(WaPo 4 April 2009: The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow firms benefiting from the programs to avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials. Administration officials have concluded that this approach is vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion financial rescue package. See "Obama Say it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!!" by WoburnDem on BMG. The president, unfortunately, has about as much credibility on the issue of Wall Street bonuses at this point as Dick Cheney at an Amnesty International convention. - promoted by Bob)
Steve Croft of 60 Minutes interviewed President Obama on this evening's show, evoking Obama's views on Afghanistan, the economy and jobs.
The president expressed consternation and anger at the Wall Street bankers who are again handing out huge bonuses (I think they said $32 billion in total if that's possible) after being bailed out to the tune of 100's of billions by US taxpayers and during a time of 10% unemployment. Shocked! Shocked, the President was! Duh, Barack, do you see who you surrounded yourself with?
I wonder if the prez has read this damning article by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. I'd have liked Croft to ask him about it. Virtually Obama's entire economic "reform" team are Bob Rubin Wall Street insiders, who come from the very places that engineered the mess and are now awarding those bonuses again: Michael From, Jamie Rubin, Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Lewis Alexander, Gene Sperling, Lael Brainard, Gary Gensler, Peter Orszag, Diana Farrell, Mark Patterson, Lee Sachs, Rahm Emanuel et al. "Rather than having a team of rivals, they've got a team of Rubins," The point is that an economic team made up exclusively of callous millionaire-assholes has absolutely zero interest in reforming the gamed system that made them rich in the first place. "You can't expect these people to do anything other than protect Wall Street," says Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Republican from Florida. Afghanistan below the fold... |
| Second troubling topic. Croft asked about the recently announced Afghanistan surge & withdrawal strategy. The core reason for the strategy that Obama offered, as I understood him, is that the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan is the Taliban's stronghold and epicenter of attacks launched by Al Qaeda against the United States and others, and thus we must eliminate them in that region.
I find it troubling to think that we are going to expend an additional 30,000 troops, bringing our total to over 100,000, to "Clear, Hold, Build, and Transfer" in a country that is not really a country and is nominally ruled by a disrespected, corrupt leader. But more important is that Al Qaeda operates in many places and launched the 9/11 attacks from other places than the Af-Pak border region. In other words, there's ample reason to doubt the need for this kind of war. And when there's doubt about whether a war should be waged, we oughtn't wage it. |
