Saturday, April 4, 2009

Summers did get a payout!!!

Summers earned over $7M from Wall Street firms

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, earned millions over the past year as managing director of the hedge fund D.E. Shaw Group and through speaking fees, some from financial institutions now at the center of the government's rescue program.

Financial disclosure reports released by the White House show that Summers received $5.2 million from D.E. Shaw. He also reported payments for appearances before institutions such as J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

Overall, Summers was paid $2.7 million for more than 40 appearances before different organizations and companies, including financial institutions.

"Given that Dr. Summers is widely recognized as one of the country's most distinguished economists and formerly served as Treasury Secretary, there was considerable interest in hearing his economic insights from companies across various industries," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

Obama has enacted strict rules against hiring lobbyists for administration positions that would have influence over their former clients. A White House official said Summers will not work on issues specifically related to D.E. Shaw for two years. The official noted that Summers was not an adviser or an employee of the firms that paid him to give speeches.

The Not-so Innocent Parties

The following is a list of Goldman Sachs ex-executives who are in positions of control in our Treasury:

Larry Summers - Obama’s chief financial advisor

Neel Kaskari - 36 and head of the trillion dollar TARP program, a position for which he is completely unqualified

Hank Paulson - ex treasury head who negotiated the bailout with Summers

Lloyd Blankfein - CEO of Goldman, astonishingly he co-negotiated AIG's bailout

Edward Liddy - current head of AIG appointed by Geithner

Mark Patterson - Timothy Geithner's chief of staff and Goldman's ex-lobbyist in Washington

Gary Genslery - Obama's nominee for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

This guy stood tall

In an era of cowardly law enforcement who are afraid to "go in" when unarmed civilians are being slaughtered, Officer Justin Garner put it all on the line and stopped a raging gunman. Moreover, he did it alone, with NO backup, tactical command vehicles, SWAT team, or any other "help". In the great tradition of the "old tyme" American lawman, Garner did what he had to do.

No craven Virginia Tech police who stood by while a gunman massacred people. No inept Columbine response from a sheriff department. Just one man against the assailant. Garner was wounded in the leg but still managed to ;put his man down before more harm could come to old people and other innocents.

Garner is a true hero, in a time where that term has lost a lot of meaning. In a cynical time where a lot of folks think there is no "good and bad."

Thank you officer Garner.


Police: Gunman stopped by single shot from cop
By MIKE BAKER
A single shot from a decorated police officer stopped a gunman's rampage through a North Carolina nursing home, ending a slaughter that left eight people dead and three more wounded, police said Monday.
Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said Monday the gunman may have targeted the home because his estranged wife, whom he did not name, works there. He said Monday he believed the couple were recently separated, but acknowledged he didn't yet know many more details about her.

Authorities said Robert Stewart, 45, went on a terrifying rampage in the Pinelake Health and Rehab center on Sunday morning, killing seven residents and a nurse and wounding three other people.

He was stopped by a single shot to the chest fired by Justin Garner, a decorated police officer responding to a 911 call. Stewart wounded Garner three times in the leg as they traded gunfire in a hallway, McKenzie said.

"Whether he realizes it now, he will hopefully realize someday how many lives he has saved," McKenzie said, adding: "A lot more lives would have been lost, I honestly feel, had he not done what he did. For certain."

Stewart's estranged wife is a certified nurse assistant at the nursing home named Wanda Luck, said Mark Barnett, a neighbor. Public records indicate she shared an address with Stewart in Carthage, and Barnett said Monday she was born and raised in the community, a small town about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh in North Carolina's Sandhills region.