Tune in to John Batchelor’s West Coast show by 11:00 p.m. EDT. In case Larry joins the panel early, start listening at 10:30 p.m. via KFI 640 AM. From John Batchelor’s schedule for tonight’s show:

Sunday 1105P (805P Pacific Time): Roundtable, Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, Jeff Bliss, Forbes.com, re the Antioch, California abduction mystery, re the POTUS takes command?

Sunday 1120P (820P Pacific Time): continued re Afghanistan and the anti-war Democrats.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

In his August 20, 2009, meeting with supporters at the Democratic National Committee and its “Organizing for America” (OFA) arm – formerly the “Obama for America” campaign – President Obama blamed the media for the fact that many untrue claims made by opponents of his health care reform push had been accepted by many Americans as fact.

Stating that end of life care was “previously considered a bipartisan concept,” the president said, “this used to be just a sensible thing that everybody could agree to.”

But it “suddenly became ‘Death Panels,’ and scared Grandma,” he said, “and it’s just irresponsible.”

“Scared Grandma?” Can our President say anything that doesn’t sound condescending and insulting?

The president added, “I have to say, part of the reason it spreads is the way reporting is done today. If somebody puts out misinformation, ‘Obama’s Creating Death Panels,’ then the way the news report comes across is: ‘Today such-and-such accused President Obama of putting forward death panels. The White House responded that that wasn’t true.’ And then they go on to the next story. And what they don’t say is, ‘In fact it isn’t true.’”

Even more preposterous than the President demonizing “grandma” and anyone else angered by the arrogant, flatfooted handling of health care reform legislation, he is now demonizing the press, his strongest allies.

No “death panels” eh? Glad to hear it. But I wonder why a Senate subcommittee then promptly removed a suspicious sounding provision from their bill after Sarah Palin made a stink about it on her Facebook page. Even Obama cheerleader Eugene Robinson admitted she had a point. His monstrous health care bill (I think there are 5) has not even been formulated yet, but the Obama Administration is going full steam ahead selling it to the American people, criticizing anyone questioning their audacity in ramming through a bill no one understands. The latest we hear is that Obama has backed off the public option. This magical health care legislation morphs into something new daily.

As Tapper points out:

Today OFA sent out an email to supporters continuing this line of criticism. (You can see the email HERE.)

“Over the past few months, two things have become clear about the fight for health insurance reform,” writes OFA director Mitch Stewart. “1. Our opponents will create and spread outrageous lies to try to stop President Obama from creating real change. 2. We just can’t count on the media to debunk them.”

Obama cannot count on the media? Not two months ago, he made fun of the media’s fawning when he joked about rolling over in bed to find Brian Williams lying beside him. The President is also being disingenuous. When the “death panels” comment hit the net, the press was all over itself debunking it, and insulting Palin once again. The American people saw through the many conflicting statements on health care and decided they weren’t buying. That is the real issue. But the President can’t come out and tell the American people off for not being seduced by more smoke and mirrors.

This comment is the pièce de resistance…

Stewart then quoted President Obama from August 20, and said supporters need to “double our own efforts to get the truth out. That means more organizers running door-to-door canvases and phone banks to educate our neighbors, more events to spread the word to Congress, and more ads on the air countering the smears. And we’ll need the money to pay for it all. Can you chip in to help make it happen?”

“Stepping in when the media fails is a daunting challenge,” Stewart writes.

Yes, let’s go door to door for more bullying. Let’s raise lots more money people don’t have to push a plan when we’re still not sure what’s in it.

So far, this administration has not earned enough points with the American people to convince us we should take legislation this important on faith. Stewart has a lot of nerve to talk about what should be done when the media fails to do its job. I think there are still a good number of Hillary’s 18,000,000 voters who might like to get a piece of that action.

No one, not even President George Bush ever had such loving, sycophantic treatment by the press. More than owing contributors to his huge war chest, President Obama owes the mainstream media for their blind praise and abject refusal to vet him throughout 2008. That was reason numero uno why this man was elected. Now he is criticizing the press for actually daring to let a little real news see the light of day. In reality, he is criticizing the fact that press efforts to minimize the gravity of grass roots opposition has backfired.

Of course we need reform, but before we do something drastic to 1/6th of the economy in such perilous times, let’s make sure we are doing something to help, not hurt. The Obama Administration has once again chosen bullying and hubris over returning to the drawing board to fix the problem.

The media still defends the President at every turn. It is an indicator of negative public sentiment when the President feels he must resort to criticism of an organism that has largely functioned as his own personal PR firm for 20 months. It will be interesting to see if any of our so called journalists finally declare enough is enough and remember the way they USED to do their jobs.

We’re waiting…

Suddenly the disgraced and demoralized Republican Congress has an unearned future, thanks to the superhuman clumsiness of a man who has made himself indispensable to the Obama administration and insufferable to the Democratic Congress, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

The GOP always knew that Emanuel was a problem that could not be solved and could only be endured while he served three tempestuous terms in the House. But now the beleaguered Democratic majority is learning painfully that Emanuel’s talents for bullying, whimsical favoritism, cheerful power-grabbing, and self-congratulatory earthiness have transformed the first hundred days of the Obama administration’s seamless accomplishment into a second hundred days of blame and gloom.

First, Emanuel used frontman Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Finance Committee chair, to ditch the health-care public option, while sending President Obama to speak softly at dinner at the home of prickly Senator Charles Grassley (R-Grant Wood). The latest Emanuel co-authored ploy—forcing health-care legislation through in the fall with Democratic-only votes—underlines that the White House has become as deaf, daring, and driven as the fabled Democratic machines of Tammany Hall or Emanuel’s own Cook County, where he was a once and future fundraiser for the Daleys.“We suck,” a blunt Republican partisan reports, “but they suck more right now.”

Polling supports this cynical summary. The still lifeless Republicans, who have avoided any credible renovation or even contrition for their decades of swinishness, now enjoy their largest generic lead over the Democrats in years. Trusted touts like Charlie Cook speak of a Democratic loss of at least 20 seats in the House. Republican Party fundraising is up, Republican recruitment is up—even in blue New Hampshire, where a potential loss of Judd Gregg’s U.S. Senate seat is now a likely win with the recruiting of the popular Attorney General Kelly Ayotte—and the GOP’s cheeks have a glow not related to shame.

“It’s Rahm,” a Republican partisan tells me. “The cowardly, brain-dead Republicans are claiming they’ve done something. But it’s Rahm. If Rahm goes, the Dems will not do worse. But it might be hard to undo the damage.”

Like the gifted and overwrought Maximilien de Robespierre once upon a time, Rahm Emanuel has taken control of a revolutionary movement he did not help create nor much contribute to while it was gathering strength under the oppression of the ancien régime of George W. Bush. And just like Robespierre, Emanuel has turned the president’s kitchen cabinet of trusted ex-campaign workers, led by David Axelrod (whose ex-PR firm has enjoyed $12 million in fees so far from fronts controlled by the administration-directed Democratic National Committee), Mark Lippert, and Denis McDonough (a dynamic duo of hatchetmen on the National Security Council), into a Committee for Public Safety that terrorizes Washington’s royals willy-nilly.

The victims are everywhere, and the Republicans know best how brilliantly brutal Emanuel’s methods can be. “Rahm puts people on a string,” a cautious Republican told me. “He did it to Dennis [Hastert, former speaker of the House]. We always knew Rahm had something on him. Maybe it was earmarks. Maybe it was something like classic car-flipping. Dennis never went after Rahm and never allowed us to go after him.”

Emanuel’s methods in the House are now writ large throughout the government. Not one of the House Democrats is suicidal enough to push back in public against what amounts to his extortion and protection racket for each successive piece of partisan legislation—witness the 219 beaten-up votes for cap and trade in the House, or the pummeled Blue Dogs during the health-care brouhaha during recess. One Democratic wag comments that Rahm Emanuel is to the Blue Dogs what Michael Vick was to pit bulls. In the beginning he feeds them steak, then they get torn apart.
However, the Republicans are not as gun-shy—though none is unwise enough to reveal his own name—since they have no financing to have ripped from them; and some Republicans point to the strange quiet of GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor as evidence that he may be a victim of Emanuel’s Black Hand style.

After his TARP-supporting apostasy under the Bush ancien régime, Cantor begged forgiveness of his caucus to win the Whip job and was excited to oppose the aggressive White House in its first hundred days, taking pride of place in the Party of No against the stimulus package and the budget. But then Cantor rolled over, advocating to the Republican caucus that it avoid direct attacks on the administration and embrace the fashion of bipartisanship and compromise. In May, Cantor even tried a laughable bipartisan tour with Republican has-beens like Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich (no Democrats showed up) called the National Council for a New America.

What happened? “We think it’s Rahm,” says one Republican who watched the whodunit. “Cantor backed off right after articles ran in his district about Cantor’s wife working for a TARP bank.”
Cantor went so far as to vote for the wild legislation punishing AIG and TARP-bank bonuses with confiscatory taxes that few other Republicans regarded as sane. “We couldn’t understand that vote,” was one comment, “unless it was Rahm.”

Emanuel’s ambitious Committee for Public Safety in the White House, tightly disciplined, indifferent to all Cabinet secretaries including State and Defense, is not limited to sowing fear on Capitol Hill. There are multiple, detailed reports of Rahm Emanuel-authored or -delivered threats to the Netanyahu government in Jerusalem, to the Maliki government in Baghdad, to the Brown government at 10 Downing Street, and now to the Karzai government in Kabul that is entangled in massive voting fraud. A fresh report of a “profanity-laced screaming match” at the White House involving the formerly mild-mannered CIA director Leon Panetta, an Emanuel appointee (as a reward for protecting Emanuel as Clinton chief of staff after Emanuel’s multiple screw-ups in the Clinton White House), points directly to the Emanuel style of extreme persuasion even in national security policy—though Emanuel’s bona fides in diplomacy are a 1991 vacation camp program in Israel volunteering to sing songs and stand around at Israel Defense Force bases with teenagers when he was 31 years old.

Emanuel’s other claim to critical national policy is based on how he got rich in a few dozen months’ work with Bruce Wasserstein in the Chicago office of Wasserstein Perella & Co. as it was being acquired by Deutsche Bank, putting together a merger involving the Chicago-based Exelon Corporation that was also one of Axelrod’s biggest PR accounts and financed Obama’s political career. Emanuel is said to be thrillingly defensive about this episode between his time at the Clinton White House in 1999 and his win of the Democratic primary for the Illinois House seat to replace Rod Blagojevich, a former mentor, in 2002.

Recalled an entertained Republican, “I saw one [Democratic] member walk up to him and ask, ‘So how did you make $18 million in an afternoon sitting at a table in Chicago?’ And Rahm just turned and walked away. It gets to him.”

Just now, Emanuel’s unusually good fortune in Chicago in making $18 million in a very short time may be the only thing on the planet that gets to him. A twist of fate is that as Emanuel’s authority and ambition grow, reaching for swift closure to foreign commitments, staging bipartisan fantasy cruises, then reaching to construct Democratic-only laws that turn the theory of checks and balances into an unlimited credit card on the Treasury, the polling points not only to a rising tide of facedown Republicans but also to a sinking approval rating for a president who entirely controls Emanuel’s fate. Is there a lesson in the detail that the French Revolution waited too long to turn on Robespierre’s ruthless genius, and by the time the guillotine fell, the ludicrously reactionary aristocracy had rallied throughout Europe and led a counterrevolution that swept liberty into the ditch for another lifetime?

John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The question is asked, and answered. The answer is a resounding YES. Yes, Obama has sold out. Long before he ever ran for US Senate, too, I might add. But why quibble, right? At least it is finally starting to let a little light of truth filter through the Obama’s followers Kool Aide induced haze. Though attacking Republicans and blaming them for ALL of our woes is still fair game for TYT, with only peripheral acknowledgment that the Democrats are right there with the Republicans. Never mind that the Democrats have been in power for over two years now. Pesky details - who needs them?

I was like that, too, about the Republicans not so long ago, so I reckon I shouldn’t be too judgmental. Perhaps TYT will realize at some point in the near future that the Democrats are acting pretty much like everything many of us said we hated about the Republicans as we listened to Air America. For instance, remember how ballistic we all went when the Republicans threatened the “Nuclear Option”? We were livid that they would dare do something like that. And now look who, in just 6 short months of having a Super Majority, is threatening the very same thing, even if it means running over some of their own members with reckless abandon? Yep. That would be the Democrats. Oh, but only for the most expensive part of the health care plan - nothing to worry about there! Lalalalalala…

You know, it’s a shame these blowhards out there didn’t bother to do their JOBS and vet this guy, maybe taking a little look-see into who his donors were, for instance. Maybe if TYT had BOTHERED to do that, he would have seen that Obama got close to $1.5 MILLION dollars from the HMOs and Health Services. Surely TYT didn’t expect they gave him all that money for nothing, did he?

Nothing, actually, worse than nothing, is what WE will be getting as a result of these faux journalists and commentators not bothering to actually look behind the curtain of Obama’s rhetoric to see if there was any reason on this Green Earth to BELIEVE HIM!!!!!! For cryin’ out loud, already! Sheesh!

Heck, even investigative journalist Greg Palast, whose article I reported on the other day regarding the whopping 2% the Big Pharma MIGHT give up, as TYT reported above, threw all of his training away for Obama. Glad he’s regained some of it, but it is way too late for us/US now. We’re stuck with Obama for 3 1/2 more years, thank you all so very much for that. (That is sarcasm, in case anyone missed it.)

By the way, did you notice that TYT guy above still cannot quite get out the words that HE has been had? That he didn’t bother to look under the surface? Nope. Not one bit - he bought that stupid “Hope!” and “CHANGE!” crap all the way to Obama being in the White House. Thanks shitloads. Sure would have been nice if you had maybe asked some pertinent questions like, “Why does Obama have NO records available from his time in the IL Senate? How can that be?” Or, “Why DOES Obama have close ties to Tony Rezko/Bill Ayers/Jeremiah Wright/Khalid Rashidi (pick one)?” Or how about this one, “Why does everyone say he has made so much of himself from his “humble” beginnings when he went to the most prestigious school in all of Hawaii and his grandmother was the VP of the biggest bank in Hawaii?” Or maybe, “Isn’t it pretty sexist of Obama to say that Hillary Clinton was only going to tea parties whenever she went abroad as First Lady? Especially since we know she helped to foster some amazing programs?” Obviously, I could go on and on and on. Feel free to add your own.

The problem is, people like TYT and Greg Palast and just about EVERYONE at Huffington Post (since TYT mentioned it) DIDN’T ask questions like that. No, their questions were more like, “Gosh, isn’t it hard to tear yourself away from the mirror when you are SO good looking??” Blech. Or, “Just how much time do you spend practicing your three-pointer?” Or any number of insipid questions like the ones Charlie Gibson asked Obama (while hammering Sarah Palin, even using made-up concepts to try and make her look bad). Pathetic for alleged professionals to act that way, if you ask me.

As I mentioned to Kathleen (Wynne, of HCPBNow.org, who was kind enough to send me this video), most of our elected officials, by the time they are bought by special interests have been there a while. Obama was hardly in there for any time at all, which makes me think he CAME this way. Huh - maybe THAT was the “Change!” to which he was referring?

In any event, if TYT is right, and this is already a done deal, it doesn’t just speak to how badly Obama screwed over his followers, and the rest of us, but how screwed DEMOCRACY is. And that is the biggest problem of all…So, yeah, I would be up for a revolution, TYT, since you mentioned it. Anyone else?

O P E N   T H R E A D   T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

If you want to read what all the bloggers are saying about the experiment by WLS radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller, go here. It is VITAL to note that this man was in a controlled setting and knew that he could stop the torture at any time. Now try to imagine that you’re being held under the control of others, having no rights, and being subject to their every whim — dependent on them not just for sustenance, but for one’s very next breath, and never knowing when or if the waterboarding will stop. Don’t you think you’d say ANYTHING to get it to stop? Of course you would.

Mancow is the latest in a string of media personalities taking the plunge, so to speak, in getting first hand experience with torture. Not a one has come out of the experience pooh poohing waterboarding as just a little water being splashed on one’s face.

So, what has Dick Cheney –who is constantly touting himself as the pro-torture expert — really been up to? Fighting the GOOD fight? Or, perhaps …

AHA! So is this why Dick Cheney has been on your television screens for weeks now?

Cheney Seeks Book Deal on Bush Years and More

WASHINGTON — With his sustained blitz of television appearances and speeches, former Vice President Dick Cheney has established himself as perhaps the leading Republican voice against President Obama.

Not a bad time, then, to be in the market for a multimillion-dollar book contract.

Mr. Cheney is actively shopping a memoir about his life in politics and service in four presidential administrations, a work that would add to what is already an unusually dense collection of post-Bush-presidency memoirs that will offer a collective rebuttal to the many harshly critical works released while the writers were in office and beyond.

What’s this worth? And, just for your entertainment, here’s what the other Bushies are angling to get:

the money isn’t bad, either.

A person familiar with discussions Mr. Cheney has had with publishers said he was seeking more than $2 million for his advance. That sum may prove hard to get in this economic climate, especially given his generally low approval ratings, which publishers view as a potential — but not certain — harbinger for sales.

While Mr. Bush got an advance estimated to be well into the millions for a look into 12 of his most important decisions, his payout is not believed to be as large as that of former President Bill Clinton for his memoirs, which drew a $15 million advance.

Mr. Rumsfeld was not paid an advance by his publisher, Sentinel, of Penguin Group USA, and has committed to donating his share of any proceeds to his nonprofit foundation. (Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and Mr. Obama, for that matter, were represented in their contract talks by the Washington lawyer Robert B. Barnett.)

Mr. Cheney’s friends say he does not need the money and has made clear in his talks that he is eager to give a full accounting of his life in politics that will debunk his many critics.

According to a person familiar with a meeting that Mr. Cheney had with a publisher, the former vice president is proposing a memoir that would function not only as the story of his role in four Republican administrations but also as a history of “the entire Republican ascendancy going back to Nixon.” This person did not want to be named because of the confidentiality of the talks.

Mr. Cheney has talked with houses including HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, where Mary Matalin, his close friend and adviser, is editor in chief of Threshold, the conservative imprint that is also publishing Mr. Rove’s book. Marji Ross, president and publisher of the conservative publisher Regnery, said she and others at the house had talked informally to Mr. Cheney and Mr. Barnett. But Ms. Matalin’s long history with Mr. Cheney has made her imprint a logical home for his book.

John Hannah, a senior adviser to Mr. Cheney at the White House, said that when he spoke to Mr. Cheney a few weeks ago the former vice president was trying to figure out how to strike a balance between his life story and his hotly debated tenure serving with Mr. Bush. “The question was, Do you do the 40 years in Washington, given all his experiences in different jobs and perspectives?” Mr. Hannah said. “Or do you need to do something fairly quickly to answer and to discuss the last eight years?”

As the talks continue, Mr. Cheney is writing out his thoughts longhand in an office above his garage in Virginia and is in frequent contact with the other newly minted Bush administration authors, right on up to Mr. Bush.

A report by U.S. News & World Report about a visit by Mr. Cheney to Mr. Rumsfeld’s Washington office in March prompted speculation that they were trying to match up their stories, which a Rumsfeld spokesman, Keith Urbahn, denied. He said there was likely to be a greater divergence of views in the coming books than some might expect.

Mr. Rumsfeld, who is working almost full time on his book, feeding dictation to aides culling his personal papers, often differed with counterweights in other departments, like Ms. Rice. “There’s a great deal of truth to the adage of where you stand is where you sit,” Mr. Urbahn said.

Ms. Rice has a three-book deal with Crown, Mr. Bush’s publisher. Douglas Brinkley, the historian, said she indicated to him late last year that she deemed it appropriate to wait for the president to publish his book, scheduled for 2010, before she published hers on the White House.

So, if you’re not ordering torture, why not merchandise it?

O P E N   T H R E A D   T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

GO HERE to view the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion.

Virginia’s Smithfield Foods CEO Larry Pope speaks with much careful persuasion against the suspicion of the partially Smithfield-owned CAFO, or mega pig farm, at La Gloria, was the source of the A/H1N1. The interview drags on, but Pope makes is good points right away.

No pig is sick at La Gloria, no pig worker is sick - and neither is a pig or a pig worker sick anywhere else in the Smithfield system.

Pope speaks under fire. The Smithfield stock has dropped 20% in the past days. Only 20%, because, if it was proved that El Gloria was the source, then the stock would have been crushed. Pope says a major team is headed to La Gloria to do a thorough audit.

His remarks come after the surprising news from California that two children fell ill with the A/H1N1 on March 30 and April 1. One ten year-old boy in San Diego County, now recovered; and one nine year-old girl in Imperial County, now recovered. Neither is known to have had contact with pigs. It is illogical to argue that Edgar Hernandez at La Gloria is Patient Zero. Unless and until the virus is found in the one million pigs at La Gloria, Veracruz State, the outbreak origin remains unknown.

O P E N   T H R E A D   T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM. [CLICK on this map to see it full-size. The map is from Bill Roggio's Long War Journal. Roggio is a guest with Larry Johnson tonight.]

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

HERE is the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion:

705P Pacific Time:  Tim Starks, Congressional Quarterly, re the Obama adminsitration release of the Torture Memos and the Byzantine debate between the Hil and the White House and the GOP.

 920P:  Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Chinese official warns US on protectionism  A top adviser to the Chinese government warned the US that a proposed border tax on carbon sensitive materials ’smells of protectionism’ and could spark retaliation from developing countries

 Read more…

articlesortdate="0261694418.000000" articlesorttitle="orthodox easter sunday april 19, 2009 in ny, dc, sf, la." articlesortsource="" sourceindex="0" articlesortid="00000000000000000029" articlelocaldate="0262456484.377621" articleid="557304734dd991c2ea2a81a8464b24f61045432b">

Orthodox Easter Sunday April 19, 2009 in NY, DC, SF, LA.

John Batchelor

Is the Recession Over?  (Smile.)   705P Eastern Time:  Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal, re Ben Bernanke became Federal Reserve chairman intent on making the central bank less personality-driven than it was under Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. But as he confronts an economic crisis that has pushed the Fed to shatter precedent and lend trillions of dollars, Mr. Bernanke is waging a public-relations offensive that casts him in the starring role.   Bernanke PR Push Rewrites Fed Script  720P:  Joe Bel Bruno, Goldman CEO: New Pay Standards Needed  Really wrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 1:43pm.  So lets see:
1. Mark to maybe
2. Post bonus amounts later
3. Get an overnight…

Apr 17, 1:53 PM

Is the Recession Over?  (Smile.)   

705P Eastern Time:  Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal, re Ben Bernanke became Federal Reserve chairman intent on making the central bank less personality-driven than it was under Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. But as he confronts an economic crisis that has pushed the Fed to shatter precedent and lend trillions of dollars, Mr. Bernanke is waging a public-relations offensive that casts him in the starring role.   Bernanke PR Push Rewrites Fed Script
 

720P:  Joe Bel Bruno, Goldman CEO: New Pay Standards Needed  Reallywrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 1:43pm.  So lets see:
1. Mark to maybe
2. Post bonus amounts later
3. Get an overnight deposit from the Fed to bloat the Balance Sheet
4. Postpone all accts payable (issue IOUs)
5. Send a big check to O
6. Pay HP his ghost retainer.  

735P:  Professional Roundtable with  Jodi Schneider, Congressional Quarterly, John Fund, Diana West, DianaWest.net, re Tax Day and the Teabag parties, re Obama and MExico, re the new Border Czar.

750P: Continued re Homeland Security targets veterans?  Re the Obama administration   hesitates about waterboarding.

805P: John Bolton, AEI, Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, re North Korea breaks off with the IAEA and the Six Party Talks, re what is to be done?  North Korea to Boycott Six-Party Talks

 

820P: Roundtable on North Korea continues, re the United NAtions Security Council, re Beijing refuses to agree to new sanctions, re the farility of the North Korea regime.

835P:  Jim McTague, Barron’s, Financial Roundtable, John Tamny, Realclearmarkets.com, Tom Donlon, Barron’s, re the banks report profits, can we trust the banks?  Re Goldman Sachs aims to pay back TARP, will the Obama administration accept the money?

850P:  Continued re the bank stress tests are due May 4, does everyone pass?  And what then?

905P:  Malcolm Hoenlein, re Durban II conference opens in Geneva, re the United Nations and organized and hysterical anti-Israel propoganda.

920P:  Aaron Klein, WND, re the Obama administration commits to the Saudie plan for parallel talks for a two-state solution, Israel and PA, Israel and Syria.

935P:  Richard Beeman, author, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, re the drama and opera of the writing and rewriting of the Constitution by cranky, devious, sophisticated, ambitious young men, led by the bold and tireless James Madison in the spring and summer of 1787.

955P:  Exeunt with Joseph Menn, Financial Times, re Computer hackers stole more sensitive records last year than in the previous four combined, with ATM cards and PIN information growing in popularity as targets.

___________________________

KFI-AM 640

705P Pacific Time:  Nicholas Casey, Wall Street Journal, re next month, shipping giant AP Moeller-Maersk will make a move that was unlikely ten years back.  A line of 6000 container ships that now goes to Southern California will go instead dock at Seattle. Why?

720P: Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg, re Fannie, Freddie Face Pressure to Revamp as Housing Collapse Wrecks Profits:  Say good-bye to Fannie and Freddie as you know them. The bailed-out mortgage finance companies will emerge from their travails combined as one, broken up or with substantially reshaped missions. 

 

735P: Professional Roundtable  Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, Hussein Yusuf, Somali national, re the pirates of Somalia, re Somali Extremists Have al Qaeda Ties  By Ali Soufan
Another failed state has become a training ground for terrorists.

750P: Continued re the pirates of Somalia continued, re the prospect of a stable Somalia government.

805P:  Barbara Kolm-Lamprechter, Hayek Institute, re the Austrian School of economics, re the prospect of recovery from the financial crisis. 

 

820P:  Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, re the California economy and the sharp rise in unemployment, re the housing market collapse, re the 

835P:  Mark Rudd, author, “Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen,” re the 40 year travail of the outspoken and precocious leader of the Columbia University protest 1968, his life in the Weathermen, his life as a fugitive.  Nostalgiac, sparse, banal, fascinating.

850P:  Bob Zimmerman, author, “Universe In A Mirror,” re NASA prep for Hubble rescue mission, re Kepler opens its eye and sends initial pics of its portion of the sky in Cygnus, re the aimless space policy of the Obama administration.

905P:  Jim Rogers, Rogers Investment, from Singapore, re the prospect of a China led worldwide recovery, re the continuing commodity bull market, re the coming bull market in farm food.

 920P:  Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Vietnam and the Obama administration, re Vietnam and the worldwide downturn in trade.

935P: Dave Cullen, author, “Columbine,” re the April 20, 1999 massacre and ten years after, the continuing silence of the parents, the remains of the mystery, the measure of Harris as a psychopath and Klebold as a companions in the homicial dyad like Bonnie and Clyde, re the still damaged lives of the victims, the survivors, the loved ones of the lost.

955P:  Exeunt:  Lou Ann Hammond, re the GM shedding of Saturn, Hummer, GMAC, Saab, and?

Taliban on the march in the fine Spring weather in the Northwest Frontier.  The spotty reports from Pakistan point to a surge of Taliban aggression ever since the failed state leadership at Islamabad ceded control of the Swat Valley to the jihadists.  The surge is not headed to Kabul and the American legions but rather toward Islamabad and the nuke armed Pakistani legions at Rawalpindi.  Sunday 26 I will speak to a roundtable of Ann Marlowe, Bill Roggio, Tunku Varadarajan and Larry Johnson on the AFPAK border region turmoil and the Obama administration war-fighting plans. There is no contingency that I have heard for a Taliban takeover of Pakistan. The reports are grim:

From The John Batchelor Show blog pages.

Editor’s Note: DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show at 10:30 p.m. ET, via KFI 640 AM. Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

Also: If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to come early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

HERE is the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion:

705P Pacific Time:  Nicholas Casey, Wall Street Journal, re next month, shipping giant AP Moeller-Maersk will make a move that was unlikely ten years back.  A line of 6000 container ships that now goes to Southern California will go instead dock at Seattle. Why?

 920P:  Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Vietnam and the Obama administration, re Vietnam and the worldwide downturn in trade.

Early Reports of a Navy Fight and a Rescue.

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From The John Batchelor Show blog.

At 10:35 p.m. ET, don’t miss Larry Johnson, a regular Sunday night expert on the great KFI AM radio show hosted by John Batchelor, one of the sharpest analysts in all of radio (or television). John’s provocative show is dashing, daring, and thoughtful (a rare AM offering). Tune in early at 10:05 p.m. ET via Los Angeles’s KFI-AM 640. If you haven’t listened via KFI before, come early to download small, easily installed software. Here are TONIGHT’s TOPICS:

705P Pacific Time:  John Stoll, Wall Street Journal, re  the car czar Steven Rattner negotiates hardball with the GM bondholders, forcing rugged terms, as the GM bankruptcy saga continues.  With Simon Constable Dow Jones. 

Blankfein called for new compensation standards for Wall Street executives and said he understands why the public is angry about industry pay.  China Limits Executive Pay  China’s government disclosed that it had set limits on executive pay for 2008 at state-owned financial companies  With Simon Constable Dow Jones.  

James Lambright, chief investment officer of TARP, at right in the photo, is an embodiment of how power in the economy has shifted — for good or ill — to Washington.  Real Time Econ:TARP Diagnostic

 920P:  Mary Kissel,   Thai Summit Halted Amid Protests 

Check out the full slate of guests and topics, all starting at 10:05 p.m. ET.

The Slow Motion Farce of the Newspapers.  

The thrilling headline in the WSJ.com is that the NYT is threatening to disappear its step child the Boston Globe.   The issue is union give-backs, but that is just the start of the argument.  Newspapers no longer make sense.  Newspapers are especially aimless here in the deeply wired and Iphoned up Northeast.   The NYT geniuses paid $1.1 billion for the Globe in ‘93 and have watched the money burn ever since, so that what remains may be worth $12 million.  Meanwhile the NYT is playing a version of the Chekhov story about a man in a troika running from wolves who feeds the pack everything until he is what’s left to feed them.

Why do newspapers resist doom?  Embrace it.  The notion of opening and reading my NYT, WSJ and FT in the morning is silly.   I will make them go away before they go away.  Online is the world.  There is no meaning to printed paper.  The New York Times and the Boston Globe are dead trees walking.  Did you notice that POTUS didn’t call on you at the last White House presser?   POTUS doesn’t read your greasy paper version.  Show up as videographers who blog, waving a Mino Flip and a wi-fi Macbook, and you will get attention.  We are supposed to wait until tomorrow morning to learn what you just heard me say?

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From my blog and show site, “The John Batchelor Show.”

The WSJ reports that GM’s Rick Wagoner and Fritz Henderson were summoned to D.C. on Friday, to the Treasury office of Steven Rattner, selected by PBO last month to head the Department’s auto-industry task force. Mr. Rattner “broke the news to Mr. Wagoner in person at his office at Treasury,” and then met with the temporary replacement, Mr. Henderson. Bloomberg confirms the Friday meetings in “GM’s Wagoner Steps Aside After Failing Obama Scrutiny.”

Below: Who knew about the Friday beheading — that bloody coup d’état! — before the story broke Sunday night? Who didn’t know? …

Surely seven people (and staff) knew Friday but, as with the leak-free message control during Obama’s campaign, nobody spilled the beans. Who knew? GM’s Wagoner and Henderson, Treasury’s Geithner and Rattner, the WH’s Obama, Emanuel, and perhaps Axelrod. Who was left in the dark until Sunday night? Michigan’s senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow? Michigan’s once-powerful House member John Dingell? (Dingell recently got kicked upstairs by Nancy Pelosi.) The 11th District’s Thad McCotter? (McCotter spoke Sunday night with John Batchelor and guests, including Larry Johnson, but was constrained by “embargoed” news.)

In fact, Obama didn’t tell four key Congressional members (Levin, Stabenow, Dingell and Sander Levin) until “a Sunday night conference call that he would grant unspecified additional aid to GM for 60 days and Chrysler for 30 days, according to a person familiar with the call,” reports the Detroit News.

Once again, the Unitary Executive Obama has circumvented the will of the people which is supposed to be expressed through their representatives and senators to Congress, as quaintly prescribed in the Constitution by our nation’s brilliant founders.

This is akin to Geithner’s “toxic assets plan,” announced Monday and issued by fiat. To which you might reply, “Well, he is the Treasury secretary.” And to which I’d retort, “But he sneakily is going to blow at least $1 trillion of your taxes, without having undergone (1) Congressional scrutiny and hearings; and (2) any legislation granting him such authority.

This Bloomberg paragraph explains in part why Rick Wagoner was forced out:

“It’s very hard for the government to write a big check without giving some evidence of change,” Casesa said. “This will also give the government moral authority with the other stakeholders to make them sacrifice.”

The WSJ goes further:

The Obama administration used the threat of withholding more bailout money to force out General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, marking one of the most dramatic government interventions in private industry since the economic crisis began last year. [...]

[NOTE THIS, readers.] The move also indicates that the Treasury Department [GEITHNER] intends to wade more deeply than most observers expected into the affairs of the country’s largest and oldest car company.

So, Obama forced the chairman of a major private company to resign. (Some news is “embargoed” until midnight ET. We will update.) Geithner? He knew this morning — of COURSE he knew (see WSJ quotes above and below) but held it during Meet the Press and Gregory, unlike Russert, has no nose for blood in the water. By the way, I never thought I’d cry out for Tim Russert, but, damn, was he needed as David Gregory played softball with Geithner, who’s obviously graduated from a quickie two-week master’s degree in Media Management from David Axelrod. For example, the back-and-forth on the toxic assets plan was as placid as a lullaby duet.

Update: Hot Air’s Allahpundit adds another dimension:

If you want taxpayer money, you’re going to have to do things The One’s way. And if you don’t want taxpayer money, TurboTax Tim might swoop in and make sure you do things The One’s way anyway. [...]

Oddly enough, when Rasmussen polled the public in December, only 14 percent thought a GM run by the feds would outperform a GM run by the private sector. Exit question: Ever get the feeling that Obama’s not quite the centrist pragmatist Christopher Buckley thought he’d be? (Emphases mine.)

(Susan’s Note about the conservative Christopher Buckley’s public support of Obama: This is a depressing instance of the unintended consequence of voting based primarily on compensatory white guilt.)

There are more news flashes via Memeorandum from major news outlets. Here’s more Bloomberg:

“General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner will step down after more than eight years running the largest U.S. automaker, people familiar with the situation said.

“The Obama administration asked Wagoner, 56, to leave the company and he agreed, said an administration official who declined to be identified before the move was announced. The likely replacement, unless the government hires from outside the company, would be Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson, said John Casesa, managing partner at New York-based consulting firm Casesa Shapiro Group.”

And here’s more WSJ:

An administration official confirmed that Mr. Wagoner was asked to step down to make way for ongoing restructuring within the company. Mr. Wagoner will be replaced, at least on an interim basis, by Frederick “Fritz” Henderson, the company’s chief operating officer.

Mr. Wagoner was asked to step down on Friday by Steven Rattner, the investment banker picked last month by the the administration to lead the Treasury Department’s auto-industry task force. Mr. Rattner broke the news to Mr. Wagoner in person at his office at Treasury, according to an administration official. Afterward, Mr. Rattner met one-on-one with Mr. Henderson, who will fill in as GM’s CEO.

GM didn’t immediately return calls for comment. One longtime GM board member, Kent Kresa, declined to comment when reached by phone Sunday night.

The ouster comes as President Barack Obama prepares to give billions of dollars more in aid to struggling auto makers GM and Chrysler LLC, but only if all sides—including unions and bondholders—show that they are ready to sacrifice.

President Obama plans Monday to lay out the administration’s interim conclusions on the companies’ viability and the many steps that need to be taken to return the companies to health. The president is likely to hold off on granting the companies $21.6 billion in new loans to preserve leverage in negotiations, particularly with the thousands of bondholders who hold a total of about $28 billion in GM debt.

In remarks Sunday, Mr. Obama said that he intends to extract “a set of sacrifices from all parties involved—management, labor, shareholders, creditors, suppliers, dealers.” The industry, he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” must “take serious restructuring steps now in order to preserve a brighter future down the road.” The two companies “are not there yet,” he added.

Mr. Wagoner’s removal shows that the sacrifices could cut deep. The departure of the company’s top executive promises to further shake up a company that has already been through considerable change over the past six months. The 56-year-old executive had been scrambling to craft a global strategy aimed at maintaining leadership in the global sales chase with Toyota Motor Corp., and making big profits in emerging markets. … Read all.

Adds Bloomberg in “GM’s Wagoner Steps Aside After Failing Obama Scrutiny “:

[...]

Wagoner became a symbol of the failing U.S. auto industry in recent months after flying to Washington via corporate jet to ask for aid. Since taking over in 2000, he presided over $82 billion in losses during the past four years and yielded GM’s title as the world’s top-selling carmaker to Toyota Motor Corp.

His exit caps an unsuccessful five-month push to win U.S. aid without losing his job. Forced to work for $1 a year and cede most of his corporate perks, he had said he wouldn’t resign unless compelled. On March 27, 129 days after Congress’s first hearing on the future of GM, he got that call.

[...]

“On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with administration officials,” Wagoner said in a statement. “In the course of that meeting, they requested that I ‘step aside’ as CEO of GM, and so I have.”

Henderson, 49, was tapped by Wagoner to become COO a year ago after serving as chief financial officer. He previously ran GM’s operations in Asia and Europe.

Obama will outline his ideas for GM at a briefing later today, giving the biggest U.S. automaker 60 days to devise a plan that cuts deeper and makes more changes.

“The bailout loans aren’t hugely popular and that’s creating an issue for Obama,” said Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California, which tracks vehicle pricing and consumer behavior. “One way to make the loans more palatable is to be able to say the person responsible is no longer with GM.”

GM had said it will shed 47,000 jobs globally in 2009 and plans to close five assembly plants. Executives said the Detroit-based automaker will focus on four U.S. brands, down from eight, and eliminate thousands of dealers.

Rescue Plan

Wagoner oversaw those plans to meet the terms of the rescue unveiled on Dec. 19 by then-President George W. Bush, after Congress balked at a bailout for GM and Chrysler LLC. CEO Robert Nardelli will stay at Chrysler and must complete a planned alliance with Fiat SpA within 30 days, an Obama administration official said.

Obama’s task force pointed to GM’s failure to win concessions from bondholders, a step needed to cut the automaker’s debt and ensure future viability, as one reason the government needed a new plan.

GM’s latest debt exchange offer, made March 24, wasn’t likely to win bondholders’ approval because it’s less lucrative than the terms the U.S. required for the company to keep the first $13.4 billion in loans, a person briefed on the talks said. The bondholders didn’t seek Wagoner’s dismissal, the person said.

The government will push for even deeper cuts in debt now, the administration official said.

Tumbling Shares, Bonds

GM tumbled 87 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading last year, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The shares gained 21 cents, or 6.2 percent, to $3.21 on March 27, extending a 66 percent rally since GM said March 12 that it wouldn’t need a $2 billion payment by tomorrow to survive as originally forecast. ….

Postscript #1: John Batchelor discussed the firing of Wagoner Sunday night with Larry Johnson on his nationally syndicated radio show via Los Angeles’s KFI-AM (podcast up ASAP). The scheduled topic was the White House meeting with the nation’s top bankers, but the agile Mr. Batchelor leaped on the breaking news about GM’s Rick Wagoner, and plumbed his guests for their reactions, as well as netting Rep. Thad McCotter as a special guest.

Postscript #2: Here is an earlier NoQuarterUSA post that featured McCotter’s floor speech earlier this month. Larry Doyle’s wife discovered it, and e-mailed me the video link. Here’s that video:

Here is his House site URL: Thad McCotter

Mon. A.M. Update / Postscript #3: CALL and e-mail your Senators and your House, and DEMAND CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT AND THE RIGHT TO HAVE LEGISLATION so that Tiny Tim cannot RULE this country by fiat.

Who knew we’d ever be calling up our members of Congress and demanding they craft legislation?

But, unless we do, we might as well think of PBO as Hugo Chavez and/or Fidel Castro with his brother Tiny Tim Raoul Castro.

THIS BLOG’s header says it all:

Isn’t it amusing. The left kicked and screamed about Bush/Cheney’s “unitary executive” for years! Will they hold PBO to the same standards?

FYI: Guess which Democratic primary candidate told the Boston Globe that one of the first things to take care of was to rescind Bush’s unitary executive signings. Can’t guess?

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Hillary Clinton.

PBO has expanded Bush’s power.

See NoQuarterUSA’s previous stories on the unitary executive signing statements issued by Bush — and now being employed by a small cabel in the White House and Treasury department.

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Editor’s Postscript: Be sure to catch Larry Johnson on John Batchelor’s radio show Sunday nights just after 7 p.m. PT, on Los Angeles’s KFI-AM. Here’s our most recent Sunday reminder with all the links and details. Stop by NoQuarterUSA.net on Sunday to read the topics and linked stories for Sunday night’s programming.