Albany's Insanity

AUTO CALL A CAB: Charles Rangel gets into his taxpayer-provided Cadillac, which he admits he uses for political purposes.

He will ride this out. If he were Republican he would have already resigned his House seat. But, since he’s a Dem it’s OK. Dems are never held accountable and Charlie won’t even get a slap on the wrist for income tax evasion, etc.

REP. CHARLIE RANGEL OFFICE STILL IN RENT STABILIZED APARTMENT – New York Post

Three months after Rep. Charlie Rangel admitted he improperly converted a rent-stabilized apartment into his political campaign office – and promised to give it up – the embattled pol still has not moved out.

For the past decade, Rangel’s political operation has been headquartered in a $682-a-month, one-bedroom apartment at Lenox Terrace – the same Harlem building where he has three other rent-stabilized apartments for personal use.

And even with the furor over his sweet rental deals continuing, Rangel doesn’t plan to move his operations to a $4,000-a-month renovated brownstone at 193 Lenox Ave. until mid-October…

“He was disingenuous at the least. That was deceptive. Moving doesn’t mean when the lease is up,” said Melanie Sloan, director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

But Rangel’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said “The campaign identified a new office in a newly restored brownstone in Harlem within three weeks of Mr. Rangel’s announcement that he was leaving the Lenox Terrace space.

“The campaign will be the first tenants in the building, and it had to wait for the construction to be completed.”

Rangel’s political machine continued to rake in big donations operating out of Lenox Terrace.

Between July 15 – the day after his promise to move – and Aug. 20, the Rangel Victory Fund collected some $792,350 in contributions, and Rangel for Congress collected another $466,620, according to the Federal Election Commission.

“That he is continuing to accept the lower rent is . . . a potential election-law problem because he has not reported the difference between the rate he is paying and the market rate as an in-kind contribution – which is what it is,” Sloan said.

Only 3 NO votes? Only three? I’m disgusted. At the same time it should be expected there is nothing but a bunch of liberal socialists here anyway.

House Vote Breakdown by State and Party

NEW YORK

Democrats — Ackerman, Y; Arcuri, Y; Bishop, Y; Clarke, Y; Crowley, Y; Engel, Y; Gillibrand, N; Hall, Y; Higgins, Y; Hinchey, N; Israel, Y; Lowey, Y; Maloney, Y; McCarthy, Y; McNulty, Y; Meeks, Y; Nadler, Y; Rangel, Y; Serrano, N; Slaughter, Y; Towns, Y; Velazquez, Y; Weiner, Y.

Republicans — Fossella, Y; King, Y; Kuhl, N; McHugh, Y; Reynolds, Y; Walsh, Y.

435 Representatives and 100 Senators are going to read this, understand it and then vote on it by tomorrow?

‘‘$11,315,000,000,000’’.

bailout-draft-bill.pdf

Here is the Table of Contents. If anybody is really anxious to read any section I will post it here.

(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 2 this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents.

Sec. 2. Purposes.

Sec. 3. Definitions. TITLE I—TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM

Sec. 101. Purchases of troubled assets.

Sec. 102. Insurance of troubled assets.

Sec. 103. Considerations.

Sec. 104. Financial Stability Oversight Board.

Sec. 105. Reports.

Sec. 106. Rights; management; sale of troubled assets; revenues and sale proceeds.

Sec. 107. Contracting procedures.

Sec. 108. Conflicts of interest.

Sec. 109. Foreclosure mitigation efforts.

Sec. 110. Assistance to homeowners.

Sec. 111. Executive compensation and corporate governance.

Sec. 112. Coordination with foreign authorities and central banks.

Sec. 113. Minimization of long-term costs and maximization of benefits for taxpayers.

Sec. 114. Market transparency.

Sec. 115. Graduated authorization to purchase.

Sec. 116. Oversight and audits.

Sec. 117. Study and report on margin authority.

Sec. 118. Funding.

Sec. 119. Judicial review and related matters.

Sec. 120. Termination of authority.

Sec. 121. Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Sec. 122. Increase in statutory limit on the public debt.

Sec. 123. Credit reform.

Sec. 124. HOPE for Homeowners amendments.

Sec. 125. Congressional Oversight Panel.

Sec. 126. FDIC authority.

Sec. 127. Cooperation with the FBI.

Sec. 128. Acceleration of effective date.

Sec. 129. Disclosures on exercise of loan authority.

Sec. 130. Technical corrections.

Sec. 131. Exchange Stabilization Fund reimbursement.

Sec. 132. Authority to suspend mark-to-market accounting.

Sec. 133. Study on mark-to-market accounting.

Sec. 134. Recoupment.

Sec. 135. Preservation of authority. TITLE II—BUDGET-RELATED PROVISIONS

Sec. 201. Information for congressional support agencies.

Sec. 202. Reports by the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office.

Sec. 203. Analysis in President’s Budget.

Sec. 204. Emergency treatment.

Sec. 301. Gain or loss from sale or exchange of certain preferred stock.

Sec. 302. Special rules for tax treatment of executive compensation of employers participating in the troubled assets relief program.

Sec. 303. Extension of exclusion of income from discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness.

Here it is, the first sane voice to come out of Congress against this bailout. Bravo Mr Pence and Thank you!

Why I Oppose the Bailout – HUMAN EVENTS
Dear Colleagues,

Our nation has been confronted by a serious crisis in our financial markets. The President and this Congress were right to act with all deliberate speed in addressing this crisis.

We now have a deal that promises to bring near term stability to our financial turmoil, but at what price?

Economic freedom means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail.

The decision to give the federal government the ability to nationalize almost every bad mortgage in America interrupts this basic truth of our free market economy.

Republicans improved this bill but it remains the largest corporate bailout in American history, forever changes the relationship between government and the financial sector, and passes the cost along to the American people. I cannot support it.

Before you vote, ask yourself why you came here and vote with courage and integrity to those principals.

If you came here because you believe in limited government and the freedom of the American marketplace, vote in accordance with those convictions.

Duty is ours, outcomes belong to God.

We have fought the good fight. Now we need to finish the race and make sure that posterity and the American people know there were conservatives who opposed the leviathan state in this dark hour.

And if you do this I promise you, I will stand with you and, I believe with all my heart, the American people will stand with you as well.

Mike Pence

Mr. Pence, a Republican, represents the 6th District of Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was chosen as the HUMAN EVENTS “Man of the Year” in 2005.

I’m sure some of you have seen this before but here is the full clip of the Clinton interview where he says that Democrats share the blame and blocked reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However Clinton signed the bill that repealed the regulations put in place after the Great Depression in 1999.

Bill Clinton Says Dems Share Blame

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2TT4jrIIak[/youtube]

Sen. Dodd’s list of donors reads like a who’s who of who’s in the stew: Citigroup, $310,294; SAC Capital Partners, $282,000; United Technologies, $263,400; AIG, $224,678; Bear Stearns, $205,600; St. Paul Travelers, $205,400; Royal Bank of Scotland, $203,750; Goldman Sachs, $175,600; Morgan Stanley, $155,000; Credit Suisse, $154,550; Merrill Lynch, $134,950; JPMorgan Chase, $129,150; Lehman Brothers, $128,400; KPMG, $113,100; General Electric, $108,250; Deloitte Touche, $108,000; USB, $101,900; Hartford Finance Services, $101,500; The Hartford, $94,350; Bank of America, $91,300.

With $165,400, Sen. Dodd also tops the list of members of Congress who took campaign cash from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 1989. Sen. Barack Obama, the self-styled agent of change, is a distant second at $126,000 and Sen. John Kerry is third at $111,000. In the top 20 are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Why millions are angry St. Petersburg Times

Here’s why many Americans are having a tough time digesting spending $700-billion in tax money to prevent an economic disaster triggered by bad mortgages and greed.

Washington Mutual, the giant lender considered by many to be a poster child for making big profits on wild mortgage lending, was seized by federal regulators Thursday night and immediately sold to J.P. Morgan Chase. It was easily the largest bank failure in American history and only the latest example of the economic instability gripping the country.

The company’s chief executive, Alan H. Fishman, had been on the job for less than three weeks. He was on a plane flying from New York to Seattle when the deal was arranged, according to the New York Times.

But don’t cry for Fishman. Analysts say he is eligible for $11.6-million in cash severance. And he can keep his $7.5-million signing bonus.

How’s that compare to your severance and signing bonus?

It’s hard for most Americans to grasp the size and importance of the Bush administration’s proposed bailout, even if urgent action is necessary to free up credit and protect the mortgages, businesses and retirement accounts for everyone who has managed their own affairs responsibly. But everyone gets this math: less than three weeks of work at a failing savings and loan for more than $19-million.

That is outrageous — and it explains why so many are so mad.