Jack & Jill Politics

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/...
What We're Doing -- And Spending -- To Stave Off A Financial Collapse
By Zachary Roth - November 26, 2008, 2:54PM
With all the different programs being undertaken by the federal government to rescue the economy, it's hard to keep straight everything that taxpayers are now on the hook for.
That's especially true because the commitments are being made by several different government agencies (primarily the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve) and even more so, because they come in a range of forms.

Some of these commitments -- for instance, the Treasury's bailout program -- represent actual spending. We could see a return on these investments, of course, depending on how the companies that we've taken on fare going forward, but there are by no means any guarantees.

Others, meanwhile, represent loans backed by collateral, meaning the government would have had to have badly miscalculated for us not to be paid back in full, probably with interest. And some are simply loan guarantees.

So putting an exact figure on exactly how much we've put up doesn't tell us much. But here's our best attempt, based on piecing together several reports, at a non-comprehensive rundown of the major components of the government's effort to stave off a financial collapse.


Spending:

- The Troubled Assets Relief Program, in which Congress allocated $700 billion to the Treasury to buy equity stakes in financial institutions.

- A Federal Reserve program, announced in October, to buy up to $2.4 trillion in commercial paper that companies use to pay bills. That figure represents what eligible issuers could sell, but the Fed has said it does not intend to buy anywhere near that amount. Earlier this week the Washington Post put the amount that it had so far put up at $266 billion.

- A combined Fed-Treasury effort, announced yesterday, to buy up to $800 billion in mortgage- and asset-backed securities, in order to unfreeze credit markets.

- A Fed program, announced last month, to purchase up to $600 billion in US dollar commercial paper and certificates of deposit, in an effort to provide liquidity to money markets.

- The Citigroup bailout, announced over the weekend, in which Treasury, the Fed, and the FDIC have agreed to shoulder up to $249.3 billion in losses from the company's risky assets.

- Since September, Treasury has spent at least $26.57 billion in making direct purchases of mortgage-backed securities. It has said it will continue to make such purchases in the months ahead, reports CNBC.

- Treasury has also spent $200 billion combined to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by purchasing preferred stock when they were taken over by the federal government back in September.

- And according to CNBC, it has spent up to $144 billion in additional mortgage-backed securities purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, since their portfolio limits were expanded at the time.

- Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Administration spent $300 billion to refinance failing mortgages, in an effort launched this fall to rescue the housing market.

- And the $29 billion in financing in March for JPMorgan Chase's government-brokered buyout of Bear Stearns.

- The Fed has made up to $900 billion in loans to financial institutions. As of Nov. 19, it had extended $415.3 billion in credit.

- The Fed also has continued its regular discount window lending, but at a much higher volume than normal. It loaned $91.5 billion last week, up almost 200 percent from the usual weekly average of $48 million over the last three years, according to Bloomberg News.

- The Fed and Treasury will support AIG to the tune of $152.5 billion, in equity purchases and loans, it was announced earlier this month.

- The FDIC last week announced that it will make available up to about $1.4 trillion in loan guarantees, to encourage bank-to-bank loans.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/wat...

The Statue of Liberty Depicts a Freed Slave
November 27, 2008, 3:58PM


BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE




The Statue of Liberty Depicts a Freed Slave

For over a hundred and twenty years the Statue of Liberty has greeted immigrants to these shores with open arms and the promise of the kind of freedom that they had never known. As a result, that towering, stately, and majestic lady has come to represent the quintessential symbol of freedom, liberty, and justice for people all over the world. Just the sight of her brought hope and inspiration to millions of European immigrants as they entered New York Harbor, and that initial vision sustained them as they started their new lives in America.

The scene must have seemed surreal as their boats slowly moved past her in the harbor. Oceans of tears must have flowed as the immigrants stared in awe at this magnificent lady. In her right hand she held the burning flame of passion and enlightenment--outstretched and high, as though reaching for the very face of God. In her left arm she held the tablet that represents the rule of law, and the guarantee of equal justice for all, and on her right foot, the broken shackle of a freed slave. That's right-millions of European immigrants were welcomed to America by the statue of a freed slave.

On the pedestal upon which she stood, were the words that had inspired their journey. It says... "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse to your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

As a child in school I was taught that the idea of the Statue of Liberty was conceived by a Frenchman, Edouard Laboulaye, as a monument to the collaboration and friendship of the United States and France during the Revolutionary war, and that it was sculpted by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. But at the urging of one of our readers I revisited the issue, and did a little research. As a result, I found that Laboulaye did indeed conceive of the Statue of Liberty, but not as a monument to the Revolutionary War. The Statue of Liberty was conceived as a monument to the end of slavery, and to honor those men, women and children who had been enslaved.

Laboulaye conceived of the Statue of Liberty in 1865. That was a hundred years after the Revolutionary War, but it just happened to be the very year that the Civil War came to an end. And it also turns out that Laboulaye wasn't just any Frenchman--he was not only an abolitionist who had dedicated his entire life to the abolishment of slavery, he was a leader of the French abolitionist movement. In addition, the sculptor who actually created the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was connected with the abolitionist movement as well.

In an Associated Press interview, Richard Newman, a research officer at Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research is quoted as saying, "It is widely believed in academic circles that Laboulaye meant for the statue to honor the slaves, as well as mark the recent Union victory in the Civil War and the life of Abraham Lincoln."

The Statue of Liberty wasn't actually completed until 1886, but there's a 21 inch replica of the statue that was completed in 1870 on display at the Museum of the City of New York. That replica, or, original, is not white, it's terra cotta (brownish-orange), and it is said to have been designed in the likeness of a Black woman. In addition, the replica has a broken shackle around her left hand. The 151 foot statue in New York Harbor has a more . . . Discrete shackle around her foot.

The words at the base of the Statue of Liberty from the poem, "The New Colossus", by Emma Lazarus wasn't added to the statue until 1903, during a time when there was a huge surge in European immigration, and that's when the fiction began. During an interview with the Associated Press, Rebecca M. Joseph, a Boston-based Park service anthropologist is quoted as saying, "There is wide agreement that Liberty's now-familiar association with immigration was not planned by the statue's creators."

Nevertheless the thoroughly ironic scene of European immigrants weeping as they passed the Lady's flame must have played out thousands of times. It's the stuff that movies are made of-and just like most movies, the irony of a magnificent subplot churned discretely beneath the surface. One of the ironies is that now, many the grandchildren of some of those very same immigrants--those indigent immigrants that Lady Liberty welcomed into this country with open arms--have used voting fraud, unfair labor practices, redlining, blatant discrimination, and every other device, in an attempt to undermine the very people that we now know the Lady was originally created to embrace.

I'm not at all surpirsed about this information.

Woah.

rikyrah: A ONE MAN ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE!! :>) :>)

Barack Obama becomes celebrity sportswear endorser

Tiger Woods costs $20 million a year. David Beckham, £10m. In these troubled economic times, sportswear manufacturers may find themselves having to reevaluate such costly celebrity endorsements, but fortunately for them the world's most popular gym fanatic has stepped in to offer his services. Cost: $0 for four years, with the possibility to extend in 2012.

The media fascination with Barack Obama's sporting antics is a boon for makers of leading athletic brands, which the president-elect has been pictured wearing on frequent trips to the gym and basketball court. The current presidential favourite appears to be Nike, the famous tick spotted on Mr Obama's attire so regularly that one would be forgiven for suspecting a product placement deal.

Not so, says Nike, but nevertheless the company is pleased that so stylish a figure favours its products.

"We don't make a point of giving the president-elect any products for free, but we're glad that he has such good taste in sportswear, whether he's working it out or taking it easy," Nike spokesman Charlie Brooks unashamedly told The Times.

THERE IS MORE.

President-Elect Obama! :>) LARGE and IN CHARGE! :>)

rikyrah: On the Lighter Side of the News: :>)

Iman Crosson for Prez... on SNL: Bloggers



(Newser) – The race to find a new comedian to impersonate president-elect Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live continues, reports ABC News, and bloggers such as Andrew Sullivan and Anovelista have the man for the job. Meet Iman Crosson, whose Obama imitations can be found on his YouTube AlphaCat channel.

Atlantic blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates had this to say for Crosson: “You don't have to be black to do a good impersonation of a black dude. I like Darrell Hammond's Jesse Jackson a lot more than Keenan Thompson's Al Sharpton—but you do have to be good. Andrew nominated this cat awhile back. I thought he was decent, but then I saw this video. Awesome." Check out the awesomeness, a parody of TI’s "Whatever You Like," in the video embedded at left.

Source ABC News

Looks like "Iman" is being pushed to the FRONT!! :>) :>)

P.S. ANOVELISTA - HeeeeeeeY!! :>) :>)

Alphacat's "Whatever You Like" parody is better than the song it actually parodies.

Nate: THANKS for the REMINDER! :>) Yes! I liked that one! :>) In fact I have referenced it on several posts. :>) THANKS! :>)

President-Elect Obama! :>) LARGE and IN CHARGE! :>)

i have a house full of folks watching Madea's Family Reunion.....lol

rikyrah: LOL!!! :>) I have 4 or 5 of those DVD's. LAUGHING ALL THE WAY!!! :>) :>)