one slander scandal

This post IS NOT an endorsement of the Obama Presidential campaign. I'm still having my doubts on who would best be suited for the position.
With that said, I do NOT believe that slanderous negative ads should be tolerated in campaigns of this manner. The decision of electing our nation's leader(s) is not to be taken lightly, and lying to the constituents/the public on these matters, in my opinion, should be a capital crime.

Following first is a copy of the e-mail and claims from and for the McCain campaign, afterwhich is the truth:

Subject: 3 Men pulled down Wall Street, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Seen This? It needs to be sent to every Senator & Repersentative

http://www.daveramsey.com/media/pdf/the_common_sense_fix.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines

Here is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have broughtdown Wall Street.

Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, "Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement ...conceding that "mistakes were made" and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake offindings that the company's books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years." Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion. Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ .

The Government noted, "The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner." Thesecharges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 MillionDollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits. Net windfall . . . $190 million!
Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, "Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae."
On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.
TOTAL = $238 Million.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor
TIM HOWARD? Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama
JIM JOHNSON? Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee
IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS - HIS ADVISORS HAVE THE EXPERTISE -THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Would you trust the men who tore Wall Street down to build the New Wall Street?

*Now the truth*

This email is false in its political aim. While much of the personal history of Raines is accurate, the political assertions about Barack Obama are completely false. Franklin Raines is not a “chief economic advisor” for the Obama campaign. In fact, he’s not an adviser at all. Franklin Raines once told a Washington Post reporter that he got a “couple of calls” from “someone in the Obama campaign.” This is the entire basis for the charge by the McCain campaign that he’s an “advisor,” a charge that the Post characterized as “clearly exaggerating wildly.” The financial crisis in this problem, caused primarily by a long campaign of deregulation, can not be laid at any one company. In an attempt to cast about for political blame and gain a political advantage, the McCain campaign has settled on a campaign distorting the facts about Barack Obama and attempting to over-simplify the crisis. This email follows in that pattern.

Jim Johnson worked with FNMA from 91 to 98 before all this, and does not have any current economic advisor ties with the Obama campaign. There is zero info anywhere on Tim Howard having anything to do with Obama. This is all made up. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/fanniemae.asp
So those are the lies now here is the truth- Rick Davis, the day-to-day manager of John McCain's campaign who is now under scrutiny for his past association with two troubled mortgage companies, has been steeped in Republican presidential politics for nearly 30 years. After McCain's first Oval Office run collapsed following primary losses to President Bush, Davis remained close to McCain, serving as chairman of a political action committee the senator founded. In 2001, he was tapped to head the Homeownership Alliance, an advocacy group formed by government-sponsored mortgage company Fannie Mae. The group's goal was to fend off restrictions on its business sought by big banks. Davis's association with the company is at odds with McCain's effort to portray himself as a reformer set to clean up the financial services industry. Along with Paul Manafort, another seasoned Republican presidential strategist, Davis owns Davis Manafort, a consulting firm that has taken in $2.4m since 1999 to lobby the Senate on behalf of telecommunications firms, technology companies and other interests. The company has done consulting work for Freddie Mac, and until August of 2008 Davis was on a $15,000 per month retainer from Freddie through his lobbying firm.

Learn Something; Do Something; Go Somewhere
Jason Widerstrand
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." -- George Carlin
"Life is a quest with an undefined beginning, and an undefined end. To know where it goes, one must find the origin!"

Economic plan

I received an email today from a friend who forwarded to me (I don't really like forwards, but, I'll still read some of them).



I think the plan would be much more effective than any of the bailouts washington is considering.



Instead of a $700 Billion bailout for the financial markets (who have been squandering our money into their pockets), consider this :



The USA population is roughly 303 million (but how many of those are legal citizens?) ...

Of that population, roughly 75% are 18+ yrs of age.

So, there are approximately 226 million 18 or older people in the US.

Lets say (liberally, without an actual statistic), 90% are legal citizens of the USA.

Now, we have 205 million 18+ US citizens.



$700 Billion divided by 205 million equals just over $3,400. I wouldn't mind $3,400. But then again, I didn't put any money into the markets ...I'm too broke, barely living paycheck to paycheck, watching gas, milk and other necessities' cost skyrocket.



So, you thot I was gonna go one direction with this ....FOOLED YA!



This bailout will cost every tax payer in this country over $3000 to attempt to stabilize the economy and right a wrong put into place by greedy rich folk who have nothing better to do than take money from others and call it an investment.



Write your congressperson and demand that not one tax dollar is spent on bailing these companies out. These companies, and the people who own and run them (who have been stuffing their pockets) should be paying every bit of it. As investors, we're informed on paper that all investments are at our own risk. What are they risking?



DO SOMETHING