In what can only be described as the nationalization of what was once American private industry the President of the United States has seen fit to relieve the CEO of General Motors of his job. And he did it in a most gutless and cowardly way.

While the president once again sat before the adoring news media television cameras he had his aides announce the sentence and carry out corporate beheading. As Obama sat with CBS newsman Bob Schieffer discussing his discontent with the progress automakers have made in reconfiguring their union controlled business, “administration officials” met with Rick Wagoner and informed him he would need to step down if GM was to receive any more financial assistance from Uncle Sam Obama.

This action can certainly be interpreted as change and is also another addition to the long list of historic firsts. It makes it abundantly clear why Ford CEO Alan Mulally has gone to such great lengths to avoid accepting government handouts. General Motors made a deal with the devil and now the devil wants his due. Where is Daniel Webster when we need him?

Regardless of what you think of Rick Wagoner, his past job performance, his experience or his abilities going forward, it is beyond chilling to witness the federal government’s usurpation of the General Motors board of directors and the share holders voting rights.

Wagoner accepted the sword offered him and dutifully fell upon it having been unable to negotiate a financial tourniquet with the autoworkers union. Union officials saw no reason to use their old methods of strong-arm tactics or negotiate in earnest with the major auto manufacturers now that they have their hit man in the White House.

During his tenure at the helm of GM Wagoner made some serious mistakes as far as new car designs and the public’s fickle love-hate relationship with big cars and trucks. But in his limited defense Wagoner was playing poker with a pinochle deck from the start. It was under his leadership that GM began to make small but significant steps in renegotiating union contracts that his predecessors had agreed to in an effort to keep labor peace. While the actions taken under Wagoner’s leadership were not sufficient to allow GM to become globally competitive in labor costs they did paint a bulls-eye on him, with the union only waiting for the right marksman to take the shot. They got exactly what they were looking for in this past presidential election and it only took him 60 days to pull the trigger.

The Obama administration is going to great lengths to appear to be playing hardball with the GM and Chrysler management. The reason behind this is apparent only if you look beyond the current rhetoric to the likely outcome.

In his speech the day after Wagoner got the axe, Obama made it clear where his allegiance lies. “The pain being felt in places that rely on our auto industry is not the fault of our workers… And it is not the fault of all the families and communities that supported manufacturing plants throughout the generations… Rather, it is a failure of leadership.” I agree with the president. But the failure of leadership was in their inability to successfully negotiate labor contracts that allowed the company to maintain profitability against the headwinds of a global marketplace.

This new tact taken by the Obama administration will have the exact opposite result of what the rank and file is looking for. It is unlikely that any legally constrained restructuring of these companies will allow them to continue to carry the oppressive legacy costs and unrealistic union pay scales and health insurance. But with the actions and comments made today this president of hope and change is laying the groundwork for the blame game to follow. He hopes to change the attention from what he promised on the campaign trail to blame the automakers management for the outcome.

The decision the board needs to make seems clearer now than ever. GM must free itself of the old union contracts that are bleeding them dry and it must also free itself of the parasitic federal government. The only way to do that is through the bankruptcy court. There will never be any security, independence or meaningful growth at this or any company as long as nearly every business decision is debated in the inept halls of congress and second guessed by a man who has never held a private sector job in his adult life.

Let this be a valuable lesson for all companies in the future. Beware the politics of liberal socialism.

Treasury Secretary Tim 1040 Geithner has his secretarial undies in a bundle regarding risk-taking on Wall Street. Without going into all the boring details, let’s just say he is against it. Or at least his boss is against it and he, being the good soldier, is taking on the yoke of this remarkably socialistic plan as his own.

Geithner is calling for sweeping government regulations and increased governmental oversight of the risk taken by private sector financial businesses by the most inept financial minds on the planet, the US Congress.

It was of course under the Democratic direction and weak kneed Republican opposition of Congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were summarily tasked with undertaking enormous risk in the low income and subprime mortgage markets. When this house of cards eventually met its inevitable collapse under the weight of increased defaults of these welfare mortgages, causing real estate values to plunge and mortgage bonds to become worthless, the whole world felt the pain of congressional incompetence.

Wall Street certainly carries some of the blame for getting caught with their pin striped pants down. But only for not adequately forecasting the effect this governmental folly would have. It is however important to remember that for every loser on Wall Street betting the housing market would continue to go up, there was a winner betting the other side. The recent government bailouts were so the losers could pay the winners. To state now, as they are, that all of Wall Street was wrong and in need of government guidance is as false as the supposition that it was Wall Street greed and not congressional incompetence that led to the whole collapse in the first place.

Secretary Geithner’s newfound aversion to risk is so profound it’s a shame he doesn’t have a position in the National Security Administration or the CIA. As Tim 1040 continues to tatter his tunic about reducing financial risk on Wall Street the real risks to America’s safety and security continues to increase by land and air unabated.

Both funding and political resolve for increased protections along the US – Mexico border are slowly eroding. Even as the FBI publishes their investigative reports showing a dramatic increase in drug cartel armies invading border towns on a murderous rampage, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lays blame on American drug users rather than Mexican drug kingpins. American intelligence estimates that the Mexican drug cartel armies are equal in numbers to the entire Mexican military.

In the United States drug dealing street gangs comprised mostly of illegal Mexicans aliens have increased at a record pace in the last 3 years. Gang activity has risen over 35% in the last two years and their reach into the United States has expanded over 14%. It is estimated that in areas comprised predominantly of Hispanics nearly 60% of all gang members are illegal aliens. The Salvadorian gang MS-13 has spread throughout the United States. The FBI’s MS-13 Gang Task Force chief Aaron Escorza reported that because of the “revolving door” on the border, membership of MS-13 gang members remains at about 10,000, even as illegal alien members are deported new illegal aliens take their place. And still congress debates the need for increased security along the Mexican border.

In the sky, President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program designed to allow commercial airline pilots to carry firearms.

Earlier in March the president diverted some $2 million in funding from the pilot training program. Since pilots were allowed to carry firearms after the 9-11 attacks there has not been one instance of improper use of a firearm by a pilot. Complaints received involved less the 1% of the overall officers in the program and all have been disproved. There have also not been any additional hijack attempts. Do you suppose that is by coincidence?

70% of all commercial pilots have a military background. Yet the approval process to allow more pilots carry a firearm has come to a halt without explanation.

While the Obama administration tries to reduce risk on Wall Street the risk on Main Street is real and growing.

I wonder if this Nero knows how to fiddle.

In what has become an almost tiresome noting of historic firsts the President of the United States Barack Obama made an appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His intent was to deflect outrage at the ongoing AIG saga and make an early pitch for his near $4 trillion budget, but in a rare moment of unguarded candor this president showed a side of his character rarely seen in public.

Mocking retarded participants in the Special Olympics, Barack Obama compared his marked inability to bowl a respectable score to a Special Olympics event. His meaning was clear and his intent was equally so. So much so that this teleprompter president’s staff switched into immediate damage control mode. Even as the president’s plane was heading back to DC, his press aides were working the accompanying media by re-explaining that the president’s remarks were in no way derogatory to the retarded but only a bit of self-defacing humor poked at his lack of bowling prowess. The President called the Director of the Special Olympics from his plane to offer his personal apology even before the taped interview aired that evening.

It was a valiant effort to deflect criticism, but the explanation was as shallow as the comment was demeaning. I understand that this president of hope and equality for all was trying to poke fun at himself. But he did so by using the retarded as a sarcastic example of poor performance. By comparing his inability to successfully perform a task to a group of handicapped athletes he actually made them the punch line and the butt of his joke. The audience was no longer laughing at a president that can’t bowl. They were laughing at the mental image of retarded kids poorly performing in athletic events. Certainly not a comparison that should have been made by a thoughtful self-biographing leader of the free world, but perhaps a pretty good look inside this president’s thoughts when they are not written by someone else and read off a teleprompter.

Take just a minute to reflect on the media reaction if George W. Bush had said something similar. Or if Dick Cheney would have explained that the hunting accident where he shot his friend in the face with bird shot was “Like a Special Olympics hunting trip.” I doubt the press would have ignored it or passed it off as an unfortunate gaffe, as they are with Obama. An example was evident as CBS radio news ran audio clips the following morning of the president’s comments about his bowling. They edited out his demeaning comparison to the Special Olympics and made no mention of it in their initial reports. Directors at the Special Olympics have attempted to turn this disgrace into a positive by using the publicity to get their message out. I hope they are successful.

Much has been said and written about this president’s ability to communicate and touch an audience with his rousing oratory. But the words he is using during those rallies of adoration are all preplanned and honed to a razors edge to extract every last ounce of emotion. The problems come for this “Great Communicator” when he goes off the script and does not have a teleprompter to remind him of what exactly it is that he thinks.

Barack Obama has written two books about himself and has spent the last two years publicly speaking at campaign events. He certainly has a command of the English language. One would think that a man who based his entire campaign on hope and change could have come up with a more appropriate reference for self-degradation. How about something like “Yea, but no matter how bad I bowl Joe Biden still has to lose” or “The only guy I can beat at bowling is Rush Limbaugh”.

It was interesting to get a rare unedited inside view of the personal thoughts of Barack Obama when they are not written and displayed with notations on where to place the emphasis.

Not hopeful. Not uplifting. But interesting.

After a solid month of vitriol being spewed from every corner of Washington DC in the direction of Wall Street the Treasury Secretary is about to unveil his long awaited plan to rid the credit markets of the toxic waste clogging every financial institution’s aorta.

Congress has successfully misdirected the public’s rage toward Wall Street in order to keep their own actions from gathering too much unwanted attention. The congressionally orchestrated fury has reached such a fever pitch that AIG is warning their employees to not display their company name badges in public lest they risk a confrontation and the possibility of physical harm.

Even though voters are mad as hell with the recent spending binge and deficits this congress has seen fit to heap on the backs of the next 3 or 4 generations of taxpayers, most of the public still believes that the economic collapse was caused by greed on Wall Street. Very few are looking at the actions of congress that led us to the brink of national bankruptcy, but instead are listening to their rhetoric and that of the lapdog media which repeatedly places the onus on unscrupulous Wall Street investors taking too much risk and making too much money.

It is before a backdrop of increased governmental restrictions and oversight of investor risk and rewards that Tim 1040 Geithner steps before the microphone to finally announce the details of his toxic asset removal plan. Geithner made a hugely promoted statement several weeks ago that was as thin on details as it was bloated on rhetoric. Stock market investors reacted immediately to this muddled attempt by dumping investments and sending the market into a tailspin.

The new announcement will likely be stronger on details as it would be impossible to have fewer, but it is anticipated the new plan will rely heavily on the same investors that congress has been demonizing for the past several months.

With the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announcing their projection of national budget deficits in excess of $9.3 trillion dollars over the next ten years, and congress showing no signs of reining in their outrageous spending binge, investors may be less than eager to participate.

It is clear that the single most important action congress can take in stabilizing the credit markets is to remove the toxic assets they created with their misguided attempt to alter credit reality through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But now looking to the same investors whose compensation they have capped, whose bonuses they have unconstitutionally taxed out of existence and whose methods and motives they have duplicitously and fallaciously vilified, to make the plan work would be almost comical if it weren’t so sad.

There is no incentive for major investors to get involved in a program of high risk without having at least some ability to project a suitable return. The Democratically controlled House and Senate have shown that they have no hesitation at changing the rules in the middle of the game. There is no reason to believe that they will not do the same here if public sentiment becomes negative toward those who could actually make money out of this mess. With deficit spending and budget shortfalls in the trillions of dollars it seems a much safer investment to bet against the US dollar than to invest in it.

That is of course if anything could be considered a safer bet in the “Who’s on first” routine this administration and congress are currently playing.

BigFrick agrees with President Barack Obama and Congressman Barney Frank, at least in part.

The recent admission by AIG that they plan to use part of the huge taxpayer bailout they received to pay $165 million in bonuses to their derivative traders is beyond any possible justification. The fact that this sum is only a fraction of the $105 billion they received makes absolutely no difference to me. The fact that newly installed AIG CEO Edward Liddy has announced that neither he nor any of the executive officers of the company will receive bonuses for 2008 also leaves me yawning.

In defending the bonuses Liddy stated that these bonuses must be paid due to contractual obligations and that he has received advice of counsel to do so or risk being sued. My personal advice to Mr. Liddy is let em’ sue.

The president and his congressional pal Barney Frank are calling the bonuses outrageous, I couldn’t agree more. But after that unifying moment we must part company again as my outrage is not directed toward AIG.

I certainly don’t blame Liddy for the bonuses as he was only installed after the near collapse of this company. I also don’t blame the traders who are in line for the bonuses for expecting that they will be paid in accordance to their employment contracts. There is nothing illegal about them getting paid or about the company paying them. And their my friends is the problem.

In the years leading up to the collapse of the credit markets savvy derivative traders became involved in the riskiest of derivatives known as credit default swaps. This very complex form of investment is basically an insurance policy betting either a company will or will not default on its credit obligations. Traders who are well versed in this complex market can make obscenely huge sums of money for both the companies they represent and themselves, which they did. It made perfect sense to lock these traders into contracts when the times were good before the congressionally mandated introduction of welfare into the credit markets sent everything financial into a death spiral.

AIG was the largest insurance company in the world so it made perfect sense that they would be involved in this insurance-like investment. The problem with credit default swaps, as with any insurance policy, is that once the insured risk begins to go south there is very little that can be done to cut exposure. It would be like your homeowners insurance company calling to inform you they were cancelling your policy whenever the tornado warning sirens start blowing.

As the depths of the credit infection began to become apparent and the world credit markets collapsed the insured companies began to default on their obligations leaving AIG holding a 5 pound bag of ever increasing bad credit default policies. The loss was so great that it would have put this mega-company into bankruptcy and left all those that had bought insurance from them without the ability to collect on the policies they paid for. AIG also manages some of the world’s largest pension funds, which also would have gone up in smoke. Some of these pension funds include teachers unions, countless federal, state, county and local government employee unions and the pension for the US Congress. Not surprisingly there was widespread support among congressional members to keep this company afloat. But that is all they did.

Chanting the mantra “Too Big To Fail” Congress pumped more than $105 billion into AIG with no restrictions. Maybe out of tunnel vision, maybe out of panic to try to control the impact a failure the size of AIG would have in the broader market or maybe out of sheer ignorance of what they were doing, Congress had the ability to create laws that would have overridden these employment contracts and prevented this type of taxpayer funded bonus but chose not to.

Congressman Frank has said the traders involved in these derivatives should be fired rather than rewarded. He also said he would do all he could to get that done. While I agree with rescinding the reward I disagree completely with the idea that these folks should be fired and especially that Congress should in some way have a hand in that.

If Congress doesn’t want these legally contracted bonuses to be paid then it is up to Congress to pass legislation that makes it illegal to do so. Without this type of legislation AIG will be only the first of many federally bailed out companies to use taxpayer dollars to pay for employee bonuses.

President Obama and Congressman Frank made some good sound bites today. Let’s see if they are equally adept at putting together some good legislation.

Otherwise the traders at AIG won’t be the ones taxpayers will be looking to get fired.

With a stroke of the pen the new president has signed into law the ominous omnibus spending bill that has more pork in it than a McRib sandwich topped with bacon.

“I’m signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it is necessary for the ongoing functions of government” said the president. “But I also view this as a departure point for more far-reaching plans.” And here I thought the historic election and inauguration of this messenger of hope and change was the departure point. Apparently the departure point to “Changeville” is a few exits after the departure point to “The Same Old Crapsville”.

Actually the departure point is 8500 exits after, because that is the staggering number of individually earmarked pet projects in this bloated $410 billion spending spree.

At what point will the American taxpayer begin to realize that this is their money. The federal government has no funds of their own. Every dollar they get is a dollar somebody else has earned and paid in taxes. They are not a profit center and probably will not be holding a mega-sized bake sale. Republicans had been pressing the president to veto the bill and live up to his commitment to stop this type of drunken sailor spending (my apologies to drunken sailors everywhere). But that was not to be.

Instead of change what we got was rhetoric. Instead of action what we got was another opportunity for a photo op and time for this wordsmith president and his barely drinking age speechwriters to talk a good game but forfeit when it comes game time.

What the president did today took the skill of a master magician and more smoke and mirrors than a Siegfried and Roy Vegas revue. Like a master of prestidigitation the president has learned the art of deflection and misdirection. “We can’t have Congress bogged down at this critical juncture in our economic recovery” said the Great Swami-Obama. And with a wave of his hand POOF the focus on 8500 earmarks was gone along with almost half a trillion tax dollars.

But this magic act, which has worked so well for the thoughtful autobiographer, is only capable of inspiring awe in those who are truly looking to be fooled. And as the debt continues to pile up and any sign of actual economic recovery continues to get pushed farther back the number of audience members satisfied with hocus pocus will grow slimmer and the number of folks demanding results will grow.

While signing this budget buster into law the president called on Congress to enact a series of overhauls to tamp down the scope of earmarks. Apparently the president is unaware that the pen is mightier than the sword and if he wants earmarks to be tamped he has got the biggest tamper on the block.

The president then trotted out his favorite and now very tired expression “the old way of doing business”. He has used that expression so much that just repeating it again is becoming the old way of doing business. He said “This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand.”

Actually Mr. President, we had every right to expect and demand that the moment after you said “I do” two months ago.

Such is the case with the new Attorney General.

It seems that regardless of the historic nature of this new administration, regardless of the remarkable racial progress made in America over the last 50 years that led up to this election, there will always be those who chose to remain a victim.

In a speech celebrating Black History Month and delivered to hundreds of Justice Department employees the new Attorney General Eric Holder called America “a nation of cowards” when it comes to racial issues. He demeaned all that has been done in removing racial barriers and all progress made in allowing the success of those who have been the target of historic segregation and repression. The irony of the content of this speech being given at a celebration commemorating Black History Month would be almost comical if it weren’t so sad.

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards” Holder said.

Strong words for a black man who is the head of the Justice Department in the administration of a black president. Strong words for any man serving in an administration that campaigned on the mantra of hope rather than divisiveness. Strong words from a black man who has held posts in high office of government for decades and who replaces a minority Hispanic in the office he now holds. Strong words indeed.

“It is an issue we have never been at ease with, and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable,” Holder went on to say. “And yet, if we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.”

If we are to make progress? If?

This speech may have seemed relevant back in the 1950’s or the 1960’s but to question progress in racial matters while serving in the administration of a black president rings as hollow and racist as the words of the Black P Stone Nation who blamed whites for their poverty while they sold drugs to their community.

Mr. Holder certainly must feel comfortable enough to show his tolerance in calling Americans cowards. The very act itself in the setting in which it was held and under the conditions in which it was given is an insult to all Americans, white, black and otherwise.

To ignore the progress, as Mr. Holder certainly did, is to continue with the stereotypical victimization of blacks which has done nothing but help to keep them trapped in a life of hopelessness and dependence. Is there more progress needed? Certainly. Will it be accomplished by setting a tone of confrontation and demeaning epithets? Certainly not.

Mr. Holder proved his ineptitude serving in the Clinton administration where he was instrumental in orchestrating the presidential pardon of murderous terrorist bombers from the FALN and the pardon of the FBI’s second most wanted fugitive Marc Rich, a Democrat contributor of note who had fled the country to avoid prosecution. He was questioned about both of these incidents in his confirmation hearing where he both denied culpability by downplaying his influence and asked for absolution for his lack of prudent judgment. Mr. Holder assured the committee members he would not make the same mistakes again if confirmed. I guess in that sense Mr. Holder is a man of his word. He is finding a whole new area in which he can be dangerously wrong.

A “nation of cowards” we are not. We are a nation of opportunity. It takes courage to reach for that which you cannot currently touch and strive for that which you know will be difficult to achieve. But we are a nation of people who make that effort and succeed every day. The cowards are the ones who prefer to place blame and hide behind the comfortable veil of victimization.

If you want see a coward Mr. Holder, get a mirror.

Question: After successfully wrangling a debt laden, pork bloated $780 billion spending package through congress, with literally tens of billions of dollars worth of pet projects and ear marks, how do you switch the focus of the American taxpayer who will foot the bill for it all from outrageous government spending to something else?

Answer: Have the unmitigated stones to schedule a “fiscal responsibility summit”.

Before even putting his name on the bottom line to sign into law the largest government boondoggle in the county’s history, that is exactly what the new president is doing.

The president actively lobbied both houses of congress and the American people for support to get this near one trillion dollar spending package approved. This will bring the country’s annual budget deficit to $2 trillion. Having just completed his campaign to approve the only plan that could actually make ethanol look like a good idea, he is now informing congress of his concerns about unnecessary spending. Perhaps the president’s next book could be titled “The Audacity of Audacity”.

This level of hypocrisy is like Tom Daschle giving tax advice to Tim 1040 Geithner.

The public relations plan seems clear. The new president and Democrat controlled House and Senate have included all their pet pork projects into the non-budgeted “stimulus” package. The president can now make a public appeal for budgetary restraint and will claim to be making progress by balancing a budget stripped of all the items that will be paid for anyway by this near one trillion dollar spending spree.

The president’s call for bipartisan input on his new push for fiscal responsibility is as transparent as was his praise for John McCann while he scratched his nose with his middle finger. This move is calculated to allow Democrats and centrists to claim the president is truly looking for a middle of the road, all inclusive, economic policy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even an abbreviated look at this president’s past voting record, as slim as it is, will make clear that this is the most liberal president in the nation’s history. If you’re going to be a liberal at least have the honesty to claim your affiliation and the courage to defend it.

But predictably the tactic is working so far, at least at home. Already many in his adoring media cabal are calling for Republicans to abandon all that they stand in for economic restraint and jump head first into the new “New Deal”.

Reams are being written and reported on how Republicans are making a futile attempt at partisan resistance without ever once considering that this spending package is truly a bad deal for taxpayers and will prove to be totally ineffective at stimulating anything but heart strings of the Democratic faithful.

With this new fiscal responsibility summit Obama is trying to maintain his “everyman” image by deceiving some Americans into believing that he truly understands and feels their pain. But in the worst economic meltdown since World War II a spending package that contains tens of billions of dollars for such items as new space shuttles, global warming research and habitat reclamation for the Southern California titmouse it is hard to convince conservatives that he understands how to act when economic times are tight.

The collapse of the credit markets was ignited by a Democrat effort to include welfare into the mortgage market. When those folks who should have never been given credit in the first place defaulted on their home loans it caused home prices to plummet and brought the entire global credit market to its knees. Banks around the world that invested in the American debt bonds suddenly found their investments worthless and their clients panicked and outraged. Are we now to believe that we can overcome this misguided attempt to make home ownership a constitutional right by spending more on welfare and meaningless projects while allowing the national debt to surpass $2 trillion?

This president and his band of merry tax delinquents can put on all the dog and pony shows they want. While the American voter, who was looking for hope, may be temporarily buffaloed the rest of the world will not. In order for America to entice foreign investment with that level of outrageous debt, interest rates on Treasury bonds will need to be increased causing even greater harm to an already wounded economy.

If the president truly wants fiscal restraint and bipartisan support he will need to follow a long held principle of economic truth.

It may take money to make money, but you can’t spend your way out of being broke.