Washington for Sale Options

[GodConsciousness]

Good quote from an article I am reading at http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct11/notes-on-OWS10-11.html

The key to understanding Washington is to understand that the whole place is for sale. It's not just politicians. It's interest groups (right and left), media, foundations, lobbyists, etc.

Companies/foundations/labor all essentially manufacture "public opinion" from thin air simply by routing money to the right mouthpieces -- public interest groups, non-profits, academics & universities, analysts. It's hugely sophisticated and the budgets are enormous.

They are all competing (and paying) to either get the government to screw their competitor or convey some government benefit to them.

The voice of the electorate -- the real "grassroots" -- gets completely lost in the din. As soon as a "movement" picks up steam (e.g. Tea Party, MoveOn.org) it becomes completely co-opted... Tea Party becomes about "Guns, God & Gays" as Denninger rightly points out. Huge sums of money are dangled in front of the movement's leaders and the original purpose of the movement is transformed into something that the status quo can tolerate.

There's no room in this town for anyone who challenges the status quo -- be that a Ron Paul, a Dennis Kucinich, a Noam Chomsky, etc. (Republicans ridicule Ron Paul just as much as Democrats do... It's NOT his ideas that they are afraid of, it's that he's a huge threat to their power and perks.)

[KoolK3n]

There's no room in this town for anyone who challenges the status quo -- be that a Ron Paul, a Dennis Kucinich, a Noam Chomsky, etc. (Republicans ridicule Ron Paul just as much as Democrats do... It's NOT his ideas that they are afraid of, it's that he's a huge threat to their power and perks.)

My thoughts exactly!

[Magister Hayk]

I think Alexander Hamilton's wing eventually overlorded over the Thomas Jefferson's wing. Moreover it pertinaciously mutated prior overlording.

In nowadays one should be fool to believe that US is a democratic country in a way we common people understand it.

In my view US elite had to rethink paradigms that propel the United States of America.

But now it is too late.

[Quantum Sunlight]

Yeah, the problem we are facing at this point is so huge and powerful that I tend to think of it as a massive cancerous brain tumor. The channels and pathways that provide support to our country's citizens, and to the citizens of the rest of the world through us, have been hopelessly corrupted and re-routed in such a way that no amount of financial aid or public welfare support could possibly save us now.

As the original poster said, the problem is at the very, very top- above even the president of the US, who is a puppet. The hand that bought and paid for him controls him, and all his other governmental stooges who have already sold their souls to the almighty dollar. No president will ever be able to address this problem because we will never have the opportunity to vote for a president who hasn't already been corrupted, bought and paid for, puppet-ized by the shadowy globalist elites who really control our government and all world events through their control of the US and British governments and institutions like the CFR, UN, IMF, Fed, etc

It is a bleak landscape that I believe only revolution could ever hope to reform at this point. But wait... the people don't want reform! They want to drink their beer and be told what to think through the television... they want to allow the nauseatingly bias news media to brainwash them and tell them what to think, which ideas they should laugh about, and the newest fear-monger "problems" they need to be very very afraid of. Things are bleak indeed, but they are always darkest before the dawn, so they say...

[Magister Hayk]

When I watch TV programs from US I gradually get wondered at primitive level of minding of US broadcasting institutions.

In fact that should cascade at mental level of US population causing degrading influence at economic performance of that country.

It looks like that the spirit of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin have left the realms of America.

[Quantum Sunlight]

When I watch TV programs from US I gradually get wondered at primitive level of minding of US broadcasting institutions.

In fact that should cascade at mental level of US population causing degrading influence at economic performance of that country.

It looks like that the spirit of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin have left the realms of America.

Yeah the powers that be definitely want to keep us Americans as dumb and brain-washed as possible... What amazes me is the media in this country. There are 5 major news providers in the U.S.... if you follow the money and the power all the way to the top, they are owned by just 3 ridiculously wealthy and powerful elitist a-holes.

Every night, the sheeple watch the news and they are told what to think, what to be afraid of, and what ideas they should regard as laughably untrue and far-fetched...

Anyway... don't get me started. :-)

[GodConsciousness]

Newt Gingrich made between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees from two contracts with mortgage company Freddie Mac, according to two people familiar with the arrangement.
The total amount is significantly larger than the $300,000 payment from Freddie Mac that Gingrich was asked about during a Republican presidential debate on Nov. 9 sponsored by CNBC, and more than was disclosed in the middle of congressional investigations into the housing industry collapse.
Gingrich’s business relationship with Freddie Mac spanned a period of eight years. When asked at the debate what he did to earn a $300,000 payment in 2006, the former speaker said he “offered them advice on precisely what they didn’t do,” and warned the company that its lending practices were “insane.” Former Freddie Mac executives who worked with Gingrich dispute that account.
Gingrich’s first contract with the mortgage lender was in 1999, five months after he resigned from Congress and as House speaker, according to a Freddie Mac press release.
His primary contact inside the organization was Mitchell Delk, Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist, and he was paid a self- renewing, monthly retainer of $25,000 to $30,000 between May 1999 until 2002, according to three people familiar with aspects of the business agreement.
During that period, Gingrich consulted with Freddie Mac executives on a program to expand home ownership, an idea Delk said he pitched to President George W. Bush’s White House.

Political Benefits
“I spent about three hours with him talking about the substance of the issues and the politics of the issues, and he really got it,” said Delk, adding that the two discussed “what the benefits are to communities, what the benefits could be for Republicans and particularly their relationship with Hispanics.”
One idea that the former Georgia congressman proposed that Freddie Mac didn’t pursue was initiating a program with the Boy Scouts of America to teach youngsters the importance of saving money and maintaining good credit so they would qualify to buy a home later in life.
In 2001, according to one person familiar with the work Gingrich performed, company officials asked him for feedback on their plan to publicly embrace “six voluntary commitments.”
The six items included a pledge to periodically issue subordinated debt, manage liquidity, undergo capital stress tests and expand various types of risk disclosures. Gingrich applauded the ideas, saying they would enable Freddie Mac to demonstrate benefits to the taxpayer, the person said.

Not a Lobbyist
“What he did was provide counsel on public policy issues,” Delk said in an interview. “There was no expectation that he would do any lobbying, and he did not do any lobbying.”
While campaigning in Iowa this week, Gingrich, 68, was asked about his relationship with Freddie Mac. He said he did no lobbying “of any kind.”
Gingrich’s second contract with Freddie Mac was a two-year retainer for which he was paid a total of $600,000, said two people familiar with the agreement.
What he did for the money is a subject of disagreement. Gingrich said during the CNBC debate that he advised the troubled firm as a “historian.” Gingrich said he warned that the company’s business model was a “bubble” and its lending practices were “insane.”
None of the former Freddie Mac officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Gingrich raised the issue of the housing bubble or was critical of Freddie Mac’s business model.

‘Strategic Advice’
“We dispute your sources’ account,” said R.C. Hammond, a Gingrich campaign spokesman.
Hammond confirmed that Gingrich had multiple contracts with the mortgage company.
“Newt did have a series of contracts with Freddie Mac over a period of many years, during which he was paid to give strategic advice,” Hammond said in a telephone interview.
A Freddie Mac spokesman declined to comment on the Gingrich contracts.
Former Freddie Mac officials familiar with his work in 2006 say Gingrich was asked to build bridges to Capitol Hill Republicans and develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it.
He was expected to provide written material that could be circulated among free-market conservatives in Congress and in outside organizations, said two former company executives familiar with Gingrich’s role at the firm. He didn’t produce a white paper or any other document the firm could use on its behalf, they said.

Attacking Freddie Mac
Since his retainer with Freddie Mac ended in 2008, Gingrich has become a critic of the government-sponsored enterprises, which were pushed into insolvency by subprime mortgages.
The two companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, “are so thoroughly politicized and preside over such irresponsible lending policies that they need to be replaced with smaller, private companies operating without government guarantees, whose leaders focus on making a profit, not manipulating politicians,” Gingrich wrote in his 2011 book, “To Save America.”
In an Oct. 11 Republican presidential debate, Gingrich said, Democrats and housing-loan loan practices led to the house industry’s collapse.
“You ought to start with Barney Frank,” when talking about people to put in jail, Gingrich said, referring to the Massachusetts congressman who serves as the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. “Go back and look at the lobbyists he was close to at Freddie Mac,” Gingrich said in the debate, sponsored by Bloomberg News and the Washington Post.
To contact the reporters on this story: Clea Benson in Washington at cbenson20@bloomberg.net; Dawn Kopecki in New York at dkopecki@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

[Magister Hayk]

Moral and Spiritual values are things that keep Civilizations stable.

Some civilizations are strongly interconnected. Sometimes destinies of the Great are dependent at destinies of the small.

Those Great Civilizations which do not precept that wisdom do not get proper Blessing of the Eternal Wisdom and expire in time in spite of their glittering glory and military might.

[GodConsciousness]

[Flex]

Google definitely doesn't get the creativity award with that logo

[Magister Hayk]

Google definitely doesn't get the creativity award with that logo

They are global 'evil'.

[GodConsciousness]

[Magister Hayk]

One day mankind shall arrive to idea that President's post should be shared by 3 people having significantly differing from each other personal names and making decisions by special vote system.

[GodConsciousness]

I just hope we can have some intelligent politicians who truly care about the welfare of the entire country rather than their own personal career and objectives.

[GodConsciousness]

Story on Ron Paul taking lead in Iowa:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/20...ds-in-iowa.html

[KoolK3n]

Story on Ron Paul taking lead in Iowa:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/20...ds-in-iowa.html

Haha if only he took nootropics

[Flex]

http://imgur.com/0tC0W