Incumbent Out

On the Failure of the Compromise Plan

2008-09-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

Once you get past the chaff, thrown out by both sides in the House of Representatives, two historical facts become abundantly clear.

1 The no-doc and low-doc loans that are at the heart of the current financial crisis have been known throughout the real estate and banking industries, for well over a decade, as liar loans. These, are often coupled with valuations that are routinely inflated, through appraisal firms retained by sub-prime lenders. Even though the numbers are false, the practice of qualifying the unqualified was so pervasive that any honest due-diligence effort would quickly reveal just how bad such an investment would be for anyone buying such paper.

2 The seriously distorted 'mark to market' valuations that are the underpinnings of our entire financial system are derived from precisely the same scheme to defraud that Jeffrey Skilling used at Enron. When the market price can not be objectively or readily determined, either because of distortions or because there is no real day-to-day market available, assets get 'marked to model' using estimated valuations derived from financial modeling. As it is with liar loans, anyone in the industry knows this often equates to a “marked to fantasies' system of accounting.

Even though we have recent experience with Enron, WorldCom and others who failed to maintain the illusion, management by delusion has remained a matter of national policy. It was only by means of the criminal negligence or forbearance of our executive and legislative branches of government that our entire economic proposition has been placed squarely on a such a plane of unreality. It is only with the complicity of the ultimate scofflaw, the Supreme Court of the United States, that the no-accountability culture thrives.

Now, the guy that hid his cash in the mattress because he didn't trust bankers is being asked to compensate not only the investors that failed in their own duties of due-diligence, but also to prop up the integrity challenged executives that betrayed their fiduciary trust. It is reverse Darwinism on a grand scale; survival of the wholly unfit for an estimated cost approaching ten percent of the total U. S. economy.

How is it that presidents and senators can point an accusing finger at the leadership failures of anyone else when they enable such malfeasance through corruptly and otherwise poorly crafted legislation. Consider this little gem quoted directly from the political payback machine: “.01 Section 475(a) of the Internal Revenue Code requires dealers in securities to value their securities at fair market value as of the last business day of the year. Section 475(e) allows dealers in commodities to elect this same mark-to-market treatment for their commodities. Section 475(f) allows traders in securities (and traders in commodities) to elect mark-to-market treatment for positions held in connection with the taxpayer’s securities trading business (or commodities trading business, as the case may be).”

The Paulson/Bernanke Plan is yet another blatant effort to defraud the U. S. Taxpayer. It calls for a new obfuscation and political payoff program rivaled only by the tax code. It is for reasons such as those stated that the Citizens of the United States should throw out any lawmaker voting to buy into the tainted brief or purchase any of the bad paper held by those unjustly enriched through their unmitigated selfishness and criminal activity.

The citizens of the United States should accept nothing less than preferred stock at fire-sale prices. In the alternative they should require a super-priority interest on the assets of any company taking a loan from the Treasury. It is the stockholders of those companies that are responsible for diluting the value. For in each case they are the ones that failed to discipline their self-serving management. In no case should you, my fellow citizens, extend any form of unsecured assistance to the uncharitable parasites that have infested our financial system. And I would hope you would join me in helping to flush the political cesspool that created such a no-accountably environment. You can do so by visiting www.IncumbentOut.org and expressing your views. — Robert H. Kalk

Go ahead. Make our day!

2008-09-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

In a move reminiscent of the rush to war, the Bush administration has sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies. Anyone with the best interests of U.S. citizens at heart would reject these high pressure sales tactics.

The taxpayer should however pick up some stock in these financial institutions at fire-sale prices. There should be no unsecured loans to Wall Street. They should not be allowed to off-load their bad paper. Any relief provided by we the people should be secured with a super-priority interest in any assets of the companies seeking such relief.

In the past, stockholders have bought into the circular logic that the only way to get "top executive talent" was to pay over a thousand times what the average worker makes. What we got instead was a class of intellectually and morally defective megalomaniacs that proved themselves to be thoroughly incompetent in their areas of supposed expertise.

Such individuals feign surprise when oil prices rise. Politicians who did nothing to move us towards renewable energy, over a period of decades, are now characterizing themselves as champions of renewable energy. These same politicians succumbed to the improper influence of lobbyists for decades and now blame the lobbyists. Should we now trust them as they propose a new protection scheme? The answer is no.

From this point forward, IncumbentOut.Org will focus intently on two groups of elected officials: Those so called leaders that trace their political careers back to the decade following the oil embargo of the 1970's who do not have a history of supporting renewable energy; and those integrity challenged politicians who endorse any form of financial system bailout that is not secured with a super-priority equity interest in the subject companies.

Internal Combustion

2008-06-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

Source

Energy Bills, Including Windfall Tax, Stall in Senate

2008-06-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

A bill that would have rolled back some $17 billion in tax breaks on Big Oil and pressured the companies to invest in new energy sources by hitting them with a windfall-profits tax if they did not failed to get enough votes to move forward.

Source

Northern Rock in Retrospect

2008-04-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

Diebold Accidently Leaks Election Results Early

2008-02-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

When gas was thirty five cents per gallon and

2007-08-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

prior to the OPEC Embargo of the 1970s, Dubai was a fishing village. When our politicians were killing off the alternative energy programs during that same decade, there began a wholesale transfer of wealth out of the United States. Now that the equity draw-down is almost complete, your elected representatives want you to believe that they have the answer. They want you to ignore the fact that they are almost wholly owned and operated by those controlling the incumbent energy concerns. They want you to accept the notion that "too much dependence on foreign oil" is a new revelation as if it wasn't the hot topic during the 1970s. Perhaps they are right and the electorate does have the attention span of a gnat. Look and see what a tenfold increase in the price per gallon of gas is buying you now.

2007-06-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ground Swell
A 2006 Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 55 percent of those surveyed said they are inclined to look around for someone new rather than support their incumbent members of Congress that fall, the highest level of anti-incumbency since the 1994 midterm elections that dethroned Democrats on Capitol Hill.
That year more than a dozen legislators in Pennsylvania lost their jobs in a revolt over a pay raise for lawmakers that was enacted and later repealed but which provoked outrage among the electorate.
Point Source

2007-06-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Why Vote Anti-Incumbents?
In the past I have voted for the lessor “evil” candidate, so to speak. In discussions with my friends we keep talking about how bad things are getting and why the politicians are not doing anything about it. My wife finally said “I am voting against all incumbents!” I have to agree.
Regardless of political party, I am joining her and voting against any incumbents. I sense from my friends and the national press, there is growing anti-incumbents feelings in the country.
Point Source

2007-06-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

An Anti-Incumbent Election?
First, let’s get our terms straight. If “anti-incumbent election” means anything, it is that voters are so dissatisfied with the status quo that they vote against all incumbents, regardless of party. The term highlights one, and only one, quality of embattled candidates: their incumbency.
This kind of election is not about party or ideology or how Members voted on a particular piece of legislation. If it were about any of those things, it wouldn’t simply be an “anti-incumbent” election. An anti-incumbent election is a referendum on the “ins,” and voters, for whatever reasons, are so unhappy with the performance of those “ins” — all the “ins” — that they throw them out. All of them.
Point Source

2007-06-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

Don't worry!
More anti-incumbent sentiment is on the way, because our pressing problems are going to grow in number and severity between now and 2008.
Point Source

2005-10-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Storms, Windfalls and Price Surges
Riding high on the misery of others.
Exxon Mobil Corp. rewrote the corporate record books Thursday as the oil company's third-quarter earnings soared to almost $10 billion and it became the first public company ever with quarterly sales topping $100 billion. Anglo-Dutch competitor Royal Dutch Shell PLC wasn't far behind, posting a profit of $9 billion for the quarter.
To put its performance into perspective, Exxon's revenue for the three-month period was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil-producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait -- even though it lost considerable production because of a string of hurricanes that battered the U.S. Gulf coast.
At Shell, third-quarter net income grew 68 percent to $9.03 billion from $5.37 billion a year earlier. Revenue at the London-based company, which has extensive operations in the United States, rose 8 percent to $76.44 billion.
Shells profits from exploration and production increased by $2.6 billion to $5 billion in spite of an 11 percent decline in oil and natural-gas output. Its refining and marketing profit climbed by $201 million to $1.7 billion. Its chemicals business saw profits decline by $251 million to $321 million.
Also on Thursday, Marathon said third-quarter profit more than tripled to $770 million, up from $222 million a year earlier. Most of the profit came from its oil and natural-gas production unit.

2005-09-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Oops Factor
Lessons Learned vs. Reasonably Foreseen

As citizens pour back into Houston after the passing of Hurricane Rita, reporters note that people are largely ignoring the edicts of public officials with regard to a staggered re-entry. The sad truth is that the victims of malfeasance and mismanagement have simply had enough of their public officials.

Last year people fled the Gulf Coast of Florida between the tornado bands of tropical storm Bonnie and the onslaught of Hurricane Charlie. As they did, Florida continued to collect highway and bridge tolls until irate evacuees used their cell phones to blitz radio talk shows. Even so, when the governor belatedly announced a lifting of tolls, the media allowed him to appear proactive. Charlie then hit a coastal town that had not been evacuated, Punta Gorda.

In New Orleans, there were no school buses, Church buses or Red Cross buses to evacuate the infirmed or the impoverished prior to Katrina. After three days of wandering back and forth in waist high water, victims looked into Fox News cameras as a reporter asked why these confused and exhausted people had not received any directions to shelters, collection points or bottled water. The handheld, boat mounted, truck mounted and helicopter mounted bullhorns were silent.

As tens of thousands of cars poured into evacuation routes outside of Houston, the gas stations had not been topped off. The tanker trucks had not been pre-positioned. The opposing traffic lanes had not been re-configured. As Hurricane Rita advanced towards the Texas coast at nine miles per hour, evacuees averaged three. Despite the ineptitude of evacuation "planners," it was only the persistence of individual drivers that kept them from becoming sitting ducks on the highway.

Each news conference by public officials begins with a self-congratulatory preamble. This is usually followed by the patronage round. These carefully crafted public relations events, though sometimes informative, have also become obfuscation devices. Our self-serving leadership has squandered billions of dollars on new and unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. They have talked of "lessons learned" when the problems were clearly foreseeable to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. How smart must officials be to think of lifting tolls and topping off the gas stations before an evacuation begins.

We, as citizens, are not getting what we pay for. Our pampered executives use tortured, circular logic to justify unconscionable compensation levels for themselves. And yet, our executive class is largely sub-standard. Why does the Red Cross pay one and a half million dollars to retire one executive while paying the next one two and half times what a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court makes? Why, if our airline executives are so good, are fifty percent of the nation's airlines in bankruptcy?

Oil industry executives have operated their infrastructure with no reserve capacity for over a quarter century. They have lined their pockets, and those of their "friends," with money from the investment that was never made. They worked their wholly owned and operated politicians to label ethanol as "subsidized" while the re-flagging of Kuwaiti oil tankers and the protection of mid-east oil fields are not counted as subsidies. Our elected "representatives" have promoted an inverted Darwinism that insures the survival of the un-fittest. Never mind that ethanol blends can be used to cut the petroleum content by as much as ten percent.

The great enablers are integrity challenged politicians that feign concern for the electorate while indulging an insatiable appetite for campaign contributions. Every politician knows there is something inherently dishonest about characterizing Gasohol as heavily subsidized even though petroleum producing companies and nations receive subsidies that, by comparison, dwarf those paid to wheat farmers. The executives, legislators and the watchdog turned lapdog are each party to a conspiracy of silence on the issue of the nation's cooked books.

A highly arrogant and condescending brood of vipers has siphoned off our financial resources as well as our most precious blood. Consumers pay for every oil industry contrivance; including the politically engineered barrier to market entry that has served to stifle innovation and thwart alternative energy initiatives since the oil embargo of the seventies. It is an industry composed of corporations identifying themselves as American for the purpose of collecting corporate welfare, and where they are Cayman Island corporations for the purpose of tax evasion. And, despite their rhetoric, because they view American workers as a liability, they move their customer service operations off shore. They demand loyalty to the corporation while exhibiting no loyalty to their workforce, their country or to humankind. Yes, selfishness has reached reptilian levels in a land where the democratic ideal appears to be three wolves and a sheep deciding on dinner

Where did the money go for Homeland Security? Where is the accountability for the equity draw down of this nation's wealth? Why is the once valued idea of maintaining this country's industrial base no longer fashionable? The false economies associated with building at coastal grade or below sea level, deferring levee upgrades, short changing our population's education or deciding elections on the basis of shallow argument are painfully obvious. Were it possible to conduct an honest, independent audit of the federal government, Enron would look well managed by comparison. But that audit will not be permitted by a parasitic in-crowd actively engaged in skimming our resources.

The spiritual idealism that took this nation from one level of attainment to the next is shunned by today's so-called leadership. There is a big difference between a service minded Clara Barton and her custodial successors. And, in the private sector, any corporate executive that can diddle with the numbers before the next stock holder's meeting is a perfect candidate for today's corrupt political parties. This is what happens when a separation between values enthusiasts and the state is imposed while the Bar Association bridges the branches and exerts its influence to nullify the separation of powers within the state.

There are precise formulas for media buys. Robber barons can easily craft public opinion. This is how a health care debate can be framed as "you and your doctor vs. government run health care." In reality it was about insurance industry run health care vs. government run health care. The corporate media did not challenge the deceit then and it is unlikely to now.

Shape shifters can always get their colleagues elected and their cronies installed. There's always hope for those with more money than brains. Just remember, it's not what you know but who you know. Sooo, we've got a new dance and it goes like this: If you can't beat em, do the Pareto flip! Be on the side that's winning! It's easier. It doesn't require any moral courage at all to champion the cause of the rich and powerful.

The famous economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that: "If a certain measure A is the cause of a loss of one franc to each of a thousand persons, and of a thousand franc gain to one individual, the latter will expend a great deal of energy, whereas the former will resist weakly; and it is likely that, in the end, the person who is attempting to secure the thousand francs via A will be successful."

Sincerity at it's best. A Boeing 747 consumes fuel at a rate of three thousand, six hundred and thirty eight gallons per hour at cruise. And yet, Air Force One was not the only aircraft required for multiple trips in support of an extended series of gulf-coast photo-ops. These became necessary to restore the presidential image. It stands to reason that when a politician refuses to cut his vacation short in the aftermath of a catastrophic event there is an associated cost. So do your duty! The President of the United States has asked you not to buy gas if you don't need it.

Rather than overstress our refinery capacity, we're asking you to yield an hour's jet fuel to the President by not using your Civic Hybrid for the next one hundred eighty one thousand nine hundred miles. Of course if you bought an SUV such as the Hummer, using the tax incentives wisely offered by our government, you need only stay off the highway for the next forty seven thousand, two hundred and ninety seven miles. Remember, self-gratification isn't just for the me generation anymore; it's a matter of national policy!

Oh, and one other thing. To stay the course it's important that your candidate can't articulate the unique value proposition for this country. It's also important that the golden parachutes go to the ones whose only management credentials are related to opinion manipulation. The lead balloons go only to the productive class such as the former pensioners of United Airlines and Enron. - Copyright 2005 Robert H. Kalk

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Self Serving

2005-09-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Members of congress have given themselves seven pay raises since the minimum wage was last raised in 1997. In 1979 a minimum wage worker's earnings were 4.3% above the poverty line. In 2005 the earnings of a mimimum wage worker is 30% below the poverty line.

Politics

2005-09-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

Only in America do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Greek meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures.'