The Obamanation

[classicman]

With respect to the prosecutions - its 3+ years later and still COMPLETELY empty.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

General Motors has signed a new contract to bring 760 new jobs to Ohio, increase parts and welding assembly work in Ohio that currently is being done overseas, and call back of most workers that had been laid off due to parts shortages.

GM to build 2013 Cadillac XTS in China

General Motors Co. announced ~ that it will begin building its all-new 2013 Cadillac XTS sedan in China this year and later will bring the ELR luxury electric coupe in the country.
Ewanick said GM will build its brand in China and then Europe to grow the brand over the next decade.

Currently, only the Cadillac SLS, an extended length luxury sedan, is built in China. Cadillac imports the CTS, SRX crossover and Escalade from plants in the United States and Mexico.

From The Detroit News:

Over the next few years it appears as though MORE Cadillacs will be produced overseas, namely in China.
I guess we really don't have an employment problem here.
I am curious as to what the UAW thinks of this development.
Personally, I'm thrilled with them building more vehicles there and not here.

From The Detroit News:

[Ibby]

My impression is that the china-built GM cars are just FOR china/east-asia, not being imported back to the states, and that china makes importing cars into china difficult, as well as making their own knockoff versions in their own factories for a fraction of the price.

[classicman]

making their own knockoff versions in their own factories for a fraction of the price.

Thats another part of this which concerns me.

[Ibby]

Well, they're going to do it either way - might as well give themselves a chance to compete right?

[Pico and ME]

Thats the 'job creators' making jobs for the Chinese.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Thats the 'job creators' making jobs for the Chinese.

Yep :/
We Americans bailed them out and I would have preferred they create some of those jobs here.

[classicman]

A related piece from the economist ...

The upper end of the car market is still booming. BMW's Chinese sales rose by more than a third in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier. To capitalise on the apparently insatiable appetite for its cars, the German firm is launching a stretched version of its 3-series at the Beijing show. This is to appeal to the many buyers who want extra legroom in the back, since that's where they will be sitting, with their chauffeurs at the wheel.

Sport-utility vehicles are also selling like hot Chinese buns: if you can't afford a chauffeur, at least it's nice to drive a car with high seats so you can look down on other motorists. Sales of SUVs have gone up from about 350,000 five years ago to perhaps 2m this year (out of a total Chinese market for passenger cars of 15.5m) and look set to keep growing at more than double the rate of the overall market. That is why Ford launched three new SUV models at the Beijing show.

As described in a fascinating new book on the Chinese motor industry, “Designated Drivers”, by Greg Anderson, an industry expert, the central government is well aware of the growing need for the country's motor industry to be rationalised. Yet many of the smaller makers are owned or subsidised by city and provincial governments, and their main intention is not to make profits but to soak up local unemployment and avert social unrest—the one thing the Chinese authorities at all levels most dread. Their owners and bosses will do all they can to resist cutting back.

[classicman]

Selective bin Laden leaking

Earlier this week, an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled in favor of the government in a national security case (needless to say), when he denied a FOIA request to obtain all photos and videos taken during and after the raid in Pakistan that resulted in Osama bin Laden’s death. The DOJ responded to the lawsuit by arguing (needless to say) that the requested materials “are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.” Among other things, disclosure of these materials would have helped resolve the seriously conflicting statements made by White House officials about what happened during the raid and what its actual goals and operating rules were.

But while the Obama administration has insisted to the court that all such materials are classified and cannot be disclosed without compromising crucial National Security secrets, the President’s aides have been continuously leaking information about the raid in order to create politically beneficial pictures of what happened. Last August, The New Yorker published what it purported to be a comprehensive account of the raid, based on mostly anonymous White House claims, that made Barack Obama look like a mix of Superman, Rambo and Clint Eastwood; The Washington Post called it “a fascinating, cinematic-like account of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.” This week, Time Magazine has a cover story entitled “The Last Days of Osama bin Laden” based in part on “access to top decision makers in over 100 hours of interviews.”

We just saw this deceitful pattern this week when Obama officials — yet again — ran around anonymously boasting about all the Bad Guy Corpses the Commander-in-Chief has produced with his steely use of CIA drones, only to turn around and tell a court that it cannot possibly respond to the ACLU’s FOIA request about CIA drones because National Security prevents the U.S. Government even from confirming or denying the existence of that program. They simultaneously use secrecy as a sword and a shield: they ensure that they can make whatever claims they want about their behavior in order to glorify the President, while preventing all attempts to obtain the full and real story and, more important, to obtain adjudications about whether their conduct comports with the law.

There is one other point worth making here about all this. As part of the Obama administration’s unprecedented war against whistleblowers, Bradley Manning is currently being prosecuted not merely for leaking classified information, but also for “aiding the enemy” (Al Qaeda), which carries a term of life in prison. Yesterday, the judge presiding over his court-martial (needless to say) refused to dismiss this charge, concluding that any deliberate release of classified information that one knows will end up in Al Qaeda’s hands can constitute this crime. As the ACLU’s Ben Wizner points out, “the implications of the government’s argument are breathtaking” because it would convert any unauthorized leak into this extremely serious offense.

Wow: that sounds like it’s going to be some really hard-hitting investigative journalism there: they’re letting him into the Situation Room, where it all happened. So they can’t release documents in a court proceeding about the raid because it’s all just so Super Secret, but they can all sit around with Brian Williams and “relive the pivotal moments” about “one of the country’s greatest military missions.” NBC says that this mission “until now, has been shrouded in great secrecy.” Now that Election Season is upon us and it’s apparently acceptable to disclose the details, shouldn’t the court re-consider its ruling from this week: one based on the DOJ’s insistence that this mission was far too secret to allow disclosure? Also: will the national masturbatory ritual over this incident ever end?

[classicman]

An unusual way of looking at the unemployment rate.
Tells a different story from the numbers.

The BLS no longer considers as “unemployed” those workers without jobs who have not looked for work in the past year because they feel no jobs are available.

While the BLS was reporting seasonally adjusted unemployment in January 2012 at only 8.3 percent, it was also reporting U6 seasonally adjusted unemployment in January 2012 was 15.1 percent.

The only measure BLS reports to the public as the official monthly unemployment rate is the seasonally adjusted U3 number.

Williams wrote that the “headline numbers” BLS reported for January 2012 were statistically manipulated and “simply not believable.”

He calculates his “Official SGS Alternative Unemployment Rate” by adding back into to the BLS U6 numbers those long-term discouraged workers who have not looked for work in the past year.

Williams’ “Official SGS Alternative Unemployment Rate” shows unemployment in January 2012 was 22.5percent , a 0.1 percent increase over December 2011, whereas the BLS figures were designed to report a .8-point decline, from a seasonally adjusted U3 rate of 9.1 percent in January 2011 to a seasonally adjusted 8.3 percent rate in January 2012.

EEK!?

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

and the glass is still half empty

And the reality is staring in your face, yet you still refuse to see it.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

and the glass is still half empty

Originally Posted by classicman

And the reality is staring in your face, yet you still refuse to see it.

Classic, I realize I can't satisfy your unhappiness over what you perceive is a lack of justice.
A glass half-full or half-empty comes of a person's own experience and personality.

You apparently feel that individual bankers should be criminally prosecuted
for their decisions and actions that lead to the mortgage and financial crisis.

But the officers of a corporation are essentially immune from prosecutions,
unless they have acted criminally manner (theft, fraud, embezzlement, etc.).
In fact, the corporation is required to legally defend it's officials for their decisions,
and may be required to financially indemnify the officials from any penalties.
The Board of Directors may dismiss it's officials, with or without settlements.
But as such, the penalties that the corporation, itself, can incur are only financial,
and these are usually offset by liability insurance.

Various people, including your nemesis, Obama, have said the
bankers may not necessarily have performed illegally
- immorally, maybe - but illegally, not likely or very difficult to prove.
To attribute lack of federal prosecution to political contributions is dissimulation.

OTOH, individual corporate officers are being prosecuted (fraudulent robo-signing, etc.)
by States Attorney Generals, but these may not be the particular individuals you want to see imprisoned.

Maybe a review at what has been proceeding against Washington Mutual
will assuage some of your dissatisfaction. Here is a bit of WaMu's recent history:

Stephen Rotella joined WaMu as president and COO and acted
as president of the Home Loans Group until David Schneider took the position in mid-2005.
WaMu also appointed a new Chief Enterprise Risk Officer (Ronald Cathcart)
and a new Controller (John Woods) at this time .

Chase Bank eventually came to own WaMu's assets, and are defending
these "former" executives in a law suite brought by the FDIC.

Here is a link to Bloomberg News:

The FDIC has authorized lawsuits against 158 officers and directors
in an effort to recoup more than $3.5 billion in losses stemming from the credit crisis,
agency spokesman Andrew Gray said today in an e-mail.
The agency, which has shuttered more than 290 lenders since the start of 2008,
has filed five other cases against officers and directors,
including one in July seeking $300 million in damages from four executives of IndyMac Bancorp Inc.

In 2008, a class-action law suite was brought against WaMu on behalf of it's stockholders.

Defendants include top WaMu executives, directors, underwriters of securities offerings,
and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Big 4 accounting firm.
<snip>
Confidential Witness 17, a former Senior Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management,
“explained that various Risk Reports were delivered to WaMu’s senior management
– including at least Defendants Rotella, Cathcart and Casey
– during 2006 ‘specifically quantified the fact that the Company
was exceeding certain risk parameters as dictated by [WaMu’s] risk guidelines’” (Complaint p. 44)

The sequence of events is in this link:
TheCourt's final decision says, in part:

Case 2:08-md-01919-MJP Document 906 Filed 11/04/11 Page 2 of 3
ORDER APPROVING PLAN OF ALLOCATION OF NET SETTLEMENT FUNDS
Master No: 2:08-md-1919 MJP

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, that:
1. This Order approving the Plan of Allocation incorporates by reference the definitions
in the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement with Individual Officer and Director Defendants
and with Washington Mutual, Inc. dated June 30, 2011 (ECF No. 874-1),
the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement with the Underwriter Defendants
dated June 30, 2011 (ECF No. 875-2), and the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement
with Defendant Deloitte & Touche LLP dated June 30, 2011 (ECF No. 874-3)
(collectively, the “Stipulations”) and all terms used herein shall,
with respect to the respective Stipulations, have the same meanings as set forth
in the applicable Stipulation or in the Notice.
<snip>
6. The Court hereby finds and concludes that the Plan of Allocation
is, in all respects, fair and equitable to the Class.
Accordingly, the Court hereby approves the Plan of Allocation proposed by Lead Plaintiff.
7. There is no just reason for delay in the entry of this Order, and immediate entry by the
Clerk of the Court is expressly directed.

SO ORDERED this 4th day of November, 2011.
Marsha J. Pechman
United States District Judge

So far as WaMu officials, Kerry Killinger, Stephen Rotella, David Schneider, are concerned,
they lost their jobs and their penalties were published 12/17/12 in the NY Times.
The article also discusses the reasoning behind the FDIC settlement.

But, I suspect all this will have little effect on your feelings
about Obama and the Dept of Justice, and you will vote accordingly.
So be it... only you can fill your own glass.

[infinite monkey]

LAMP. I've missed you!

[Lamplighter]

Still searching the interior of Alaska for HLJ :rolleyes

[infinite monkey]

I guess you may as well go on home.

I think he was abducted by aliens. Or he rose up or something.