Jack & Jill Politics

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

Dissecting President Barack Obama's recent visit to Dover, where he saluted America's war dead on camera, right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh echoed the words of Elizabeth Cheney, falsely implying that President George W. Bush had done the same, but without the cameras.

"I don't know why he went to Dover," Cheney said during a Fox News radio interview on Thursday. "I think that it is clearly important for a commander in chief, whenever he can in whatever way possible, to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers, our fallen military folks. But I think, you know, what President Bush used to do is to do it without the cameras. And, um, I don't understand, sort-of showing up with the White House press pool, with photographers, and asking family members if you can take pictures. That's really hard for me to get my head around."

"President Bush used to do it!" said Limbaugh, as though to imply that the former president would visit Dover to honor the war dead, much as President Obama did earlier this week. "Boy, we didn't know it! She just told us something we didn't know. Bush used to do it, but there were no cameras. He did it privately with the families."

Limbaugh falsely implies Bush visited Dover to honor soldiers

Rachel Maddow had her folks call Bush yesterday and they confirmed that when Bush was present, he never once visited Dover.

"I don't know why he went to Dover,"

That's what that idiot woman said! "I don't know why"????

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa>>>lap

GoddAMN!! I hate that fucking family!

Bush NEVER fucking DID IT. He NEVER went to Dover - PERIOD. Yes, he met with families of the soldiers murdered over his bullshit, made-up, fucked-up war, but he NEVER met with any family at Dover. PERIOD.

not in SEVEN DAMN YEARS.

neither he nor CHENEY.

SEVEN DAMN YEARS.

NEAR 4,000 DEAD.

NEVER IN SEVEN DAMN YEARS.

A disgrace! A disgrace! A disgrace!

They have no conscience, no soul!

This mantra needs to be recorded and played over the airwaves repeatedly.

Had to share this! A Sistah just brokedown a puma--miss Bonnie Erbe--with an extraordinarily clairvoyant analysis (and by invoking Mandingo)...

The Return of the Pent-Up Puma

President Obama drew heat last week for a story that surfaced outing his private White House male-only b-ball games. The story was that even though two female members of his cabinet were members of their college basketball teams, they were excluded, as were all women, from this most private of male-only clubs. The story became a metaphor for how the president views women generally and threatened to reveal some inconvenient truths about the man.

Ahhhhh…………nothing like the return of the pent-up puma!

GREAT pumpkin diary at DailyKos

the creativity of some people is amazing

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/31/799075...

Ah

Let me show you something amazingly cool. Check out this place!
Very impressive! Audiegrl rocks!

http://the44diaries.com/2009/10/12/hbos-by-the-...

Enjoyed the artistic pumpkins. Thanks for posting.

The Carnival Sideshow Known As The Learning ChannelOct 30, 2009

TLC, What's up with the programming?
Have you watched TLC also known as "The Learning Channel"? With a name like that, you might expect to learn something, right? Well, if you've clicked through TLC's shows lately, you'll start to wonder where they get their programming ideas from.

Here are some of TLC's show titles: Jon and Kate Plus 8, Little People Big World, The Little Couple, I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant, The Man Whose Arms Exploded, The Mermaid Girl, Toddlers And Tiaras, and The World's Heaviest Man.

Hmm, we think we've seen all of these shows before, except they weren't on TLC. They were in the dark tents of carnival sideshows, and we really didn't "learn" anything except how to be completely freaked out.

Here is our brief history of TLC's carnival programming and how the TLC execs must think
we're all "marks" (what Carnies or Carnival workers call the suckers who come to the shows):
http://www.thepantaloon.com/

Saturday, October 31, 2009
Teabaggers have forced moderate GOP candidate to quit race in NY-23
by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 10/31/2009 11:14:00 AM

The teabaggers now own the Republican Party. The GOP candidate for Congress in New York's 23rd CD, Dede Scozzafava, has suspended her campaign. Scozzofava was under assault from the hard-core wing of the GOP because she was pro-choice and supported lgbt equality. The local paper has the story and an excerpt from Scozzofava's letter to her supporters announcing the decision.

The hard-core right wingers have rallied around the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman. A poll released today showed Scozzofava had dropped to a distant third place:

Today's hotly anticipated Siena poll confirms the race for the seat vacated by former Rep. John McHugh in NY-23 has become a too-close-to-call fight between Democratic nominee Bill Owens and Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, who are tied at 36-35.

The Republicans' pick, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who started out as the frontrunner, is now at 20 percent. Nine percent of voters remain undecided.

There is no room for different ideas in the modern day GOP. The teabaggers rule their world.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/10/teabaggers-h...

I think the "brains" of the redumblican party told her to drop out.Hopefully the sane ones will vote for Owens who is nothing more than a republican dressing up as a democrat.

Beck's prediction: Sarah Palin positioning herself for third-party run -- and a third party will win in 2012
Bill O'Reilly is "fascinated" with Sarah Palin, and has been featuring segments on her a lot of late. He had Glenn Beck on The O'Reilly Factor on Thursday night to talk about her prospects.

They agreed that her upcoming book tour is a "make or break" situation regarding her political future -- but that if she fares well with the media, she'll be well positioned for 2012. They also agree that resigning as governor before had even completed her first term was a "smart move."

Which gave Beck a launching pad for his prophesying mode:

Beck: Smart move. And I think she's also positioning herself for a third party. By the time this election runs around for the president, I'm sorry, but unless the Republicans and the Democrats wake up, a third party will win.

Presumably, by "wake up" Beck means "embrace the tea party philosophy of small government and big wingnuttery". The Democrats won't, but most likely the Republicans will. But I don't think it's going to be the recipe for victory Glenn Beck thinks it will be.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/becks-p...

I hope she runs so she can make a fool of herself again. And also I hope all those blockhead conservatives vote for Palin so it will split the Republican vote.

Wanda Sykes Wouldn’t Fool Anyone With Black Babies: Wanda is everywhere you turn these days. Whether she’s doing specials on HBO or chatting with Oprah, she has something to say about everything. In an effort to create a buzz about her new late night show, she is doing the rounds. I certainly wish her luck. It has been a very long time since Black people had a voice outside of the dog pound (yep, Aresenio reference)

When Sykes came out as a lesbian in an effort to fight Prop 8, her commentary was very telling about the ways in which sexuality is assumed. “I never had to tell my parents I was Black, but I had to tell them that I am a lesbian.” Since that time, she has gone on to declare her sexuality as her largest marginalization. As a matter of course, I tend to avoid critiquing someone’s lived experience but this…this is just pure ish. Thanks Wanda for supporting a hierarchy of oppressions. Are you going to get a gay is the new Black tattoo as well? Will it help you to fight the last great civil rights battle on the planet?

Could you post a link?

"Even if they had used the sperm from a Black man, if he did not have a genetic link to her, there was never any possibility that they would look like her."

womansistwoman- I read that article again. That article is disturbing on several levels.

What have become of Black people in America? We want to be everyone/everything but ourselves. sigh

Here we go again. She has sold out her Blackness to promote gayness? I think Wanda Sykes is funny but I cannot support her. Let her gay friends make her show a success.

Can't wait, we are taking our grandson to DC for his spring break from school late March/early April.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/travel/bal-travel-w...

"Obamaland
Popular first family gives Washington a new vibe visitors can feel

...When I spent a few days there recently, Washington still felt fully in thrall to Obamania. Indeed, those few people I encountered who could recall ancient history - meaning, the previous administration - were quick to describe what a pall George W. Bush cast over the nation's capital. Besides frequently bragging about how his tax policies were "starving the beast," (that beast, of course, being Washington), President Bush was famously uninterested in the city's cultural and culinary attractions. His most memorable dining experience in the capital, one wag told me, was the pretzel that nearly caused him to choke to death.

"President Bush was always dissing Washington, but Barack Obama doesn't," said Peggy Clifton, a researcher at the Library of Congress. "So, most people who live and work here are much happier now. We feel like there's finally someone in the White House who respects what this town actually does - which is govern."

I don't know much about this guy. This man writes some of the best articles I read. I wish he had more exposure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/opinion/27her...

Not really sure where Mr. Herbert is looking but there is some march, rally, protest, or reaction nearly every day about social injustices. The places where there is a deafening silence and failure to reaction to public outrage are the MSM and the peoples' houses on the Hill.

Morphus are Black people marching for anything? When I say Black people I don't mean as an individual in a larger group(union,gays groups, etc). As a race of people. If so where and for what reasons?

Recent and upcoming

1. Be in D.C. Nov 12- Demand Civil Rights for Investigation for Mumia
2. Michigan Activists Rally Against Wachovia / Wells Fargo Evictions
3. Students: Chicago nightclub barred blacks
4. Bucks County, PA-The Bucks County NAACP called for disciplinary action and teacher sensitivity training in the Central Bucks School District yesterday after an eighth-grade math class at Lenape Middle School got a homework assignment with an image of a black man that the group called “insulting” and “disparaging.”

because Bob pretty much tells the truth...of course, he has limited exposure

Trick-or-Treat, Trick-or-Treat
Give me something good to eat! :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!

When Michele Bachman crowed in September that the exposure of alleged illegal activity by the anti-poverty group ACORN was just the start of a campaign to "defund the left," she may have revealed more about current Republican strategy than she intended.

“Defunding the left is going to be so easy,” Bachmann told the audience at a conservative conference, “and it’s going to solve so many of our problems.”

...

The idea of starving the Democratic Party of donations by defunding the progressive non-profits that form a central pillar of its support is not new. It goes back to at least 1981, when the Heritage Foundation published a set of over 2000 policy recommendations for the Reagan administration. According to SourceWatch, "One challenge, as Heritage saw it, was to counter the rise of its ideological opponents by whittling away their status as 'public interest' organisations and eliminating federal financial support for 'liberal' groups."

The Capital Research Center (CRC) was founded in 1984 by a former Heritage Foundation vice president to implement this agenda by uncovering the presumably questionable funding sources of progressive groups. CRC's central assumption has always been that "a unified, sophisticated and well-funded philanthropic elite is dedicated to imposing on us the doctrine of 'progressive' philanthropy, doctrines that would reorder our political, economic and cultural priorities."

The CRC selected ACORN as a favored targed long before almost anybody else had heard of the group. In January 2005, Bill Berkowitz, who regularly reports on right-wing organizations, wrote:

"In mid-October of last year, the Center's president, Terence Scanlon, launched a pre-emptive strike against ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and its voter registration efforts. Scanlon cast a shadow over ACORN's reports that it had registered over one million new voters. He charged that because of irregularities, the organization was coming under scrutiny by lawmakers 'in state after state [where] allegations are surfacing that ACORN activists are padding the registration books'

"As a non-profit community-based organizing group, ACORN has been on the CRC's radar for several years. According to Scanlon, ACORN, with some 150,000 dues-paying members organized into 65 city chapters, 'is better known for public disruption.' Its so-called community organizing 'has relied on in-your-face confrontation,' including a 1995 demonstration targeting then House Speaker Newt Gingrich. 'In 2002 it burst into the Heritage Foundation to harangue welfare reform expert Robert Rector. Dozen of city councils and state legislatures have had to face angry ACORN protesters demanding higher minimum wages and more welfare entitlements. Banks have been pressured to change their lending practices or face ACORN charges of discrimination before regulators.'”

Conservatives’ 25-year goal of ‘defunding the left’ revealed by ACORN controversy

Thanks for posting this article. This sheds a light on the WHY the right wingers are upset about ACCORN.
What bothers me the most about the ACCORN issue this year is that DEMS went along with the defunding of the group without a hearing. The guilt of this organization was decided by "filmakers" with edited "evidence."
Where's the outrage?

Few want to say anything because President Obama is on record as saying they should be investigated after the pimps and ho's video. He is the one who sold out community organizers.

That is not true, Rob.

In his interview with George S., PBO said the following: "You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated."

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=8618937

He never said ACORN should be investigate.

Your argument is based on a technicality that doesn't operate in the reality of 24 media blast. When the principles who are doing the wrong thing are w/ ACORN who did you think was going to get investigated? If the President wanted to clear the air why didn't he? For someone who constantly calls for people to be respnsible for their actions he is certainly guilty of a case of loose lips and never owning up.

I think that he has to say he wants ACORN investigated b/c if they are they will be exonerated and it will make everyone who jumped on the defund bandwagon look bad. They all know the truth but they knew the media would play along and distort the facts in their favor to sway public opinion against the group. Also the so called Anti-Acorn bill would in turn defund alot of the other sides special interest groups like military contractors which is probably the last outcome they expected.

Price Tag For Requested Afghanistan Troops Could Top $500,000 A Soldier
If President Barack Obama decides to send the 40,000 additional forces to Afghanistan, as requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a rough estimate by the Pentagon projects the cost could be an additional $20 billion a year, according to a senior Pentagon official
http://www.wibw.com/political/headlines/6768497...

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested several members of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S., killing one of its leaders at a shootout in a Michigan warehouse, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Agents were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, at a Dearborn warehouse on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Authorities also conducted raids elsewhere to try to round up 10 followers named in a federal complaint.

No one was charged with terrorism. But Abdullah was “advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States,” FBI agent Gary Leone said in an affidavit filed with the 43-page criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents.

In the complaint, the FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the United States.

He told them it was their “duty to oppose the FBI and the government and it does not matter if they die,” Leone said.

Abdullah regularly preached anti-government rhetoric and was trained, along with his followers, in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords, the agent said.

Leone said members of the national group mostly are black and some converted to Islam while in prisons across the United States.

"Abdullah preaches that every Muslim should have a weapon, and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed,” Leone wrote. More HERE

U.S. Government attacks Black Groups leaves White Groups alone

Delete

I'm going to get flamed for this but I'm going to say it, Good Riddance. If you want rile against the government. If you are going to talk the way this guy was talking and live how he was living. This guy was presenting himself like some spiritual leader(like they all do) and doing illegal activities behind closed doors. That's what these guys do. Coresh, Jim Jones and people like him. They have charisma and they reel people in like fish but it's all a scam for their own gain. Whether they are sexual deviants or thieves they do it under auspices of religion which is a sin in itself. And they distort scripture for their own gain. They take the earnings from their "followers" and use the funds to line their own pockets. I'm tired of people bitching about racism every time a criminal who happens to be black gets killed by police. Like he said he was ready die. He was shooting at the FBI. I hope he has some shorts it's going to hot were he's going.

The article attempts to make the comparison that when POC in the U.S. express the same types of anti-government statements or use the same type of rhetoric used by Limpballs, Beck, Dobbs, Savage, teabaggers, birthers, deathers, or NRA backed nutjobs with guns at an event where the President was present during the summer, the response from the government is different.

I'm going to get flamed for this but I'm going to say it"

Lol. Why does this remind be of the white right-wing bigots who come on blogs like this one and start off with "I know I'm going to be called a racist, but..."?

Listen- they messed up. I have no desire to defend them. That's not even the issue. The issue is contained in the title of the link.

Plant, don't listen to every idiot who has an internet connection and a website. The idiot who put the title did that to be provocative. The post provides no facts just opinion. The story is copied from somewhere else. The only reason why this is a story on the blog because the guy is black. Abdullah, was probably taking advantage of ignorant brothers who didn't know any better. I wonder what Muslim authority gave him the "Iman" title? Every issue doesn' t have to be looked through the prism of race. I don't think you are trying to defend them but the title to the link is nonsense. So I remind you of a racist huh? Just because I'm not sympathetic to a black man that hides behind Allah to further his criminal activities. SMH

Read my comment again, then read your response to it again. I said I have no sympathy for them. I don't. The concern is that the face of domestic terrorism will become black, and that concern on my part wasn't raised by listening to anyone but myself. But, you still try to paint me as being supportive of this group, and what they did. Why is that?

Yes, it did strike me as funny that you'd start off with "I'm going to get flamed for this". If I'm flaming you, it's not because you have no sympathy for these people (once again, neither do I), but because you presumed that most other commenters here would feel compelled to defend Abdulla. Why?

In my previous comment, I started to say that the way this game is usually played is something like this- a black person does something wrong that whites have been doing for a while; right-wing whites suddenly make black people in general the face of that wrongdoing; black people say "Hold up...wait"; white right-wingers then accuse blacks of defending the black wrongdoers, rather than ourselves. I was also going to say that I wasn't applying it to you, but damn if you didn't start playing the white right-wing game by pretending that I never said I was unsympathetic to him. Look:

Listen- they messed up. I have no desire to defend them.

Remember that?

Yes, you reminded me of a racist, because you used the same kind of setup they do..."Yeah, I know you all are going to think I'm a racist for saying this, but...".

I'm tired of people bitching about racism every time a criminal who happens to be black gets killed by police.

Ah ha...There's another part of the game. You're not just applying that opinion to this specific situation. You say you're tired of people bitching about racism every time a criminal who happens to be black gets killed by the police. That attitude recommends that no one complain when a black person who happens to have committed a crime (or is thought to have committed a crime) gets killed by the police, no matter what that crime is (or is thought to have been). This was the same argument made by right-wing, and yes...racist...whites when Oscar Grant was executed. He was involved in a fight (or thought to have been involved in one), so he was a "criminal", and as such, any protest of his murder was really a defense of black criminality. That's the game, and yes, you played it.

Plants, I don't know what you do for a living but you should really be a psychologist. You examine every single word and go off on a tangent. I know you believe I dismiss racism but that is neither here or there. But importantly, if the FBI is only targeting black organizations which I don't believe. We need to start asking tough questions to the President and the Attorney General who are both people of color who are supposed to be sensitive to our concerns.

Edit: The reason I said,"I'm probably going to be flamed for this" not because I thought people would be sympathetic to Abudallah because he was black. I thought people would be critical of my "Good Riddance" comment.

Edit: There are a lot of black men who get abused by police that deserve our attention but sometimes some of us put our outrage to some black criminals that deserve our outrage rather than our concern. And I made it clear that I don't think your are defending them. You are doing what you have always done since I've come on this blog. You don't like HOW I express myself on certain issues.

I can say that I agree about that, LOL. You buy into white right-wing framing. It's clear. No doubt that you've recieved a lot of pats on the back for being "reasonable"..."one of the good ones"...."not like those other blacks" It may be satisfying now, but I've seen it wear thin for people like you over and over again.

There are a lot of black men who get abused by police that deserve our attention but sometimes some of us put our outrage to some black criminals that deserve our outrage rather than our concern.

A criminal could deserve one's outrage, and still be defended. or I should say, their civil liberties defended, for the sake of the greater good...Ernesto Miranda, for example. No, he's not black, but when some of us engage in what you think is the defense of black criminals, it's really the defense of all our civil liberties. For instance, in situations where black residents of neighborhoods have called on the police to quell criminality, only to have them come in and fuck with everybody, the people who called them in are not required to keep quiet about it and just endure it as some sort of "niggers ain't shit, and we deserve this" self-flagellation.

"I can say that I agree about that, LOL. You buy into white right-wing framing. It's clear. No doubt that you've recieved a lot of pats on the back for being "reasonable"..."one of the good ones"...."not like those other blacks" It may be satisfying now, but I've seen it wear thin for people like you over and over again."

I had to laugh when I read this. There you go practicing psychology again. I'm not looking for pats on the back from whites or blacks. That's what you've misunderstood about me from day one. I try to look a things logically and not through the a prism of skin color. PEOPLE of all races tend to frame their conclusions based on past experiences and instead of looking at incidents as their own events.

For example, the other day somebody shot two people that were attending a Synagogue in the LA area. The headlines on a lot sites was, "HATE CRIME!" People didn't even know what happened and they were jumping to conclusions. I don't subscribe to tribalism because my goals may not be similar to yours. Just because we are the same color doesn't mean we are the same kind. I don't have to cross check my opinions with the rest of Black America.

Next example, this incident with this Abudullah character. I read various comments that said it was a conspiracy against black people and blah blah. And I'm not necessarily dismissive of that opinion but some people have that opinion before they even know what's going on.

The point I'm making is that I look at the facts and makes my own conclusion. I never said or insinuated that black people should "keep quiet" about anything. What I have constantly said that we can't turn a blind eye to the criminality in our communities and expect the police to solve the crime problem if our own attitudes are apathetic.

True, but we don't have to allow anything to be visited upon innocent people out of the fear of being charged with supporting criminality, either. Oh- we don't have to allow anything to be visited upon innocent people out of fear of being accused of "turning a blind eye" to criminality, either. Ahem. People who do that are falling for a rhetorical game that is designed to keep us from complaining about racism...period, which in turn is designed to take us back to the days when racists had a completely free hand to do what they wanted to do.

I don't subscribe to tribalism...

If not "suscribing to tribalism" means not advocating effectively disbanding as a people, then I guess I'm tribal. Ok.

I see the points you both are making. And yes I agree that I definately am tribal b/c we cant afford not to be in this country. Maybe if we had a little more tribal in us or village mentality in us we wouldn't be in our current conditions. Plus every other group in this country are kind of tribal. why is it such a crime when we decide to look out for each other?

CIT Approaches Bankruptcy After Striking Icahn, Goldman Accords
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- CIT Group Inc., the 101-year old commercial lender seeking to avoid collapse, may file for a prepackaged bankruptcy as soon as this weekend after striking deals with billionaire Carl Icahn and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

A prepackaged bankruptcy “is probably going to go through,” Icahn said yesterday. He will supply a $1 billion loan for “supplemental liquidity” that can be used as bankruptcy financing, the New York-based company said. CIT also said it reached an agreement with Goldman Sachs to keep a credit line open should the lender file for court protection.

The accords were disclosed the day after a deadline passed for CIT to solicit votes in support of either a $30 billion out- of-court debt exchange or a prepackaged bankruptcy. CIT is seeking to reduce debt by at least $5.7 billion after being locked out of credit markets it relies on for funding and posting nine quarters of losses totaling more than $5 billion.

“CIT has gotten its ducks in a row for filing,” Adam Steer, an analyst with CreditSights Inc. in New York, said in a telephone interview. “They can hopefully get out of the bankruptcy court faster, which may be better for debt recoveries.”

Under the prepackaged plan, CIT bondholders will get 70 cents on the dollar in the form of new notes and equity in the reorganized company. If CIT is forced into a “free-fall” bankruptcy, unsecured claims may fetch as little as 6 cents on the dollar, according to Jeffrey Peek, the company’s chief executive officer.

$4.5 Billion Loan

CIT arranged a $4.5 billion term loan that can be used in bankruptcy, the company said Oct. 28. The lender said “through the substantial deleveraging featured in CIT’s restructuring plan, whether completed in or out of court, the company is confident that CIT will emerge as a strong bank-holding company with improved capital, liquidity and earnings potential.”

CIT spokesman Curt Ritter declined to comment yesterday.

While CIT said it’s still counting the more than 150,000 ballots, bond and credit-default swap prices show that investors are betting the lender will file for court protection.

Since Peek started the debt swap Oct. 1, the company’s notes due Nov. 3 dropped 12 cents to 68 cents on the dollar, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Holders of the $500 million in notes were offered 90 cents on the dollar in new debt and equity in an out-of-court exchange that expired at 11:59 p.m. in New York on Oct. 29.

Bondholder Protection

The cost to protect CIT debt against default for five years has risen 4.5 percentage points to 38.5 percent upfront since Sept. 30, according to CMA DataVision. That means it would cost $3.85 million initially and $500,000 annually to protect $10 million of CIT bonds from default for five years.

The cost of the credit-default swaps implies that traders have priced in an 85.5 percent chance that the company will default within five years, a standard pricing model used by Bloomberg shows. The model assumes investors could recover 40 cents on the dollar in a bankruptcy proceeding.

CIT dropped 23 cents, or 24 percent, to 72 cents in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. The shares, which traded at more than $61 each in February 2007, have declined 84 percent this year.

If the prepackaged plan is approved, the company plans to file for bankruptcy before $800 million of bonds mature next week, according to people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified because the talks are private.

Noteholder Control

Icahn, 73, who says he’s CIT largest bondholder with $2 billion of its debt, initially opposed CIT’s plan, contending the investments were worth more in a traditional bankruptcy. The New York-based investor proposed this week to buy CIT holders’ bonds for 60 cents on the dollar in a tender offer lasting 30 days if they rejected the plan.

CIT’s agreement to “give control to the noteholders” and an accelerated process for appointing directors “significantly improve corporate governance and cash flow protections, and are positive for the company and all noteholders,” Icahn said in a statement yesterday, explaining why he changed his vote in favor of the prepackaged bankruptcy.

“The board in general acted responsibly by saying, ‘We’re willing to do this.” Icahn said in a telephone interview.

Icahn also said he’s changing the terms of the tender offer for bondholders who voted against the prepackaged bankruptcy. “Whether or not the Exchange Offer/Prepackaged Plan fails, they will still be protected at $600 per note for 30 days,” the statement said.

Icahn’s Goals

“Icahn had two goals in mind: Influence over the board and participation in the expansion loan facility,” said Kevin Starke, an analyst at CRT Capital Group LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview. “He’s won on both counts.”

CIT finances about 1 million businesses from Dunkin’ Brands Inc. in Canton, Massachusetts, to Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc., the clothing chain in Bellevue, Washington, that’s operating under bankruptcy protection. The company says it’s the third-largest U.S. railcar-leasing firm and the world’s third-biggest aircraft financier.

Icahn Associates Corp. is the largest shareholder of American Railcar Industries Inc., which depended on CIT for 31 percent of its business as of June 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Icahn is chairman of the St. Charles, Missouri-based railcar maker.

CIT’s agreement with New York-based Goldman Sachs will reduce a $3 billion credit facility to $2.13 billion and keep the line open should CIT file for bankruptcy.

Goldman Sachs Agreement

In exchange, Goldman Sachs received $285 million in termination fees, CIT said yesterday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the terms of the two companies’ original agreement, Goldman Sachs would have been due a $1 billion termination payment to close the credit line after a CIT bankruptcy.

The agreements should make the bankruptcy process easier by removing opposition to the bondholder plan, Michael Taiano, an analyst at Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP said in a telephone interview.

“They’re effectively in control and there’s not really a bankruptcy judge that has to approve everything,” he said. “It creates less disruption to the business because you’re in bankruptcy a shorter period of time.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...

Another weekend rescue of a TBTF while wall street is closed?

NO

House, Senate get separate bills to kill net neutrality
With the FCC launching a rule-making proceeding on net neutrality, a pair of bills have been introduced to Congress that would bar the FCC from issuing "any regulations regarding the Internet
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10...

If the po-po suspect that your e-mail reveals evidence of criminal activity, they can get a search warrant and start word-searching your archives without your ever being told. So says Oregon judge Michael Mosman.

In a decision this month, Mosman ruled that the Fourth Amendment — protection from unreasonable search and seizures — does not guard us from this kind of search. Given that I often exchange e-mails with sources who would prefer to stay anonymous, this ruling alarms me. Though hopefully my writing would never expose me to a criminal investigation. Legal blogs are buzzing about the ruling. (See the Volokh Conspiracy and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.)

The problem with this is that you would never even know that the search happened. It would all take place without any notification to prevent you from deleting e-mails or refraining from continuing your illegal activity. In explaining his ruling, Mosman writes that the Fourth Amendment protects our homes from unreasonable searches and seizures, but that when we use the Internet, our actions are no longer in our homes and we are no longer “acting in private space at all.”

Federal judge rules that police can search your e-mail without telling you

Jay Smooth of illdoctrine has a smart take on the Larry Johnson controversy:
http://www.illdoctrine.com/2009/10/east_coast_c...

Unofficial Problem Bank List Grows to 500
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/10/unoff...

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse

10/30/2009
The Health Care Debate: Abortion as the Last Arrow:
So during the endless discussion over what was going to be part of the health care reform bill coming out of the House of Representatives, some Blue Dog Democrats voiced their fear that hard-earned cash money from them or their constituents might be used to pay for eeeevil abortions in any public health insurance exchange. So Representative Lois Capps, Democrat from California, proposed an amendment in committee. That amendment said, in so many words, "Okay, fuckers, you're so worried about a totally legal medical procedure? How about this: the only way the public health insurance option can pay for an abortion with federal funds is under the ways allowed by the backwards-ass Hyde Amendment from way back when. That means the usual trio: rape, incest, mother's life in danger. And, just to make sure your precious tax dollars, which you have no problem being used for killing civilians in wars, don't in any way, shape, or form go for abortions, we'll set it up so that the public option and the private insurance companies in the big-ass exchange can't use any federal money for abortions, only the premiums paid in by individual members. So, in other words, not a single federal dollar will pay for an un-Hyde abortion. Good?"

The amendment passed the Energy and Commerce Committee and was included in the final bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced yesterday. And it does, indeed, explicitly ban federal funds from being used for abortions, except as the Hyde Amendment allows.

So, of course, the pro-lifers all over the political map have declared that the bill is "mandating abortion services."

See, the way that these anti-choice conservatives see it, even if no federal tax dollars are ever used for abortion, the simple fact that any of the plans in the exchange cover abortion means that federal funds would be used for, say, colds and cancer and paper clips, thus evilly freeing up other money to be used for abortions. Or, as an amendment pro-life Democrats, led by Michigan's Bart Stupak, are demanding be voted on in the House says, no federal funds may be used "to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion" except in cases of the trio mentioned above. And that goes even if one plan out of, say, a dozen in the exchange covers abortion.

You got that? Even though tax money can't be used for abortions, the right is gonna say it's being used indirectly for abortions, thus it's being used for abortions. It's like saying that if you and your buddy go to a strip club and he decides to get a lap dance, his girlfriend says it's your fault he came home with sticky pants.

In the next week, this is where the battle is gonna be. Sure, a lot is gonna be made about the price tag, but that'll fade, as will the stupidity over the actual, physical size of the bill. But, you know, we're an idiotic nation that has a juvenile discomfort with women's bodies and the rights that we can't seem to understand are settled law.

Nine U.S. banks seized in largest one-day haul - U.S. authorities seized nine failed banks on Friday, the most in a single day since the financial crisis began and the latest stark sign that substantial parts of the nation's banking industry are being crippled by bad loans.

The main reason the banks are failing
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5216/bushcok...

LMBAO!