Representative Scalise (R, LA.) dares to question Al Gore

Al Gore does not stand up to scrutiny well.

A response from a friend (and Obama voter) regarding the CNN gotcha video.

John,

The YouTube video you posted on Logpundit of the nervous (and stupid) CNN reporter is a good catch.

I can’t believe that she tried to write the entire crowd off as Fox News right-wingers. What poor reporting.

CNN: 0, Bloggers: 1

I really agree with the angry woman’s implied point: it isn’t so much that I object to federal income taxes, per se, but rather than neither I nor any other citizen has any real say in how they are spent. I would feel a good deal different if there was some real transparency with washington’s finances, starting w/lobbyists and their capitol hill donations. Maybe the ‘net will make things different, though I’m not yet convinced that it will. Certainly, it can, at least in principle…

My biggest wish would be to encourage as many people as possible to have ZERO taxes withheld throughout the year, so that they would have to pay their taxes all in lump sum payments during April.

My response:

Yeah, when the dude had the sign that said, “Republicans suck too” with “Ban the Federal Reserve” underneath it, I’m sure that made the reporter feel small. I also thought that “the ban the fed” stuff would never be shown on any news channel…and it wasn’t, as this is on YouTube.

I looked at the news…the story was hard to find in the NY Times, and non-existent in the money hemorrhaging Boston Globe. I heard NBC was being confrontational as well. Fox had a few stories, but less than I thought. National Review, much the mouthpiece of the GOP, did link that video I showed you, but otherwise the response from them was VERY muted. In other words, no featured articles on the Tea Parties. The editors had a pro-bailout stance when it hit the fan last fall, sounded like a bunch of welfare queens. You could tell William F Buckley, Jr. was long gone at this point. So, I don’t know if they pulled back coverage because of concerns of astroturf (i.e. media fed fake “grassroots”), but I think the more likely explanation is that Fox and National Review don’t want to see anti-bank, anti-fed signs. It’s all about socialism, see. I was a little surprised that the video slipped through the cracks at National Review, but sometimes it happens.

Thing is, Obama didn’t even raise taxes yet…just wait until next year.

I’m sure most protestors pay their taxes in full in April, or pay quarterly. I’ve heard about people who have been waiting for a substantial refund and have been delayed for at least a month, they are worried they won’t get it back.

Populism has long been about the struggle between citizens and the banks, not so much with employers (unionism). Right now the Dems are very beholden to the banks (Chris Dodd as head of banking and commerce, is particularly egregious) but so are the GOP. That’s why the mainstream spin is so ridiculous. At this point nationalism of failed banks (Citibank, Goldman Sachs) isn’t such a bad idea. Pay the bankers what I make, a government employee wage and if they want to make more money let them risk rich people’s extra money, but don’t mess with our pensions. That way if they fail they fail. But if it’s too big to fail, then, like the Hoover Dam, it is property of the US government.

I mean, at this point, could a bunch of Timmy Geithner’s do worse than ruin the economy of the entire world?

Qualifier: OK Free Marketeers, I’m open to suggestions. This is an open forum. Persuade me that I’m wrong.

Update: I don’t have cable. It seems that Fox News TV was saturating the airwaves with Tea Party newscasts, but there were few reports on the site about it. So Fox provided more than ample coverage. I just saw the outrageous video on MSNBC and I have to say they have no class.

Long Term Capital Management was a hedge fund that started in 1994 and was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1998. It was leveraged at 100:1 on risky bets and was hit by the Asian economic crisis. It was bailed out not by taxpayers but by banks and investment houses, which got a modest return before the company collapsed. Here are some important quotes.

Supporters of the bailout stressed that the Federal Reserve only facilitated the deal, and that the $3.5 billion in rescue capital came from 16 large banks and brokerages, rather than from taxpayers. Yet the critics pointed out that the rescuing banks are backed by taxpayers through federal deposit insurance. Moreover, they enjoyed that federal backing while throwing the money at Long Term Capital that enabled it to pursue its exotic–and, for three years, very profitable–speculations. “Why should the weight of the Federal Government be brought to bear to help out a private investor?” demanded former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. “It’s not a bank.”

And…

At the peak of its borrowing, the secretive fund reportedly carried a debt load 100 times as great as its net assets, or ownership capital. This would be like putting down $1,000 of your own money to buy a $100,000 house–in a flood plain on the San Andreas fault. “Most hedge-fund managers believe that a leverage ratio in excess of 50 to 1 is exceptionally large and very risky,” says Hunt Taylor, executive director of Tass Management, a hedge-fund consulting firm.

Now banks were only leveraged at 30:1.

Jon Corzine was a senior partner at Goldman Sachs that orchestrated the bailout, and as a result he was forced out of Sachs into public life as Senator and Governor of New Jersey. His predecessor, who forced him out because of the risky bailout of a risky fund? Henry Paulson.