The President Needs to Take a Vacation.

At one of the shops I used to work at we had an options trader who used to get pretty worked up on a daily basis about one thing or another.  Usually, he vented his anger and frustration at his poor option brokers.  The worst thing that he would say to them after he perceived, rightly or wrongly, that they screwed something up was, "You need a rest!  Why don't you go home and take a nap! In fact you should go on vacation because I am putting you in the box for a week!"

This is how I feel about President Obama.  The man has caved in on every major initiative he supposedly campaigned for.  Financial reform?  Health care? Afghanistan?  Whether you are a supporter of the President or not, it is really scary how the President seemingly does what the money people tell him to do.  Be it Wall Street, the health insurers or pharmaceutical companies, they are pulling the strings on the President like he is The Manchurian Candidate II.

We were on Pete Dominick's radio show "Stand Up with Pete Dominick" (XM/Sirius POTUS channel) and I gave a still incredulous Pete this line from the President made just last week;

 "Why is it," that we're going to cap executive compensation for Wall Street bankers but not Silicon Valley entrepreneurs or NFL football players?

What on earth caused the President to say something like that?  Not only is it stupid to compare bankers to NFL players (NFL players actually give us something for our money AND their actions can't take the whole global economy down!) but it is in contrast to everything he has been saying since last June! Whether you believe in pay caps or not, you have to really wonder what goes through this guys head.

Also, with regard to financial reform there's this; Volcker Says Obama Leaves Opening for Bailouts

THE Chairman has finally had enough of "reform" being written by the very same assclowns who created the mess in the first place.  

 Paul A. Volcker, a top White House economic adviser, said Thursday that the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of financial rules would preserve the policy of “too big to fail” and could lead to future banking bailouts.

Mr. Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, told Congress that by designating some companies as critical to the broader financial system, the administration’s plans would create an expectation that those companies enjoy government backing in tough times. That implies those financial companies “will be sheltered by access to a federal safety net,” he said.

He urged lawmakers to make clear that nonbank companies would not be saved with federal money.

The good news is, other than the "Too Big To Fail" and "Moral Hazard" thingee, Mr. Volcker agrees with mostly everything else Larry, Timmy and Lloyd have come up with.  Except this of course;

The House committee is leading the effort to pass Mr. Obama’s financial overhaul. Its chairman, Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, agreed on Wednesday to scale down a pillar of the financial overhaul — a new regulator to protect consumers from unsafe financial products and activities.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner endorsed the less ambitious plans, which would exempt retailers and other nonbank companies from oversight.

Mr. Frank and Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, say they will have a bill on financial regulation ready for the president’s signature by the end of the year.

Between the names highlighted in blue and the President, does this collective group have a pair of balls between them?  How about one ball?  If they aren't going to deal with the "too big to fail issue", or the consumer protection issue, why the hell are they wasting our time and our money?  For all I know, maybe they bring this sh*t up just to prod the bank lobby into forking over more dough.  It's probably not far from the truth.

Then there is health care.  Again, whether you want reform or not, what the President has done here, after promising so much on the campaign trail, is a flat out bad joke.  He's already ditched the public option and now this (although I guess this has been out there for months) Senate Panel Rejects Bid to Add Drug Discount

President Obama scored a big victory on Thursday as the Senate Finance Committee rejected a proposal to require pharmaceutical companies to give bigger discounts to Medicare on drugs dispensed to older Americans with low incomes. 

Obama, big victory?

The victory came at the expense of senators in Mr. Obama’s own party who had championed the proposal. The vote, in effect, upheld a deal reached in June by the White House and the drug industry, which saw the agreement as a possible way to avoid more onerous requirements that might be imposed by Congress.

The proposal, an amendment by Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, would have required drug makers to provide Medicare with discounts in the form of rebates totaling more than $100 billion over 10 years.

Some of the money would have been used to close a gap in Medicare coverage of prescription drugs. In 2007, more than eight million Medicare beneficiaries fell into the gap, known as the doughnut hole.

Under the June agreement with the White House, drug makers pledged $80 billion over 10 years to help “reform our troubled health care system.” In the belief that their contribution was capped, drug companies have run advertisements in support of a health care overhaul.

The rebates proposed by Mr. Nelson would have more than doubled the amount of money to be given up by the industry.

Mr. Carper said the proposal to wring more rebate money out of the drug companies would “undermine our ability to pass comprehensive health care reform in this Congress,” because the drug industry would have opposed the legislation if it included mandatory rebates.

In arguing against the proposal, Mr. Carper said, White House officials told him that “a deal is a deal,” and he agreed.

"A deal is a deal."!!  Here is another example of caving and circle jerking.  If they're not going to do anything other than provide bad theater for us, just leave it alone and focus energy on our boys in Afghanistan who are fighting and dying for something that the President also seems unable to articulate and execute.

Mr. President, go home and take a nap.

Comments

[goemama]

so whens ur wife gonna pic up the shiiiiiiiit?!?!?!?!??!?! huh? oh yeh he'll probably be humping ur wife's leg tooo.. so look out obama.. someone wants your wife... STAND UP AND DEFEND YOUR PRIDE!!!

[goemama]

ha... beat that press...

[goemama]

obama has posponed my show.. the jack-ass... I HOPE YOU'RE NEW DOG SHITS ALL OVER HOUSE AND YOU'RE KIDS THINK ITS CHOCOLATE..... YAAAAAAY!!!!

[eric]

Tremendous Bill....Tremendous!

[williambanzai7]

OBAMIAN LEGACY
(Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen)
WilliamBanzai7

Is this really your political life-
Is this just a banana democracy-
Caught in a November landslide-
Now no escape from reality-
Open your eyes
Look out to the town hall crowds and see-
Im just a poor President,i need no sympathy-
Because I'm easy come,easy go,
Polls a little high,little low,
Anyway the political wind blows,doesnt really matter to me,
To me

Obama, they'll kill the Healthcare plan,
Wall Street's pulled its money gun now bank reform is good as dead,
You'd better pull the trigger, before your green action plan turns red,
Obama, we all thought change had just begun,
But now its almost gone and you've thrown it all away-
Obaama ooo,
Didnt mean to make you cry-
If your numbers don't come back again this time tomorrow-
Carry on,carry on,as if nothing really matters-

Too late, Washington's judgement time has come,
Spending rivers but can't raise a dime-
Budgets aching all the time,
Goodbye everybody-those Capital hill idiots got to go-
Gotta kick their sorry behinds and let them face the truth-
Obama ooo- (any way the Political wind blows)
If you dont want your legacy to die,
We all wish you'd kick some political ass around Capital Hill's halls-

I see a little silhouetto of an angry man,
Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh will you do the fandango-
Right winged nut jobs and Neocon Talibans-very very frightening me-
Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin
Alaskan trailor trash queen-magnifico-
I'm just a dumb Alaskan gal but all the right wing morons love me-
She's just a dumb Alaskan gal who runs a dysfunctional red neck family-
Spare all our lives from this beehived nitwit monstrosity-
Easy come please easy go-, will she let it go-
Dick Cheney!: no-,we will not let her go-let her go-
Glen Beck!: no- we will not let her go-let her go
John McCain! Hey, I did not let her go-but everyone let me go
Will not let her go-let her go
Will not let her go let her go
Oh no,no,no,no,no,no,no-

Obama mia,Obama mia, Obama mia get up and go go go-
Obama has a Neocon devil to put aside for we,for we,for we-

So you think you can elect me and then spit in my eye-
So you think you can love me but leave my legislative agenda to die-
Oh baby-cant do this to me baby-
We just gotta get out-just gotta get right out there-

Yes we can can can

Nothing else really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing else really matters-, nothing else really matters to me,

Any way the Political wind blows....

[Pablo]

I just found this blog tonight, this is the first post I read on it, and I'm damn glad someone's finally putting it out there. Props, yo. Keep 'em comin'!

[blizzard]

i couldnt believe the banker comparison to NFL players or silicon valley entrepreneur. im a crunchy liberal and i nearly threw my computer. There's maybe a few thousand guys on the planet with the chops to play in the NFL. Entrepreneurs actually risk personal capital. Bankers get full benefits, 5 weeks vaca, 401k matching, huge expense accounts, access to someone else's capital. And, if some trader loses a billion bucks, its like "wow he's important enough to have that risk license'...and some d-bag competing firm gives him a guaranteed contract to buy the flows!!!