Good Riddance to Arlen Specter, Takeovers Continue in Banking and Auto, Criminal TARP

1) Arlen Specter Leaves Democratic Party Veteran Sen. Arlen Specter announced Tuesday his intent to switch from the GOP to the Democratic Party, earning him the support of President Obama in next year's re-election campaign. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday Obama will raise money and campaign for Specter if asked. Despite winning election to the Senate five times as a Republican, Specter has jumped ship faced with the prospect of a strong challenge from conservative Pat Toomey in the GOP primary and Pennsylvania trending Democratic. "I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party," he said at a news conference, adding "I am not prepared to have my 29 years' record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate." The switch puts Democrats within one vote of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Democrats currently hold 56 seats in the Senate, and two independents typically vote with the party. Republicans have 41 seats.  Decided by the electorate? YOU ARE AN ELECTED OFFICIAL, SENATOR SPECTOR!!!!! YOUR RECORD BY DEFINITION IS DECIDED BY THE ELECTORATE!!! Good riddance to you sir.  See: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/28/source-specter-intends-switch-political-parties/ 2) TARP, the Criminal Enterprise?  Is the whole TARP plan a criminal enterprise? Sounds farfetched, I suppose. But after reading about Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky’s report, it may well be that TARP is just one big criminal problem.  Listen to this: Barofsky’s investigators reported Monday that they have opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax-law violations, insider-trading, and mortgage-modification fraud related to TARP. Yup, those are criminal probes. Barofsky is the special IG overseeing the bailout program. And for some reason the mainstream media refuses to report this on the front pages where it belongs. …By the way, one of Barofsky’s recommendations is for Treasury to abandon its whole plan of buying toxic assets from banks and investors. The IG’s report also notes that what started last October as a single-purpose $750 billion effort to buy toxic securities has morphed into twelve separate programs that cover up to $3 trillion in direct spending, loans, and loan guarantees. In other words, TARP is nearly equal in size to the entire federal budget..” (emphasis mine) …Think about this: TARP, which is now linked to substantial criminal activity, has ballooned to the size of a second federal budget and represents the biggest government-directed intrusion into the economy in history — vastly bigger than the New Deal. And not only is there TARP for banks, insurance companies, and non-bank financial institutions, but also for GM, Chrysler, and various auto suppliers, and perhaps soon enough for credit cards, newspapers, and other sectors of the economy. This is why I believe the era of democratic free-market capitalism is coming to an end. It is being replaced by state-directed corporatism on a grand scale. This is central planning that goes way beyond the American tradition. See: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2FjZWMyZDA2OGEyNWFmNWQ0OWFiZjQzMTcxNDYwZmM= 3) BofA, Citi may need to raise more capital The takeovers continue… WASHINGTON – Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. will need to raise more capital based on preliminary results of their government-run "stress tests" — unless they succeed in appealing the findings, according to two people familiar with the matter. The banks are making their arguments to regulators, said these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have been ordered not to discuss it. Among their points could be that regulators don't fully understand the banks' operations, they said. But the companies face an uphill battle in convincing Fed officials, who privately released the results Friday, that the results are wrong, analysts said. They noted that the tests are supposed to be rigorous enough for the results to be widely accepted. …Banks deemed to have enough capital may learn whether they'll be permitted to repay billions of dollars the government injected into them last fall, analysts and officials said. Most large banks have said they want to repay the money to escape executive compensation limits and other obligations (emphasis mine). Permitted to repay???? See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_bi_ge/us_banks_stress_tests 4) Takeover of Auto Industry… …Chrysler cleared a major hurdle over the weekend by reaching a new deal with the UAW that would give the union a 55 percent stake in the company. Chrysler will use equity instead of cash to fund at least 50 percent of its $10.6 billion obligation to a union-run health care trust, and the trust would get a seat on the board.

Yeah, that’ll work well. Give Chrysler to the unions.  

See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_bi_ge/us_chrysler

4a) See, I Told You So: Obama Gives UAW the Majority Stake in Chrysler RUSH: Today, ladies and gentlemen, the Wall Street Journal has the dirty details. Fifty-five percent of Chrysler owned by the United Auto Workers, 35% owned by President Obama, common shares, which means voting, 39% of General Motors owned by the United Auto Workers, the rest owned by President Obama. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_042809/content/01125108.guest.html 5) More bailouts…this time on second mortgages… Administration is set to expand housing aid plan See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_housing 6) FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic Threatened Federal Sanctions Against NYPD, Secret Service, FBI & Mayor's Office If Secret Ever Got Out See: http://wcbstv.com/topstories/air.force.one.2.996457.html 7) Most Americans oppose interrogation probe: poll WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most Americans oppose a U.S. congressional investigation into harsh interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, a poll said on Tuesday. A CBS News/New York Times poll found that 62 percent of Americans do not think Congress should hold hearings to investigate the treatment of detainees, about the same proportion as in a similar poll in February. See: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE53R4PC20090428?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true 8) Where Will the Swine Flu Go Next? Influenza viruses are unpredictable because they are able to mutate so rapidly. That capacity enables them to jump easily from species to species, infecting not only pigs and people but also horses, seals, cats, dogs, tigers and so on. An avian virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic jumped first from birds to humans, then from humans to swine (as well as other animals). Now, and not for the first time, pigs have given a virus back to humans. …Influenza pandemics have occurred as far back in history as we can look, but the four we know about in detail happened in 1889, 1918, 1957 and 1968. The mildest of these, the so-called Hong Kong flu in 1968, killed about 35,000 people in the United States and 700,000 worldwide. Ordinary seasonal influenza, in comparison, now kills 36,000 Americans a year, because the population has a higher proportion of elderly people and others with weak immune systems. (If a virus like the Hong Kong flu hit today, it would probably kill more people for the same reason.) See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/opinion/28barry.html?_r=1