Video:  Racist Obama billboard?

Death threats, accusations of hate speech and racism.  Are you freaking kidding me?

Let's set some things straight.  I voted for Obama (long since explained -- I'm an independent who does not like Green Eggs and Sarah, or John for that matter), and now 2 years later I can't stand the sight or sound of him.  So many lies, broken promises, owned by the banking and Wall Street lobby, warmonger in disguise, the individual mandate of Obamacare, cap and trade madness, horrible golfer.  So yes I regret my vote, as I should have just written-in Ron Paul -- again, no way I'm voting for McPalin.

But as an avowed anti-racist, do I think this sign is an example of racism or hate speech as some whiny liberals claim.  Hell No.  Again, are you kidding me?  If you're a Democrat and you think it's racist, then read this story:

• HUSHED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: The Democrat Party's Long and Shameful History of Bigotry and Racism

So here's a test for everyone to take at home.  If you think this billboard is racist or an example of hate speech, then simply put, you are insane.  Out of your fracking mind.  Call the psych ward and tell them you're on your way. 

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Selected bits of truth:

• Obama Lies 7 Times In Under 2 Minutes (VIDEO)

• Sarah Pailin Is A Bailout Socialist

• Presidential Shankapotomos (Watch Obama's Golf Swing)

• Bush Learns He Shouldn't Golf While Soldiers Die (VIDEO)

• AWESOME Video Timeline Of Obama's Daily Response To BP Oil Spill (White House Won't Like This Clip)

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The New York Post reports this morning that the White House is considering billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for Tim Geithner's spot as Treasury Secretary when Geithner leaves for Goldman Sachs in November, after Obama has his ass handed to him in the mid-term elections. 

Actually, that was just my prediction.  The Post story actually claims that Obama is considering sacking Geithner before Novemeber, in a last-ditch effort to sway voters before Obama has his ass handed to him in the mid-term elections.

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• From the NY Post

• Watch LIVE on C-Span

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• C-Span Video of yesterday's hearings

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B-52 has finished testifying.  Sheila Bair is now in the hot seat.  I will post a link to Bernanke's taped testimony as soon as it becomes available.

• Bernanke's opening statement
  

Summary and reaction:

• Bernanke Says He Wasn't Straightforward About `Myth' of Fed Saving Lehman (Bloomberg)

• Bernanke: Shut down banks if they threaten system (AP)

• Bernanke says Fed had to let Lehman fail (LA Times)

As a scholar of the Great Depression, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Thursday he knew the failure of Lehman Bros. in 2008 would be an economic disaster. But he believed there was no way to save the investment bank without a huge loss of taxpayer money.

"This is my bread and butter, and I believed deeply that if Lehman was allowed to fail or did fail, the consequences on the U.S. financial system and the U.S. economy would be catastrophic," Bernanke told the federal panel investigating the financial crisis.

But he said Lehman lacked the collateral to back up a loan from the Fed and such a move would not have stopped a run on the bank by customers.

"If we lent the money to Lehman … we would have saddled the taxpayers with tens of billions of dollars in losses," Bernanke said.

Bernanke said he wanted to help Lehman to avoid the damaging consequences that would come from its bankruptcy. The Fed was able to rescue AIG because its huge insurance assets provided adequate collateral.

"It was with great reluctance and sadness that I conceded that there was no other option" than to let Lehman fail, he told the commission. "If I could have done anything to save it, I would have saved it."

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• From the WSJ

WASHINGTON—The need to eliminate firms that are effectively "too big to fail" was the top lesson from the recent financial crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told an investigative panel Thursday.

Regulators "now have the tools to do that" under the recently passed Dodd-Frank law, he said, and will force firms to divest or restructure if they pose an untenable risk to the broader economy.

"My projection is that even without direct intervention...that over time we will see some breakups and some reduction in size and complexity of some of these firms," Mr. Bernanke told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which is tasked with investigating the causes and fallout from the credit-market collapse.

CNBC Video:  Jimmy Rogers and Vince Farrell -- Flashback to Sep. 2009

A classic clip from last year in honor of today's appearance from Lehman's criminal gorilla, Dick Fuld.

Rogers goes off.  Geithner gets pounded.  You celebrate with an adult beverage.  Jimbo gets rolling in the first 60 seconds:

• "First of all this whole problem was not caused by Lehman Brothers or Lehman Brothers' failure.  Lehman didn't cause AIG to fail, or Fannie & Freddie to fail, or Iceland to fail.  Lehman was an effect not a cause.  The real problem over the past 10 or 15 years has been that the regulators have not let anybody fail.  They have pulled in crony capitalism.  Every time someone got in trouble, they would call up Mr. Greenspan or Mr. Bernanke and say "save me!"  Had they let people fail, we would have solved this problem long ago.  They refused to let the market do what the market is supposed to do.  They've propped everybody up.  There has been a huge failure of regulation. I don't know why they're not in jail."

And that's the slow part. 

Because really, he hasn't even called Geithner a punk yet.

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Excellent interview from last week.  I've got the full 8-minute clip, a 1-minute excerpt, the transcript, a summary, an interesting lnk on 'Fed Group Think' at Jackson Hole, plus a selected Hoenig archive.  It's a solid collection. 

You already know the story on Hoenig.  He's the lone voice of QE dissent at the Fed, preferring tighter money over the Bernanke helicopter.

Video:  Kansas City Federal Reserve President Thomas Hoenig with Steve Liesman from the Fed conference in Jackson Hole -- Aired Aug. 26, 2010

• Written summary from CNBC

• Transcript is here

An excellent piece from Bloomberg:

• Hoenig Says He Changed Jackson Hole Guest List to Discourage `Group Think'

One-minute interview excerpt below:

CNBC Video:  Steve Liesman with KC Fed President Thomas Hoenig

Short excerpt.  Runs 1 minute.  Hoenig remains confident in the so-called recovery.

Hoenig partial archive:

• Fed Prez Hoenig Explains The Crisis In 60 Seconds (Video)

• KC Fed President Thomas Hoenig On Housing, Banks, Fannie, Freddie & Deleveraging

• Hoenig Calls For Break-Up Of Mega-Banks, Attacks Wall Street

• Lone Voice of Reason Warns of Debt Threat to Fed

• Kansas City Fed Head Hoenig Discusses The Federal Reserve's Exit Strategy
  

• Hoenig Breaks From Bernanke: "Let Insolvent Banks Fail"

• Hoenig Warns Against "Perpetuating The Banking Oligarchy"

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Video:  NBC speaks with James Lee, as he holds 3 hostages -- Aired today

Video and manifesto inside.  An NBC producer had a brief, recorded conversation with Lee while he was holding hostages and threatening to blow up the building.  It's in the 2nd half of the clip above.  Here's a snip of the Lee's unique insanity:

• All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions.  In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed.  All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

More detail:

• Environmental Militant Killed by Police at Discovery Headquarters (ABC)

• Discovery building hostage situation ends with suspect James Lee fatally shot

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Apologies for the text formatting.  I couldn't get it to appear correctly.  The PDF link below makes for an easier read.

• Manifesto

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time
slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be
done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's
inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy
human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format
contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the
Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something
WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is
reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human
infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging
human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the
direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in
advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization
and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict.
Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep
out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the
wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other,
they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that
war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE
HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and
greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population
goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the
moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution
and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to
develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they
stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more
unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH
AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the
population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They
must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and
the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don't build more housing pollution which
destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding
as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the
overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks
into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!

8. Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human
population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies!
You're the media, you can reach enough people. It's your resposibility because you reach so many
minds!!!

9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for
their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war.

10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons
shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows
become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development!

11. You're also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war.  Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.
For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new
addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human's lifespan!

THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease!  It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It's like a couple are having 30 babies even though it's just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too!

Also, war must be halted. Not because it's morally wrong, but because of the catastrophic environmental
damage modern weapons cause to other creatures. FIND SOLUTIONS JUST LIKE THE BOOK SAYS! Humans are supposed to be inventive. INVENT, DAMN YOU!!

The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not
stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally
harmful humans.

Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing
is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes,
Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.

The humans? The planet does not need humans.

You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world, and
YET you encourage the exact opposite instead of discouraging human growth and procreation. Surely
you MUST ALREADY KNOW this!

I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup
and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive
solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

These are the demands and sayings of Lee.

##

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Video:  Joe Miller on his battle with Lisa Murkowski

Murkowski has conceded.  Miller is the winner.  Vote them all out, except Ron Paul.  Video and quotes inside.  Miller seems like an outstanding candidate.

"He pulled off the upset victory of the year because he ran on principles and because Alaskans, like all Americans, want to stop the massive spending, bailouts and debt that are bankrupting our country," said DeMint.

Taking a shot at Murkowski if not the entire Republican establishment, he added: "Joe Miller's victory should be a wake-up call to politicians who go to Washington to bring home the bacon. Voters are saying 'We're not willing to bankrupt the country to benefit ourselves.'"

Murkowski, who was seeking her second full term, was the first GOP incumbent to lose her renomination bid to a tea party-backed challenger in a Republican primary.

But Utah Sen. Bob Bennett lost his job, too, fired at the state convention in May when tea party activists and other GOP voters rallied behind Mike Lee. And tea party favorites Rand Paul in Kentucky, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado won their primaries over establishment-supported candidates in open races.

Now, the country's latest political phenomenon is turning its sights on the Sept. 14 Delaware Senate primary in hopes that its preferred candidate can vanquish a moderate hand-picked by GOP leaders in Washington, Rep. Mike Castle, to win an open seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden.

"Up next: Christine O'Donnell for U.S. Senate in Delaware," declared Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express, which says it spent some $600,000 in the final weeks of Alaska's Senate race to help Miller. The California-based group says it will shell out $250,000 on O'Donnell's behalf.

• Continue reading

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Schadenfraude.  The economy doesn't belong to the President.  It's more a matter of timing.  Clinton got lucky with the Y2K tech build-out and internet explosion.  Bush put us into 2 stupid wars, while the debt bubble expanded at home aided by deregulation pushed by both parties. 

The difference is that we've never had a President quite like Obama, who ignores the complicity of his own party while continuing to blame the previous party and President almost 2 years into his administration.  It's become laughable at this point.  Does anyone still buy anything this President has to say.

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Video and complete background on this story is at the bottom of the post.

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Very funny reaction from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism:

• Dick Fuld is Still Trying to Blame Everyone Else For Lehman’s Failure

The English language needs a new word to describe the nature and degree of disconnectedness from reality represented by Dick Fuld. He occupies a weird funhouse realm in which he did no wrong, those mean people in DC and the evil shorts brought down a viable enterprise. Remember, this is the man who certified financial statements goosed up to the tune of $50 billion via Repo 105, a ruse that ought to have been an accounting fraud but wasn’t, says he never heard of it, yet considers himself sufficiently well informed about what was happening at his former firm to be a qualified judge of whether it could have survived.

“Denial” and “pathological” are near cliches and therefore far too weak to describe the fantastically distorted lens through which Dick Fuld views the world. He seems to believe if he can get enough people to repeat his delusions, that will make them true. Bloomberg apparently had an advance version of his written submission to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (sadly, I don’t see it yet at the FCIC website), and it appears to be a doozy.

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From Bloomberg:

• Fuld Says U.S. Used `Flawed Information' in Denying Lehman Aid

Richard Fuld, former chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said regulators relied on “flawed information” in denying his company aid that was extended to competitors.

“Other firms were hurt by their plummeting stock prices,” Fuld, 64, said in prepared remarks submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission for a hearing in Washington today. “Lehman was the only firm that was mandated by government regulators to file for bankruptcy. The government was then forced to intervene to protect those other firms and the entire financial system.”

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From Reuters:

• Fuld says government denied Lehman while helping rest of Wall Street
  

(Reuters) - U.S. regulators did not grant Lehman Brothers the same assistance as its competitors, knocking out the possibility of an orderly unwind of the firm and aggravating the global crisis, former Lehman Chief Executive Dick Fuld said on Wednesday.

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Now from the goriila himself, Richard Fuld:

2010-0901-Fuld

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More detail on this can be found here:

• The Unwinding Of Lehman Brothers With CEO Brian Marsal

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I've written and reported extensively on Lehman's fraud:

LEHMAN FRAUD: Attention Prosecutors: Watch This Video About Lehman, Geithner, Fuld & The NY Fed

Lies, More Lies & Richard Fuld: Lehman's Fraudulent Dick

Lehman's False Accounting Was Known By SEC and NY Fed Regulators -- Yet They Did Nothing

The Origins of Lehman’s ‘Repo 105’

The New York Fed, Lehman And A CLO Called Freedom

And they weren't alone.  Citigroup and Bank of America did something similar:

BUSTED: Bank Of America Admits To SEC That It Repeatedly Lied About Debt And Leverage Levels

Dylan Ratigan On The Lying Scoundrels At Bank Of America (That Means You Ken Lewis)

A few more Lehman stories:

Inside The Collapse Of Lehman Brothers (VIDEO)

The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers (BBC Feature Film)

Chanos Calls For DOJ Investigation Into AIG, Lehman (Video)

Gasparino: Active CRIMINAL Component To Lehman Investigation (FBI, DOJ & SEC Involved)

Steal Groceries, Go To Jail; Steal Billions, Get An SEC Wells Notice (Gasparino On Lehman Developments)

Hold it.  I know what you're thinking -- that her smile could warm the economy all by itself.  Yeah, uh-huh.  Video, transcript, links and background are inside.

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• Watch speech on C-Span

• Complete transcript of speech

Detailed background coverage is at the bottom of this post.

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Text below was written by C-Span.

Romer: Increase Government Spending and Cut Taxes

Christina Romer, the outgoing head of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), spoke today at the National Press Club on her approach to the economy when President Obama first took office and the impact economic recovery efforts have had during the past 20 months.

After her resignation takes effect on September 3rd, Romer will move from her leadership role at the CEA, a three-member agency within the President’s Executive Office, to join the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a newly-created independent group that offers economic advice to the White House. Romer has also announced plans to resume teaching economics at the University of California - Berkeley.

She is the second person to leave the Administration's economic team in the past month. There has been no announcement on any replacement for the departing CEA chair. However, reports indicate that Austan Goolsbee, who is currently a member of the CEA and serves as the chief economist, Advisory Board, is a possible candidate; along with Advisory Board member and former CEA head Laura Tyson. 

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Background stories on Christina Romer:

Righteous Ratigan Attack On Leverage And Regulation Leaves CEA Chair Dr. Christina Romer Mumbling Nonsense (Clip Of The Week)

Christina Romer: We'll Do Whatever It Takes To Help The Economy (Anti-Keynesian Stimulus Rant Included)

Christina Romer In Love With Rosy Scenario (VIDEO)

Because It's Important To Know What Your Enemies (Romer & Summers) Are Thinking

China owns approximately $800 billion of U.S. Treasuries.  Obviously they read too much Zero Hedge and watch too much Marc Faber because allegedly they lost $430 billion, nearly half a freaking trillion, on their Treasury stockpile.

They should have made a similar amount on their holdings as Treasuries have rallied massively of late, which can only mean they were short Treasuries (probably through derivatives trades with Goldman) as a hedge. 

And to say that hedge has blown up would be an understatement.  There are even rumours that Zhou has fled the country fearing reprisal from the Chinese Communist Party.  Zhou should have been reading the Bail instead, as we've been warning about QE v. 2.0 and a treasury rally since March of 2009.

Many of you have seen this story.  There was an update yesterday from Stratfor.

Rumors have run rampant in China that the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) Zhou Xiaochuan may have fled the country, according to a report from STRATFOR, the global intelligence company.

The rumors seem to have started following reports on August 28 which cited Ming Pao, a Hong Kong-based news agency, which said that the Chinese government may punish some members within the PBC, including Zhou, due to an approximate $430 billion loss on U.S. Treasury bonds.

STRATFOR said it has received no confirmation of the rumor, and that “reports by state-run Chinese media appeared to send strong indications that Zhou is in no trouble at the moment.”

However, STRATFOR noted, the release of this rumor and its dispersion throughout the public is significant, particularly as the Communist Party of China prepares for a leadership transition in 2012.

STRATFOR also reported that Chinese state-run media and official government websites have run several high-profile reports about Zhou, which should be seen as an attempt to refute the rumors.

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Some background, live video of the hearings and prepared statements from the guilty.

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• Click here to watch LIVE on C-Span

• Prepared statements from Richard Fuld, Robert Steel, others

• Previous FCIC Hearings on 2008 Financial Crisis (C-Span Archive)

Essential Dick Fuld & Lehman background:

• Dick Fuld Won't Accept What The Rest Of Us Already Know: He And Other Lehman Execs Were Criminal Bastards Who Routinely Lied About Debt, Leverage & Asset Valuations

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• Text below was written by C-Span
  

Former Wachovia executive Robert Steel told a panel investigating the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis that he was directed by U.S. bank regulator Sheila Bair to sell Wachovia. Later, ex. Lehman CEO will blame financial regulators for being denied government bailout aid.  

Steel told a 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) panel this morning that in 2008 he was ordered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to sell his company to avoid a banking system collapse. In testimony to the committee, Steel said that Wachovia didn’t need government support if negotiations with Citigroup continued but “Chairman Bair directed Wachovia to commence negotiations with Citigroup” or he was told the “FDIC was prepared to exercise its powers to effect an open bank assisted transaction.” 

The commission is meeting today to hear from Steel, Former Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Dick Fuld and government regulators on how the 2008 banking bailout deal was accomplished. The two-day hearing also looks into the concept of "too big to fail" -- the idea that some banking businesses are so important to the nation, that it would be disastrous if they were allowed to fail.

Former Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Dick Fuld will appear later today and is expected to blame government regulators for not providing bailout aid when "support [was] given to each of its competitors and other nonfinancial firms." Fuld will also state that the same regulators relied on “flawed information” when assessing Lehman's financial state, which he claims ultimately led the firm's "forced" bankruptcy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair are scheduled to testify tomorrow.

Video:  Dr. Nouriel Roubini on Squawk Box -- Aired Aug. 26, 2010

Outstanding interview.  This is lucid Nouriel.  He predicts Q3 GDP of ZERO.  And says Bernanke has no options and that QE v. 2.0 will fail.  No shit, Sherlock.  Quotes inside.

And for the record, the recession never ended.

• CHART SHOCK: The REAL Unemployment Rate Is 22%

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From CNBC

The U.S. can't run a budget deficit of 15 to 20 percent of GDP, he said. In addition, quantitative easing is unlikely to have any effect in prompting banks to lend.

"Banks today are sitting on $1 trillion of excess reserves that they are not lending out" and earning 0.25 percent on, he said. "Why would they want to lend more if we do more QE?"

The U.S. is facing a "liquidity trap," which is when financial and credit systems get stuck, Roubini said.

And with companies discounting prices and a glut in the labor market, the biggest threat to the economy is deflation, he said.

"In the short run we may end up like Japan," he said.

More detail on this clip/story

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WASHINGTON — House investigators have recommended that three lawmakers be further investigated to determine whether political contributions were improperly linked to votes on the huge financial overhaul bill.

The independent House Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the member-run House ethics committee pursue potential rules violations by Republicans John Campbell of California and Tom Price of Georgia and Democrat Joseph Crowley of New York.

The ethics office recommended no further investigation of five other lawmakers in the same probe: Democratic Reps. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and Mel Watt of North Carolina, and Republicans Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Chris Lee of New York, and Frank Lucas of Oklahoma.

All offices of the lawmakers had received letters from the OCE by Tuesday and made the conclusions public.

President Barack Obama signed the financial overhaul bill into law July 21. It aims to restrain Wall Street excesses with the most sweeping overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to address failures that precipitated the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.

The Democrats – Crowley, Pomeroy and Watt – voted for the final bill. The Republicans – Campbell, Price, Hensarling, Lee and Lucas – voted against it.

Campbell said he was "perplexed by OCE's decision, as they have presented no evidence that would suggest wrongdoing."

Campbell added that he "always complied with the letter and the spirit of the law. To suggest otherwise is unfounded and untrue. In addition, my voting record and opposition to a culture of taxpayer-funded bailouts has been and always will be unshakable."

Price said it was "truly a mystery" that his case was referred for further investigation.

"There being no evidence of any wrongdoing or any inconsistency in my policy position, one can only guess as to the motive behind their decision or even why they chose to initiate a review in the first place," he said. "My constant allegiance to a transparent and conscious divide between my official duties as a member of Congress and my actions as a candidate is without question."

Crowley's office said in a statement that he "has always complied with the letter and spirit of all rules regarding fundraising and standards of conduct."

All three lawmakers referred for further investigation had fundraisers last December, around the time of crucial House votes.

Price had two fundraisers, including a breakfast on Dec. 2 and a luncheon Dec. 10 billed as a financial services event. A special guest was Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee.

Crowley had a cocktail reception Dec. 10.

Campbell had fundraisers Dec. 8 and Dec. 9.

Campbell and Price consistently opposed the regulation legislation. Crowley, after attending his fundraiser, returned to the House and voted against Democratic amendments aimed at toughening some financial regulations.

In each case he joined more than 100 Democrats, including fellow New Yorkers, to vote against the proposed changes.

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• Article Source: AP

This one is not positive for 'Dear Leader.'

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By Dr. Pitchfork

If you thought that Obama was clueless about finance and markets when he took office a year and a half ago; if you suspected that he was nothing more than putty in the hands of Geithner and Summers; or if you wondered whether the banksters had somehow managed to play him like a fiddle, then stop wondering.  You were right. 

Michael Hirsh's recent Newsweek article reveals that Obama gave Wall St. the kid glove treatment, not because he's a smart guy who made some politically un-popular decisions, but because Summers and Geithner told him to.  Obama even considered breaking up the TBTF banks at one point (would've been nice), but Geithner and Summers wouldn't let him.  FinReg?  Team Obama fought tooth and nail to water down the bill in order to please Wall St. 

None of this is news to regular readers of The Bail, but the myth of Barack Obama -- the strong, smart, confident leader -- is now officially dead.

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From Newsweek