that it complied with disclosure requirements, had professional management, created limits on who could donate and how much could be donated, and a variety of other restrictions that made it a very conservative and limited trust.

Further, the word “official” was used to distinguish the Alaska Fund Trust from other legal defense funds that were starting to pop up and no one knew if these would comply with disclosure laws, lobbyist restrictions, etc.

But now – because she used the word “official” – an independent counsel decided that the Trust “violated” the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act and now requires the Trust to send back every single donation raised by the defense fund while she was governor.

The left-wing media wants you to think Gov. Palin is an “ethics violator.” But they ignore the actual findings that Gov. Palin acted in good faith and relied on a team of expert trust lawyers to set it up.

They ignore that Gov. Palin stated one overriding principle: if the trust fund could be lawfully set up, she would support it. That is hardly the action of a person bent on skirting the law, contrary to the hysterical commentaries. But they ignore the truth and prefer to propagate lies about Sarah Palin.

They DON’T want you to know:

  • The National Democratic Committee used its Alaska chapter, the Alaska Democratic Party (ADP), to create a website with one stated goal: “Keep Sarah Palin Out of Public Office.” To this day, the Democrats use this website to publicly seek donations for funding bogus “legal challenges involving issues related to Sarah Palin.”
  • The ADP’s “Keep Sarah Palin Out of Public Office” campaign used our own legal system to sponsor more than two dozen ethics complaints against Governor Palin. Out of the 27 complaints, 26 were dismissed!
  • The so-called “independent counsel” who started this investigation was an attorney from President Barack Obama’s law firm.

The money in the Alaska Fund Trust has been frozen and bills gone unpaid.

You see the part up there, that I put in bold, underlined and colored red? That, my friends, is the reason why I even bothered to post this here. This crusade against Sarah Palin is nothing more than a 21 century lynching against a Conservative Christian Woman.  Admittedly, John McCain’s campaign did do some stuff wrong; at least I feel anyway… — but the bulk of blame goes towards the Democrats, who relentlessly hounded this woman to death and still continues to do so.

Which is just one, in a litany of reasons why I will never vote for anyone representing the Democratic Party, ever again.

Now, I ask you; as a Christian, as someone who believes that the Republican Party does, in fact, embrace the Tea Party values and does want to see a strong, secure America. * I ask you to help Sarah Palin pay down these legal bills, so that she can be free to enjoy the rest of her political and personal career, as she sees fit. Please, do not allow these liberal bastards to bring someone like Palin down or allow them to win the battle. Fight back, with the best weapon possible — your pocketbook. I know times are hard; In fact, I am going through tough times myself. But, all donations, no matter how big or how small will help her out.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

-Patrick

* – Disclaimer: I have never, nor will I ever, be a member or affiliated with the actual Republican National Committee. I have never as much sent them a dime. So, before you call me a Republican, please note this.


Living proof that spending the way out of a recession does not work

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Well, looks like my job prospects just got worse:

The train that is the nation’s economic recovery has slowed noticeably, unable to generate enough jobs in the last two months to keep pace with population growth, much less reduce the vast numbers of unemployed Americans.

The United States added just 83,000 private sector jobs in June, according to the monthly statistical snapshot released by the Labor Department. The unemployment rate declined to 9.5 percent, from 9.7 percent in May. But that was a largely illusory decline, as 652,000 Americans left the work force.

Over all, the nation lost 125,000 jobs in June, but those losses came as temporary federal Census workers headed for the exits.

With the economy slowing — housing sales plummeted, while earnings and hours worked ticked downward last month — the stakes grow larger, economically and politically. The next few monthly unemployment reports will unfold during the run-up to the midterm Congressional elections this fall. Incumbents feel particularly precarious, and major economic decisions about financial reform, unemployment benefits, and aid to states still sit on their desks.

via Recovery Slows With Weak Job Creation in June – NYTimes.com.

Think maybe now the Democrats will finally get it? Guess again. (h/t The Other McCain)

Quote:

“Now, let me say that unemployment insurance, we talk about it as a safety net and the rest — this is one of the biggest stimuluses [sic] to our economy. Economists will tell you, this money is spent quickly. It injects demand into the economy and it’s job-creating. It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name because, again, it is money that is needed for families to survive, and it is spent. So it has a double benefit — it helps those who have lost their jobs, but it also is a job-creator and so, uh, for that reason — for those two reasons at least — it should be passed, and I’m optimistic that it will.”
– Nancy Pelosi, July 1, 2010

Democrats, clueless as usual.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard channels Ron Paul?

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Now 20 years ago; this would have been considered crazy talk! Now, it’s main stream… Somewhere Ron Paul is smiling broadly.

Like a mad aunt, the Fed is slowly losing its marbles.

Kartik Athreya, senior economist for the Richmond Fed, has written a paper condemning economic bloggers as chronically stupid and a threat to public order.

Matters of economic policy should be reserved to a priesthood with the correct post-doctoral credentials, which would of course have excluded David Hume, Adam Smith, and arguably John Maynard Keynes (a mathematics graduate, with a tripos foray in moral sciences).

[…]

“Economics is hard. Really hard. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind-boggingly hard it is. I mean you may think doing the Sunday Times crossword is difficult, but that’s just peanuts to economics. And because it is so hard, people shouldn’t blithely go shooting their mouths off about it, and pretending like it’s so easy. In fact, we would all be better off if we just ignored these clowns.”

via Time to shut down the US Federal Reserve? – Telegraph Blogs.

I encourage you to go read the rest of this; because it is very, very interesting. I just cannot believe that talk of closing the fed is now mainstream! WOW!

Others: The Other McCain

You cannot hide your money in Switzerland anymore

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If you are wealthy, do not try sending your money to Switzerland anymore. The United States Government will come for it:

The Swiss parliament approved a deal Thursday to help the Internal Revenue Service obtain the names of Americans with secret accounts at Switzerland’s largest bank.

The approval averted a renewed conflict between the U.S. and Swiss governments over bank secrecy. If the deal had collapsed, Swiss banking giant UBS faced the threat of potentially crippling U.S. legal action.

Instead, the breakthrough paves the way for the Swiss government to turn over the names and account details of as many as 4,450 U.S. clients of UBS suspected of using undeclared accounts to hide income and evade taxes.

via Swiss to help IRS identify secret UBS accounts in tax probe.

What is the alternative you ask? Simple. Gold and Silver.

It is a pity that our Government has embraced such blatant attempts at robbery. Socialism is just that, steal from the working to give to the lazy.

Warren Buffett says that all wealthy people should give thier money to me!

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Sweet….:

Can a little peer pressure make the ultrarich more generous? Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are launching a drive to persuade billionaires to give away the majority of their fortunes.

What started as a series of very private dinners last year became a public campaign Wednesday when they called on their fellow billionaires to sign a “Giving Pledge,” to donate most of their wealth to philanthropic causes of their choice.

The pledge isn’t legally binding, but they hope the effort will generate more money to address important social problems and set a standard that becomes the norm, former Gates Foundation Chief Executive Patty Stonesifer, now an adviser to the Gateses, said in an interview.

The potential for philanthropy is huge — the United States alone has at least 400 billionaires with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $1.2 trillion. If those billionaires gave the minimum pledge of half of their fortunes to charity, that would triple the current amount of charitable giving in the United States.

via Donate your money, billionaires challenge the rich | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Of course, Warren Buffet did not get rich by giving his money away to anyone. Buffet got it by working hard and making something of himself. Now, he wants to give it away.

Memo to Buffet: Hit the TipJar as much as you wish. If you really wanna get crazy, leave me a message via the blog and I’ll give you my mailing address.

Okay something a little newer than that….. Hey, I am old, ya know! 😉

Oy…. and I don’t even really like Abba. But that one’s pretty cool. 😀

Steve Wynn on the State of America

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This comes from CNBC: (H/T to James Best on Facebook, who found it on InfoWars.com)

Normally, I would not even credit or link to anything on Infowars, because I happen to believe that Alex Jones is a  rube. But, this was quite good and I think it warranted credit.

The Southern Avenger on American Empire and Israel

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Note to all my readers: I am posting these videos here, because I happen to believe in a diversity of opinion and discussion. The opinions expressed in these video should NOT be considered an opinion of the owner of this blog. I simply believe that ALL VOICES, not just a collective few, should be heard in the continuing discussion that is post-Bush Conservative Politics.

—————

Transcript Here

Transcript Here

Ann Arbor, Michigan – The Home of Liberal Reverse Discrimination

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Michigan Never ceases to amaze me, how it continues down the slippery slope of liberalism:

(H/T to Duke Over America Via FTR Radio)

Principal Mike Madison - Segregationist-in-Chief

An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.

Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.

“In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way,” Madison wrote. “But as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and energy that I saw in these children’s eyes as they stood in the presence of a renowned African American rocket scientist in a very successful position, it gave the kids an opportunity to see this type of achievement is possible for even them.

“It was not a wasted venture for I know one day they might want to aspire to be the first astronaut or scientist standing on the Planet Mars.

“I also think it’s important that you know that I have talked to the children who did not go on the field trip, and I think they have a better understanding of the purpose of the AA Lunch Bunch now, as I hope you do. I’m sorry if any kids were upset by the field trip or my discussion afterwards with them, and I have let them know that.

“The intent of our field trip was not to segregate or exclude students as has been reported, but rather to address the societal issues, roadblocks and challenges that our African American children will face as they pursue a successful academic education here in our community.”

A handful of parents have complained to district administrators about the trip, the group and Madison. More than a half-dozen parents contacted AnnArbor.com to raise the complaints, but none would agree to talk on the record, citing concerns of reprisals to their children by Madison.

[…]

District spokeswoman Liz Margolis said after the trip was over, those who went returned to their fifth-grade class and were greeted by boos by those who didn’t go on the trip. Margolis said Madison, who is black, heard the boos, and went to talk to the class. She said he and the class had a “discussion” about race issues.

“He wasn’t yelling at them. He was very passionate about it,” Margolis said.

Parents have complained he was yelling at the class and belittled a Muslim girl who said she also had experienced racism and discrimination.

via Field trip for black students sparks controversy at Ann Arbor elementary school – AnnArbor.com.

On  January 14, 1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democrat; said the following:

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Democrats have not changed that mindset one iota. Except now, the only people being discriminated or segregated are the White people. This whole idiotic idea that we have to “Celebrate Diversity”, basically means “Be ashamed of your White Skin.” It is the mantra and talking point of the far socialist black liberal Democrat Party. It is the mindset of most blacks, especially Liberal Blacks that those evil White Capitalists are out to oppress the Black man; and to atone for that, blacks must be given special privileges and must be given jobs, ahead of the White Man. (like me, for instance…)

That is what I have to deal with here in the great Liberal State of Michigan. It is no wonder that Michigan went to Obama and McCain left early. McCain was no dummy, he knew what he was doing.

Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico

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I am quite shocked that no one, and I mean no one, on my side of the political isle is saying a word about this.

Update: Correction, they are. They are trying to blame Obama. Which is stupid. Obama did not cause this spill. Poor planning and piss poor oversight caused this spill. Stupid far right wingers. I swear. 🙄 ….and no, I am not being funny either, I am quite serious. 😡

Video:

The Story:

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”

The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.

Dr. Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing. “If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months,” she said Saturday. “That is alarming.”

via Giant Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico – NYTimes.com.

There is only one thing to call this; and that is straight up negligence. Hopefully, President Obama does more than just talk. I do not think that outright banning should be the answer. Stricter guidelines and emergency backup plans should be the requirement. None of these were in place, this is why we are in the spot that we are now. I personally believe that criminal charges ought to be filed against the said parties that are found to be negligent. However, because I am a realist, I know that nothing like will happen. One thing that I have learned from Blogging; first as a left of center, criticizing Bush and his stupidity and then after coming over the “right of center” political position, is that big companies like this and political figures like George W. Bush and his cronies are all above prosecution. They are untouchable. Nothing will come of it, except more Government regulation. Our society is collectivist as a whole now. We punish everyone for the faults of a few. Which is sad. Why not punish those who made the mistake, and then insure it never happens again? But that would make too much sense.

Others: Politics Daily, The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, msnbc.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News and Associated Press

Obama Says: “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money”

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This is unbelievable.  (H/T HotAir)

Video:

Partial Transcript:

We’re not, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.

The problem is; that was not a part of his prepared remarks, here is what he was supposed to say:

Now, we’re not doing this to punish these firms or begrudge success that’s fairly earned. We don’t want to stop them from fulfilling their responsibility to help grow our economy.

By the way, the radio host is Mark Levin, whom I normally find to be highly annoying; mainly because his voice sounds like the equivalent of dragging a cat backwards through a fan. But, I have to say, that I agree with everything that is said here.

Ed Morrissey, whom I have much respect for, points out the glaringly obvious here:

He should have stuck with the TelePrompter. The President doesn’t get to decide when people have “made enough money.” In fact, as the radio host notes, that’s a statist point of view. Furthermore, the responsibility of an entrepreneur isn’t to “grow our economy,” core or otherwise. It’s to grow his own economy. In a properly regulated capitalist system, the natural tension of self-interests create economic growth through innovation and efficient use of capital and resources.

Put simply, a free people work for themselves, not for the government. Barack Obama seems to have a problem understanding that.

But then again; Marxists usually do. Yesterday, I posted a video by Chris Matthews over at MSNBC basically saying that we should cool it with the Nazi references, when it comes to politics and the Right…and Left. The reason why I say that I agreed with that; is because comparing this President to Adolf Hitler is giving Hitler and this President way too much credit.  Nazism was started because Hitler saw the failures of socialism and sought to improve upon it; a plan the ultimately failed thankfully. This President is just a flat out socialist; he is highly against any sort of unfettered Capitalism at all. I mean, do not misunderstand me here; I am all for seeing the people that capitalized on our economy going down the toilet, having to pay the piper.  But to get in front of people and make a statement like this, is just inexcusable. This might come as a shock to those on the left; I am for Capitalism, but I am not for the reckless greed, that leads to destruction. There is a big difference.

The Bottom Line: The President needs to stick to the teleprompter. Because every time that he goes off of that teleprompter, he exposes himself and that exposure is starting to look very, very ugly.

Update: Others: RedState, Left Coast Rebel, Whiskey Fire, The TrogloPundit, Beltway Confidential, Cassy Fiano, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Neptunus Lex, Confederate Yankee, YID With LID, Animal Farm, Villainous Company, protein wisdom and Pajamas Media

Video: We Will Remember

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(H/T HotAir)

Sign the Pledge at We Will Remember.

Stupid: General Motors plays a shell game

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Here’s one for the “Stuck on Stupid” file that seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the day.

AP Headline: Gas in the tank: GM repays $8.1B in gov’t loans

Quote:

WASHINGTON – Fallen giant General Motors Co. accelerated toward recovery Wednesday, announcing the repayment of $8.1 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans five years ahead of schedule.

The Obama administration crowed about the “turnaround” at GM and fellow bailout recipient Chrysler LLC, saying the government’s unpopular rescue of Detroit’s automakers is paying off.

Much of the improvement comes from GM slashing its debt load and workforce as part of its bankruptcy reorganization last year. But the automaker is a long way from regaining its old blue-chip status: It remains more than 70 percent government-owned and is still losing money — $3.4 billion in last year’s fourth quarter alone. And while its car and truck sales are up so far this year, that’s primarily due to lower-profit sales to car rental companies and other fleet buyers.

Chrysler, now run by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA, said Wednesday it lost almost $200 million in the first quarter. But it said it boosted its cash reserves by $1.5 billion, reducing the likelihood that it will need more government aid.

“This turnaround wasn’t an accident of history,” said White House economic adviser Larry Summers. “It was the result of considered and politically difficult decisions made by President Obama to provide GM and Chrysler — and indeed the auto industry — a lifeline, if they could demonstrate the will to reshape their businesses.”

Vice President Joe Biden said President Barack Obama “took a lot of heat” to keep GM alive. “And this has even exceeded our expectations.”

Everything is happy yappy and yippie skippy right?

Wrong.

Jamie Dupree dishes the straight dope on this little shell game: (H/T Q & O)

General Motors will make a big splash in the news today by announcing that the automaker will repay several billion dollars loans from the federal government earlier than expected. But it’s not really coming out of the GM wallet.

The issue came up yesterday at a hearing with the special watchdog on the Wall Street Bailout, Neil Barofsky, who was asked several times about the GM repayment by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), who was looking for answers on how much money the feds might make from the controversial Wall Street Bailout.


“It’s good news in that they’re reducing their debt,” Barofsky said of the accelerated GM payments, “but they’re doing it by taking other available TARP money.”

In other words, GM is taking money from the Wall Street Bailout – the TARP money – and using that to pay off their loans ahead of schedule.

“It sounds like it’s kind of like taking money out of one pocket and putting in the other,” said Carper, who got a nod of agreement from Barofsky.

[….]


Most of Uncle Sam’s bailout money that was given to GM has now been turned into stock in the U.S. automaker.

“The assumption is that, over time, hopefully the value of the stock will appreciate,” said Carper.

Long term that could prove to be a money-making investment for the feds – or if things go the wrong way for General Motors – a big, fat loss for Uncle Sam.

As most of you know, my Father is a 31 year veteran of the General Motors company. I find this little idiotic shell game right here to be just plain immoral. I mean, how in the hell are you going to use money from the Government to pay off the Government? That is basically taking money out of one pocket and putting into another. That is not paying off your debt; that is nothing more than a  shell game. The reason why this is so upsetting to me is; that it is just going to hurt my Father. Because sooner or later, this company is not going to be able to pay my Dad’s pension.

As the son of a General Motors worker, I want to see G.M. succeed; but I want to see them succeed the right way and honestly. Not by playing a dirty, underhanded shell game, and that my friends is what this is, a dirty shell game to fool the American people and the workers at G.M. into believing that they are on to the road to recovery, when in all honesty, they are not.

The American Taxpayers, The workers and retirees for General Motors; deserve better than this.

Shame on General Motors for their deceptive tactics and shame on the White House and Yes, the President for aiding and abetting in this little scam.

The real cute part is that not a word of this, has been said in the media, as to just HOW this loans are being paid back. That my friends is a damned human tragedy.

Others: Questions and Observations, Mish’s Global Economic …, TigerHawk, Sweetness & Light, JammieWearingFool and The TrogloPundit

Update: Not surprisingly, Ed Morrissey Agrees with me.

From the Dept of ‘Now why I am not surprised?’

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Shocking? Not Hardly.

In Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, there is a police impound lot where dozens of brand-new vehicles sit gleaming in the sun, sporting the logos of aid groups that poured into the city to help in the wake of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left 1 million homeless.

Haitian police are holding the vehicles for ransom, American aid workers say, demanding exorbitant sums for registration technicalities. The relief workers call it a brazen display — even for a country known to be rife with corruption.

When many of the vehicles were brought into Haiti, as cries rang out from beneath the rubble, there was no Haitian government to register the vehicles. The factory that made license plates, for instance, was destroyed.

But in mid-March, less than two months after the earthquake that registered 7.0 on the Richter scale, Haitian police began to impound vehicles without tags.

Relief groups are given a choice, American aid workers say: Pay a fine of 50 percent of the vehicles’ value, which quickly adds up to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for most groups, or wait two to three months for paperwork to be processed.

via Haitian corruption and graft delay earthquake relief efforts, punishes destitute refugees | The Daily Caller

This is what happens when a Constitutional Republic decides to be the “White Knight” of a Socialist Country. You would think that America, its people and Government would have wised up about this already. But, as long as there is a bleeding heart liberal in this Country, we will keep sinking money into that godless pit.

When will America get a clue? When?

Justice: Goldman Sachs sued by the SEC for the Meltdown of 2008

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Finally, some justice to these bastards:

Via the NYT:

Goldman Sachs, which emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis, was accused of securities fraud in a civil suit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail.

The move marks the first time that regulators have taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market. Goldman itself profited by betting against the very mortgage investments that it sold to its customers.

The suit also named Fabrice Tourre, a vice president at Goldman who helped create and sell the investment.

In a statement, Goldman called the S.E.C. accusations “completely unfounded in law and fact” and said the firm would “vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.”

The instrument in the S.E.C. case, called Abacus 2007-AC1, was one of 25 deals that Goldman created so the bank and select clients could bet against the housing market. Those deals, which were the subject of an article in The New York Times in December, initially protected Goldman from losses when the mortgage market disintegrated and later yielded profits for the bank.

As the Abacus deal plunged in value, Goldman and a prominent hedge fund made money on their negative bets, while European investors like IKB and ABN Amro lost more than $1 billion, the S.E.C. said.

According to the complaint, Goldman created Abacus 2007-AC1 in February 2007, at the request of John A. Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager who earned an estimated $3.7 billion in 2007 by correctly wagering that the housing bubble would burst.

Goldman let Mr. Paulson select mortgage bonds that he wanted to bet against — the ones he believed were most likely to lose value — and packaged those bonds into Abacus 2007-AC1, according to the S.E.C. complaint. Goldman then sold the Abacus deal to investors like foreign banks, pension funds, insurance companies and other hedge funds.

But the deck was stacked against the Abacus investors, the complaint contends, because the investment was filled with bonds chosen by Mr. Paulson, who is not named in the suit, as likely to default. Goldman told investors in Abacus marketing materials reviewed by The Times that the bonds would be chosen by an independent manager.

“The product was new and complex, but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” Robert Khuzami, the director of the S.E.C.’s division of enforcement, said in a statement. “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.”

In response Goldman Sachs says:

The SEC’s charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.

Yeah, sure the accusations are unfounded. If I were a Goldman employee; I would be looking for a new job pronto.

From the SEC Press Release:

The SEC’s complaint alleges that after participating in the portfolio selection, Paulson & Co. effectively shorted the RMBS portfolio it helped select by entering into credit default swaps (CDS) with Goldman Sachs to buy protection on specific layers of the ABACUS capital structure. Given that financial short interest, Paulson & Co. had an economic incentive to select RMBS that it expected to experience credit events in the near future. Goldman Sachs did not disclose Paulson & Co.’s short position or its role in the collateral selection process in the term sheet, flip book, offering memorandum, or other marketing materials provided to investors.

The SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs Vice President Fabrice Tourre was principally responsible for ABACUS 2007-AC1. Tourre structured the transaction, prepared the marketing materials, and communicated directly with investors. Tourre allegedly knew of Paulson & Co.’s undisclosed short interest and role in the collateral selection process. In addition, he misled ACA into believing that Paulson & Co. invested approximately $200 million in the equity of ABACUS, indicating that Paulson & Co.’s interests in the collateral selection process were closely aligned with ACA’s interests. In reality, however, their interests were sharply conflicting.

According to the SEC’s complaint, the deal closed on April 26, 2007, and Paulson & Co. paid Goldman Sachs approximately $15 million for structuring and marketing ABACUS. By Oct. 24, 2007, 83 percent of the RMBS in the ABACUS portfolio had been downgraded and 17 percent were on negative watch. By Jan. 29, 2008, 99 percent of the portfolio had been downgraded.

Investors in the liabilities of ABACUS are alleged to have lost more than $1 billion.

The SEC’s complaint charges Goldman Sachs and Tourre with violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Exchange Act Rule 10b-5. The Commission seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits, prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

Allow me to humbly submit that I hope that these bastards get exactly what is coming to them. I mean, these guy literally gambled as the stock market and by proxy; our economy went straight into the toilet.   Many people that I know; like my parents, lost a good deal of money on this stuff. Not only that, after the credit crises hit; G.M. ended up having to shed a bunch of expenses; and as a result, my parents lost their optical and dental insurance. That came as a indirect result of this Wall Street mess. So, as far as I am concerned; throw the book at these bastards.

Capitalism is one thing, heartless greed is another; and these bastards crossed that line, big time. 😡