House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) compared President Obama’s actions in the auto bailouts to Vladimir Putin. “They said, ‘Set aside the rule of law, let’s strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights. Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers’ unions,'” said Cantor. “It’s almost like looking at Putin’s Russia,” he added. “You want to reward your political friends at the expense of the certainty of law?”
It must be rough being one of the richest people in Congress.
Cantor’s net worth comes largely from dozens of investments in mutual funds and individual stocks. Cantor’s wife draws salaries from a New York bank and the Virginia College Savings Plan, as well as director fees from Media General Inc. and Domino’s Pizza.
But Cantor’s net worth has suffered along with other members who invest in the stock market. For example, Cantor invested between $1,000 and $15,000 in General Motors on June 4, 2008, when the stock was trading at $17.01. On Wednesday, General Motors stock closed at $1.45.
This is Republican logic for you: “we ruined the economy, and even though we’re still rich we’re not as rich as we used to be, therefore Obama is a socialist.”
Up is down, etc.
“This is Republican logic for you: “we ruined the economy,..”
Don’t forget the two misadventures overseas that are still continuing at this time. I’m convinced that it’s time to shrink the empire down to a manageable size – like just the US and not worrying about the Middle East or North Korea. Those are problems for their neighborhoods, not us.
Jon: I think they’re just jealous of our freedom.
Told ya he obsessed with Republicans. Every one of his posts is about them. And they aren’t even in power.
Goldy, get rid of this dumbass!
If only Goldy were paying closer attention, he would realize how out of character this post is for the blog, calling attention to Republican hypocrisy.
Poor Troll – just because Jon is obsessed with stupidity in the world, doesn’t mean that he should not point out the excess of the stupidity in the republican party.
Speaking of stupidity, how is your day going?
It must really suck to be a liberal. Always whining about how others are successful and wealthy while they plod along in life not doing anything about making their lot in life any better.
They’re content with bitching, rather than doing some heavy lifting and putting in the hours. Afterall, even the great Obamessiah can’t get them off their asses to do the “service” that he’s called upon them to do. Volunteer, get involved, donate your time……nope, the HA contributors and liberal commenters here prefer to just do the least amount possible, whilst retaining their “bitching” rights. Pathetic.
The correlation being made in the original post makes no sense at all to me.
Why is there a relationship between a complaint of a potential breaking of contract law, and Cantor being wealthy?
If GM stock would have gone up, then Cantor’s complaint would then make sense?
Since GM stock went down, and Cantor is wealthy, are you saying that he can’t have an opinion on how contract law was potentially broken in the GM case?
Are you saying that since republicans ruined the economy, that it is ok to break contract law? If so, what does that have to do with Cantor being rich?
I have to admit that I am really confused about what is trying to be discussed here. Can somebody simplify for me?
WTF… Cantor is rich at $2.37 million to $6.95 million Jon DeVore? He’s not in the top 25 and probably not in the top 50.
Are you a moron?
From 2007…
7 of the Top 10 are Dummocrapts
Robin Hayes lost so he’s not there anymore
10 of the Top 15 are Dummocrapts
12 of the Top 20 are Dummocrapts
Gordon Smith lost so he’s not there anymore
14 of the Top 25 are Dummocrapts
Golly Jon you are as stupid as NutsTooTight!
Well here’s some crackpot pastor publically praying for the death of the President.
…and you motherfuckers say you are not SERIOUSLY unhinged.
http://crooksandliars.com/john.....ath-im-not
Yeah.
Right.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, Right-Wing Christianist Klownservative version:
“It’s OK to kill people I disagree with.”
So much for “Equal Justice Under Law…”
According to the HA Happy Hooligans, if a litigant or advocate of a position has money, ipso facto that person is craven and deserves to lose irrespective of the merits of the argument.
Shouldn’t the law apply equally to rich or poor? And shouldn’t this philosophy then eschew the demagoguery that justifies differing outcomes based upon the balance sheet of a party?
To listen to the HA Happy Hooligans, the answer is: NO!!!
Of course, at some point the definition of “rich” will encompass DeVore and Goldy (compare their bank balances to that of a Calcutta begger) who will then become the targets of this economic thuggery such that they will be on the receiving end of rhetorical cudgels and the emasculation of their property, meager though it may be.
Then again, when compared to the garbage heap upon which Calcutta beggers usually live, Goldy’s HA Happy Hoolihovel is a palace.
Careful what you wish for…you not only just might get it, but also it just might be turned against you.
The Piper
Jon Vomits:
C’mon Jon…what about Barney Fag and Chris Dodd?? What about the Democrat controlled Congress?
I’ve never been a Bush fan…he is not a Conservative. Go ahead and blame him all you want. But the new guy is even worse! He’s printing money 4 times faster than Bush resulting in skyrocketing oil prices because of the weak dollar and ultimately other inflation.
PS–
Bush is no longer in charge.
Keep blaming him all you want but the natives are getting restless. Today, Obama was back down to +4 Strong Approval over Strong Disapproval.
Puddy–
Go point about the wealth of our Democratic Congressmen and Senators. Ooops! Don’t want the wealth of the Kennedy’s and others to get in the way of quasi-Marxism.
What was the alternative? 1930? Herbert Hoover time? What was the Republican solution?
Uhhh. Oh yeah.. Tax and SPENDING cuts… Utter lunacy in an economy in a deflationary state.
Either way he loses with you freaks. The economy is pulling out of the tailspin. It’ll take time and it won’t be the same afterwards but after eight years of digging a hole to run the country into what do you expect?
Eric Cantor’s ranting must be an attempt to appeal to his less-than-intelligent base of the Republican Party, because I really hope nobody in Congress, from either party, would be so dumb as his comments would otherwise seem.
If GM goes into a liquidation bankruptcy (Chapter 7), the only ones who will get any money are the secured creditors (those that hold mortgages/liens on company assetts). The bond holders and stockholders will obviously get nothing. So the rights which Cantor is arguing were “violated” have no monetary value – a bankruptcy filing wipes them out.
GM can’t succeed in a Chapter 11 reorganization without governmetn funding and/or loan guarantees. The Obama administration is trying to make sure the taxpayers get an adequate return on their investment by demanding shares of stock so if GM does well, the American taxpayer gets the benefit.
Apparantly Cantor and others within the Republican Party, which previously insisted that GM file bankrutpcy so it could reject the Union contracts, are having second thoughts when they realize it that it isn’t a one-way street. They wanted to screw the Unions and their contract rights (the unions made concessions in the past in return for future benefits in their contracts). But apparantly they expected the U.S. taxpayer to protect their interests as shareholders and bondholders, with the shareholders and bondholders getting all the benefit from any subsequent recover, and the taxpayers getting squat.
From the Republican standpoint, it was a win-win scenario: get taxpayer money to cover their personal financial investments (or those of their supporters), get the benefit of that money when the company turns around, and then complain publically about Obama and the Democrats wasting government money on the bailout. It’s the sort of deal they were used to getting (such as the initial TARP bailout to banks and financial institutions under the Bush administration).
Now they are upset that Obama and the Democrats aren’t going to play that game, so they are trying to distort the facts in order to make a little political hay.
This is Democratic logic for you: “Bush ruined the economy so we are going to ruin it more, and even though we’re still full of shit we’re full of more powerful shit than we used to spew, therefore Obama is our God and we save his farts in a jar.”
From the you’ve got to be kidding department rhp6033 farts:
How dude from Everett? GM bailout helps the unions. If GM went belly up look at all dem union jobs going byebye! The common stock holder gets what? What about all those pension plans which had GM stock? Who are those pension recipients rhp? Rich Republicans or working class Dummocraptics?
Man you all have RDS!
Hmm… #8 seems to disprove #6.
@11
Old economy companies , GM, Weyerhaeuser, coal companies and so on are pretty much Republican led. New Economy companies, Google, Apple, wind energy companies are pretty much run by Democrats.
That’s the schism you’re seeing. Both old and new have gobs of cash. The difference is that OE are trying to hold on to power (and their Republican friends are trying to help them) and the NE folks are trying to usurp some of the OE’s political power (and their friends in the Democratic Party are trying to help them).
The poor will do better under the NE folks, but they’re pretty much fucked either way.
Michael@18, back on Steve’s Stupid Solution?
Lex wrote
I agree with Lex. Jon tried, as he has ham handedly before tried, to pin the tail on the elephant but ends up pinning the tail on the DONKEY. All Puddy did was present the facts as to whom has what money in congress. Cantor is no where close to being one of the richest in Congress after all Jon’s whining above. But as we can see the Dummocrapts are the rich ones.
Read and process the facts dude. Throw out the rest Steve’s Stupid Solution. Or better yet give it to Ekim. Ekim uses it on his goats.
Michael also vomits:
Yep, the GM PAC had to compete against the UAW PAC and we know who’s dues they wasted the members money on! Look at how the Dummocrapts have run Michigan into the ground.
Kwame Kilpatrick did a “bang-up” job on Detroit.
How about David Letterman…wasn’t Letterman’s son a BASTARD child?? From Wikipedia–
BASTARD
bas·tard (bstrd)
n.
1. A child born out of wedlock.
How would Letterman like it if folks who disagreed with his politics started calling his boy Harry a BASTARD!
But Letterman has no desire to be Queen…. er, President, like Palin. Nor has he thrust his child out on to the national stage like some sort of movie prop.
@20
I was pointing out that this statement is false:
As there are plenty of rich Democrats around.
Really, I don’t see why a guy who is wealthy commenting on the legality of how a bankruptcy was handled is “upsided down” or even worthy of discussion.
What is the idea that can be discussed regarding this post?
@21
That’s pretty devoid of meaning. Old economy V. new Economy is nothing new
http://wistechnology.com/articles/557/
The article puts IT in the old economy category, but I wouldn’t.
Puddy @ 17: Your comment doesn’t make any sense. It’s hard to show you the error of your logic when you aren’t employing logic. What does your quoted passage have to do with your comments which follow? There is no apparant connection.
As for GM and Union auto-worker jobs, the GM bailout does save those jobs, of course. A GM in chapter 7 liquidation would mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, not just among the union auto workers in Detroit, but in related industries and dealerships across the industry (many of them non-union jobs). As far as the continued operations under Chapter 11, the union made contract concessions and in return got some stock benefits in the post-bankruptcy GM. It makes sense – GM can continue to manufacture cars post-bankruptcy without the pre-bankruptcy stockholders and bondholders, but it can’t do so without the workers.
It seems that Cantor’s complaint is that the GM stockholders and bondholders weren’t part of the bailout. Sorry, that horse left the barn with the TARP bailout to the financial industry under the previous Bush administration. There aren’t going to be any more soft landings for bankers and investors who practice corporate socialism: passing the risk onto the working-class taxpayers, and keeping the profits for themselves.
@27
Amen, brother.
Shit, I fell like I need an iodine bath, but I gotta agree with Mr. Cynical @ 22:
David Letterman was WAY THE FUCK out of bounds talking about Sarah Palin’s kids.
Especially, her 14 year old daughter who was the only child with her at the Yankee’s game. When Letterman said A-Rod got Palin’s daughter knocked up, it was obvious who the heck he was talking about.
I really dislike Sarah Palin for a lot of things, but this is one issue where I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her.
TV and radio personalities need to leave politician’s kids alone. Period.
Even, Bristol Palin.
Puddybud @ 17:
You lack any common sense on this topic.
Yeeeeeees, GM has UAW workers. In the bigger picture of the total economic impact of a GM failure waaaaaaaay more non-union jobs would be effected overall, than UAW jobs.
President Obama didn’t come into office and just made some snap judgement that he wanted to bail out banks, and auto makers.
M’kay?
Besides, what say you, Puddy, about BofA chairman Lewis testifying that Paulson and Bush threatened his job and other top exec’s at BofA if they didn’t go through with the Merril Lynch purchase at a cost to the American tax payer of $22 BILLION???
I’d like you to give as much outrage and pixels to that as you do President Obama trying to clean up after Bush.
Because you’re a man of principles I know you’ll do the right thing and post links and harsh critisim of Bush and Paulson. Right?
“How would Letterman like it if folks who disagreed with his politics started calling his boy Harry a BASTARD!”
My guess is Letterman probably wouldn’t like it very much if opponents referred to his son in such a way.
rhp6033: Guess who is a GM stockholder…? Puddy. Guess how much my stock is worth right now…? Guess who’s pension plan had GM stock…? Puddy. Guess how much my pension plan lost…?
So how does your statement
make any sense to me? I was against the TARP bailout from the beginning. If you paid attention Puddy said let it die! It was your side who claimed we gotta save GM. At least Ford didn’t take money. So I lost money twice because GM was no longer competitive, stock investments and later my taxes. Now I’m watching tax payer money fly away and the Obama Motors Corporation will get me what rhp6033? I can’t see GM turning itself around any time soon.
Do you remember the old adage you don’t buy a Detroit car made on Monday or Friday? Do you think people are gonna run and get a GM car any time soon? Why are they advertising so much during the NBA Finals?
Puddy @ 32. Okay, I guess I see where you are coming from. Your own ox got gored with the GM bankruptcy. Of course, that wasn’t caused in any way by Obama, GM was going to fail by the time Obama took office, it was just a question of how long it was going to take (weeks or months), and how hard the fall was going to be. Blaming Obama for the situation is like blaming the guy who rescues some, but not all, of a sinking ship.
By the way, if you didn’t see GM turning around anytime soon, why didn’t you bail and sell your stock long before it became worthless? I suspect you didn’t have any individual control over your pension fund’s investments, but your message indicates you held stock individually. Or by saying you opposed the bailouts even though it was your only hope for recovering any money, are you trying to demonstrate that you were not being hypocritical, since it was contrary to your own financial interests? If so, I can respect that.
While you might not have benefited personally from current GM situation or the TARP payouts to banks and investment firms, that doesn’t mean that the guys who really run the Republican party didn’t see this as an opportunity to use taxpayer money for their own benefit.
There has long been a disconnect in the Republican party between working-class Republicans and the financial elite of the party. The finanical elite controls the agenda, and the first thing any Republican administration does (Reagan, Bush 1, Bush II) is to try to cut taxes on wealthy individuals and otherwise favor large corporations. While this is usually AGAINST the interests of the working-class Republicans, the Republican elite have long been able to avoid any backlash, at least up until 2006. They did this by defelcting attention from an examination of who really benefits from Republican policies, and instead pits various groups of the working class against each other: union vs. non-union, whites vs. minorities, religious vs. non-religious. They try to make (mostly white) male working-class voters think that someday they, too, will be rich enough to benefit from Repubican policies, all while pursuing agendas which pretty much guarantee that it will be increasingly harder and harder for them to ever reach that point. (Examples: higher taxes on worker’s salaries than on investment dividends and capital gains, less employer-paid health insurance, less protection against work-related injuries, etc., substituting defined-benefit pension plans for self-financed 401(K)s, etc.)
@32 “Guess who is a GM stockholder…? Puddy. Guess how much my stock is worth right now…?”
LMFAO!!
“Guess who’s pension plan had GM stock…? Puddy. Guess how much my pension plan lost…?”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Oh, just fucking with you, Puddy. I feel bad for you. No, really.
@29GBS
Letterman may not have known it was the 14 year old with the Sarah. Comedians as a rule do less fact checking than news programs.
With the exception of Faux News, that is…
Broadway Joe spews:
Letterman is a PUBLIC FIGURE doing over-the-line jokes about other people’s kids. It’s arrogant to think that for some insane reason, he could not be a victim of his own medicine.
C’mon BJ, what is wrong with jokes about the jokester??
Harry “L’il Bastard” Letterman.
Not so cute, is it??
I wonder how loud the idiots in his audience would laugh if a commedian came out doing “Harry the L’il Bastard” jokes??
Would Letterman laugh?
Where is the line??
Letterman crossed it in my opinion…and his apology wasn’t really an apology.
To talk about a 14 year-old girl being impregnated by a baseball star is sick……..
Right?
rhp6033 This is what Puddy takes offense to:
Who was pushing for the TARP and Auto bailout?
TARP isn’t actually real legislation, it’s a program that was enacted by Public Law 110-343, or H.R. 1424.
In the House, H.R. 1424 passed with the following breakdown of votes:
Democratic 172 Yea; 63 Nay
Republican 91 Yea; 108 Nay
Total – 263 Yea; 171 Nay
In the Senate, H.R. 1424 passed with the following breakdown of votes:
Democratic 41 Yea; 10 Nay
Republican 33 Yea; 15 Nay
Total – 74 Yea; 25 Nay (Sen. Kennedy was in the hospital and did not vote.
So putting this in a political posture is BULLSHITTIUM rhp6033. Get it?
More BULLSHITTIUM crapola:
Oh really? Look at the voting demographics man. You call Ted Stevens part of the Republican Elite? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The Democratic Elite – Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Robert Byrd, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, John Effin Kerry, etc. All rich Dummocraptics.
Come on rhp6033, stop hanging around with NutsTooTight! Or have you started drinking Steve’s Stupid Solution?
BTW rhp6033: Once the stock free falls Puddy decided to keep it. At least Puddy didn’t have Chrysler stock like my college roommate. OUCH!
Of course Ekim give a pass to Letterman. One needs to research for their jokes. Then to tie Letterman into Fox News is laughable goat fucker!
You are a moronic loon fool!
Speaking of the Porkulus Bill now is the time to use this rhp6033…
Black Contractors Still Waiting On Stimulus Effects, Still Facing Barriers
““Black folks aren’t getting the type of stimulus money White folks are getting,” says Sharef. This is in spite of a promise on Recovery.gov that states “recovery act funds [shall be distributed] in accordance with all anti-discrimination and equal opportunity statuses, regulations, executive orders, and policies…””
“According to John Macklin, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, and regional vice president for the northeast region of the association which extends from Maine to Virginia, states in his region are being affected by project labor agreements that permit projects to be awarded exclusively to union contractors, which only represent 15 percent of the workforce, he said.
“That means the union discriminates against more than eight out of ten construction workers who would otherwise be able to work on a construction project if not for a union-only project labor agreement,” said Macklin. “Those contracts that are subject to project labor agreements typically discourage minority contractors and non-union contractors from bidding…””
So why are white people acting like white people rhp6033…?
Puddy, Puddy, Puddy, . . . **HEAVY SIGH***
Why on Earth would you keep a stock if it lost more than 7% of your entry price???????
Look, don’t pretend to know something about the economy and how the financial markets work, or don’t work, if you don’t even understand the most basic, Trading Rule 101 – protect your trading capital.
Never let more than 5% of your entire trading account evaporate on any trade or combination of trades , and never let a stock’s value slip below 7% from your entry point.
Think of it as a traffic law; the light turns red you stop. You underlying security in any trade slips more than 7% sell.
It’ll feel shitty at first, but then when the stock drops 25%, or in GM’s case, becomes worthless, you’ll feel pretty smart saying you got out early.
That’s why I never felt sorry for the WHINERS who lost their ass on ENRON. Sorry, but that stock went from the $80+ range down to zero. At some point those who invested their money had to realize it was a train wreck at $70. $60. $50. $40. $30. I mean hell when is it time to say “SELL?”
Doofus.
Want a trade tip?
1 week from today options expire. See where WFC finished compared to today. If it’s above today’s close price buy 100 shares and sell a call option on the first “out of the money” option for the front month (July) or the following month.
Regardless if you get exercised or not, which you probably will, you’ll stand to make between 6% and maybe 8.5% in 30 days if you go with the front month and maybe a little more if you go two months out.
If the stock price exceeds the strike price early like in 3-4 weeks you’ll get exercised even on the two month option which will really boost your ROI.
OK, back to pretending you know how the economy works and how badly the Democrats screwed it up.
@1 “I’m convinced that it’s time to shrink the empire”
The solution to bloated government is not working! If everyone quits working and gets all their income from passive investments, the gummint will collect only 1/3rd as much money, which will force it to downsize. Starve the beast! Quit your job! Pay capital gains taxes instead of wage earner taxes!
Congressman: “Smoking Lettuce Same As Cigarettes”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhsYiQWLAxE
The question is what is he smoking?
well, what if someone like don imus made fun of some teenage black girls, would people be upset? oh wait, he did, and they were
What a historic day.
I agree with you.
Why don’t those WHINERS shut up.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, has uncovered a primary cause of the shocking $335 million loss on Enron stock held by the Florida public pension system
I was being sarcastic.
Was gbs?
This is funny. What is this?
It bears a striking resemblance to the ugly insides of the wingnut delusional system. I’ve highlighted a few points that our resident FIEND Stupes could relate to.
Source?
The smelly, ugly, wingnutty, sticky keyboard of Andew Breitbart.
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....emocratic/
Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) took to the House floor this morning to denounce the tobacco regulation bill as a big step on the road to Tobacco Socialism. His argument: That the bill narrow-mindedly attempts to stop tobacco use entirely, as opposed to harnessing the powers of market innovation to develop and encourage people to use safer, less harmful tobacco products.
For once, an American conservative has recognized that it’s pointless to teach abstinence. The real answer is safe smoking.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....oducts.php
43. GBS spews:
Good tip.
I wrote 40 covered July 26’s for my Wells Fargo holdings @ $3.75. Looking ok…but if they are exercised, I pay ST Capital Gain
To make a small fortune in buying and selling options, start with a large fortune. Over time, you’ll get to your small fortune.
PI–
I have seen lots of KLOWNS play options. Pretty much legalized gambling. Writing covered options can be part of a conservative strategy.