Former Supporter Perceives the Blended Strongman in President Obama

In remarks available here from the president of the Black Chamber of Commerce.

Harry Alford likens Obama to both a fanatical Marxist and to a brown-shirted Fascist.

R. Christopher Whalen has called attention to the blend here, relying on defeated Herbert Hoover's reflections in retirement.

It is a useful hermeneutic for explaining otherwise disparate tendencies in American politics.

It also kind of gives new meaning to being "a mutt like me."

Fannie and Freddie Lose Billions But Their Top Executives Still Make Millions

American citizens are on the hook for $164 billion and counting from the ongoing failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the Obama cronies who run them still make big bucks:

Fannie Mae Chief Executive Michael J. Williams received a compensation package totaling $9.3 million in 2009 and 2010, according to a March report by the FHFA inspector general. That figure includes an annual salary around $900,000, a similar amount in long-term incentive awards each year, plus $2.9 million in annual deferred pay. All three types of compensation are paid in cash.

                

Fannie Mae’s chief financial officer, David M. Johnson, was paid $4.6 million in 2009 and 2010. The company’s general counsel, Timothy Mayopoulos, had a compensation package of $4.5 million for the two years, the inspector general said.

At Freddie Mac, Chief Executive Charles Haldeman had a two-year compensation package totaling $7.8 million in salary, incentive awards, and deferred pay. Freddie’s chief financial officer, Ross Kari, was paid $4 million and its general counsel, Robert Bostrom, took home $5.2 million, according to the inspector general.

It's hard work managing a disaster.

John Solomon and Julie Vorman have much more here.

Ratio of Employed to Population Below 59 Percent for Almost Two Years

Fannie Mae Net Loss Q1 $8.7 Billion, Freddie Mac Almost $1 Billion

As reported here.

Fannie has needed bailouts totaling $100 billion, Freddie about $64 billion.

Housing Index Now 138.16, Lower Than 2009's 139.26

Story here.

Sure, we've hit bottom!

Un-American Memorial Day Sentiments

"[O]ur freedoms, our ingenuity, our faith and our entrepreneurship . . . all of these virtues ha[ve] been purchased on battlefields, with the blood of those whom we commemorate on Memorial Day."

-- The Washington Examiner, here

What unadulterated rubbish. If the Founders could hear it, they'd roll over in their graves.

The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, among other things, are inalienable. No military can purchase them for me, nor take them away from me. I own them already and always, despite my circumstances. That is what the founding generation believed most passionately, and which no one in America seems to believe anymore.

Therefore despotism surely awaits, for only free men who believe such things remain free, come hell, high water, or even chains. Servility begins, and ends, within.

Memorial Day's Origin is in Decorating Union Graves from the 'Late Rebellion'

General Orders No.11, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868, reproduced here.

Holding Hands? They're PRAYING, You Idiot!

(source)

Pawlenty Badly Flubs An Equally Badly Asked Question He Shouldn't Have Taken As Is

But his answer wasn't just a casual misstatement of the facts. It shows he wasn't thinking about what he was saying at the time, nor about the question:

Yeah, well I think the situation now in Iran is such that Secretary Gates is negotiating with whether the United States military will be there beyond the end of this year.

And they're looking to the Iranians to see if they invite the Americans to stay, invite us to stay. And if they do invite us to stay at some very reduced level I think the United States will be wise, until we make sure that they get to the next level of stability, to accept that invitation.

So if Iran makes that invitation by the end of the year, leaving a residual force, a greatly reduced force, but a residual force that would be there for a temporary amount of time. Until they could establish much better air security, until they can develop their intelligence —

Pretty embarrassing this early in the campaign.

The video is here.

Jon Huntsman: For Cap and Trade, Obama's Stimulus, and Individual Mandate

Hear about it here.

This RINO hasn't got a prayer.

Nutty Romney and Gingrich Support Ethanol Subsidies

Story here.

Pawlenty is against them.

Do Americans not realize that $5 billion of their tax money propped up that industry in 2010?

It's a waste. And 42 percent of corn production now goes to it, when it should be going to food, which is why you are paying so much more at the grocery store, especially for meat.

Machine Rule

"Mr. President, I write to request your confirmation that S. 990, as passed by Congress, was presented to you prior to the autopen signing, as well as a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed into law."

-- Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA), quoted here

Holes/Cracks in Fukushima Reactor Pressure Vessels/Containments Estimated at 3-10 Centimeters

So reported NHK World on Wednesday, here:

Tokyo Electric Power Company analyzed the changes in pressure levels inside the pressure and containment vessels to gauge the scope of the damage.

TEPCO said the analyses show that holes in the Number 1 reactor containment vessel amounting to 3 centimeters in total may have formed 18 hours after the quake. ...

The utility said holes and cracks equivalent to 10 centimeters in diameter may have formed in the Number 2 reactor's containment vessel about 21 hours after the quake. ...

TEPCO said these results were obtained through data calculations, and that it has yet to confirm whether such holes actually exist.

Presumably high radiation conditions near the reactors continue to prohibit the actual physical inspections which would confirm such estimates and calculations.

Fukushima Waste Water Treatment Facility is Leaking

So says this report, which indicates that the water in question had been transferred from the Unit 3 reactor's turbine building and tunnels earlier in the week.

The surface radiation of the water was said to be 70 millisieverts per hour.

It seems like these people just can't catch a break.

La Nina's Sudden Exit Three Months Ago Blamed For Brutal Tornado Season

Story here.

Epic May Snowpack in West Deepest in 45 Years

Story here.

Median Amount Saved in Retirement Accounts is $2,000?

Which would imply that half the population has less than that saved, and half the population has more than that saved.

The oft-repeated datum is pretty darn old already. A decade! It is based on a survey of about 3,400 people taken way back in 2001 and reported on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website in an "updated" posting dating to 2005, here:

The median amount held in retirement accounts--$2,000--provides another indication of the wide variation in the amounts held by households.

More recent surveys of somewhat smaller samples of Americans paint an only slightly less apocalyptic picture of the resources Americans may or may not have tucked away:

Just over a third (34 percent) of Americans have no retirement savings, up from 30 percent in 2009, according to a new Harris Poll of 2,151 adults. ... Some 42 percent of individuals age 45 and older have less than $25,000 saved for retirement, EBRI found. Only 11 percent of all current workers say they have $250,000 or more saved for retirement.

At a 4 percent per year drawdown rate in retirement, people with $250K can draw down roughly only $10K per year for 25 years, and then it's pretty much gone.

Pretty hard to live on that without Social Security and Medicare, which themselves are going bust.

Americans are not ready for the future, but the maw of the future sure is ready for them.

Statement of Q1 2011 GDP Unchanged at 1.8 Percent

Story here.

The expectation for the second statement of Q1 growth had been a revision up to 2.1 percent.

House Democrats' Insider Trading Easily Bests Republican Track Record

According to opensecrets.org, as reported here:

Despite the GOP’s reputation as the party of the rich, House Republicans fared worse than their Democratic colleagues when it comes to investing, according to the study. The Democratic subsample of lawmakers beat the market by 73 basis points per month, or 9 percent annually, versus 18 basis points per month, or 2 percent annually, for the Republican sample.

Average Wage Slave Uses 14 of 18 'Vacation' Days

Puritanism lives.

Story here.