Obama Picks His Staff...

Obama Picks His Staff...

Ha! So he did it.. He actually did it...

Proponents of financial deregulation may have a strong ally within the White House, now that President Obama has named Bill Daley his new chief of staff.

The prospect of Daley taking the key White House position had earned praise from Wall Street insiders who cited his ability to “bring people together” and “success in getting things done,” according to Fortune.

As the brother of Chicago’s outgoing mayor Richard Daley, a former Commerce Secretary and a current JPMorgan Chase executive, Daley shared certain commonalities with his predecessor: Rahm Emanuel also came to the White House by way of a Chicago connection, worked under Bill Clinton, and—as a former investment banker —brought his own ties to Wall Street.

In addition to those things, Daley has strong ties to the Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the financial reform bill that was a cornerstone of the administration’s agenda last year. From Kevin Connor, co-director the Public Accountability Initiative, a nonprofit research organization:

From 2005 to 2007, he co-chaired a Chamber of Commerce committee on financial (de)regulation. The “Commission on the Regulation of Capital Markets in the 21st Century” eventually became the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, which played a prominent role in attacking derivatives regulation and consumer protections last year. The Hill called the group one of the “loudest voices on financial legislation”—and they weren’t exactly singing the praises of reform efforts.

Daley also signed on to a March 2009 Chamber manifesto on “Restoring Confidence in US Capital Markets,” the Chamber’s opening PR move in the financial reform debate.

The new chief of staff has publicly opposed the concept of an independent consumer financial protection agency—a key part of Dodd-Frank. In 2009, he criticized a pro-business Illinois Democrat for her position on financial reform, telling the Chicago Tribune that “she did not have a knee-jerk aversion to the concept of a federal consumer protection agency, in spite of all our brilliant arguments.”

News of Daley's selection broke this morning. The president had told the New York Times yesterday that the announcement would come in “due course,” after White House lawyers finished vetting the candidate.

I know what you're thinking.. a former JP Morgan Chase executive? No sir, only a current JP Morgan Chase executive will do! Let's put it this way, Karl Rove has endorsed this choice. That should tell you something.

When I saw the headline saying that 'Daley' would be Obama's new chief of staff, I thought it would be Richard Daley. Boy was I disappointed. I honestly didn't think Obama could pick a chief of staff that was more of an affront to his supporters than Emmanuel but now here we are.

Finally the financial sector will no longer have to suffer from under representation at the White House!

And that's my biggest question. How do you deregulate finance any further? They are running around and taking homes to which they have no claim to ownership over and betting against US Treasury bonds. How much more wild and crazy deregulated can you get?

Oh, let's not forget that they're causing chaos by buying up anything they can anywhere that has higher interest rates than 0%. But you know what, this is Obama. I'm pretty confident that they will find a way to make it worse. Yes We Can!


Yup.. because he's nothing resembling left at all.

If you weren't 100% disenfranchised before now, this should push you over the edge. And if you want to see this staff member's writing, here's a terrible op ed last year for the washington post

The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.

All that is required for the Democratic Party to recover its political footing is to acknowledge that the agenda of the party's most liberal supporters has not won the support of a majority of Americans -- and, based on that recognition, to steer a more moderate course on the key issues of the day, from health care to the economy to the environment to Afghanistan.

Like.. I just read that and I have a very confused look on my face. How in the fuck? I mean.. literally, what the fuck?! I see a lot of crazy shit on the internet but this is one of the first things in a long time that has completely baffled me. How can you even say something like this? What in the world? It's like everyone in the world is immune to reality.




This is considered centrist? Man, centrism in America is maintaining pax Americana at any and all costs period. Anything that threatens our absurdly wealthy, our oil supplies, and our access to cheap consumer goods produced with slave labor is instantly demonized by our media, sanctioned by our government and bombed by our military.

There is no left in American politics. Hasn't been in a long time. There's only America. It really is a good thing that Obama has sent a clear message to business that he's sorry about all the atrocious things he has put them through.

But really, I don't know which one angers me more. Pure evil, or really clumsily executed evil done in plain god damned view while the rest of the planet goes "Oh naw, he did not just do that" Oh yes he can. Yes he can.

It's just that the latter is a bit more degrading. But hey.. At least Obama is going to cut military spending for once....

Well, not really. The budgets will simply decrease by 78 billion over the next 5 years

The surprise announcement from Gates was a reminder for the military establishment - which has benefited from a gusher of new money over the past decade - that it will not remain exempt from painful austerity measures that federal lawmakers say will be necessary to control the soaring national debt.

In a news conference to announce what he described as efficiency measures, Gates said he hopes that "what had been a culture of endless money . . . will become a culture of savings and restraint" at the Defense Department.

At a time of "extreme fiscal duress," he said, "every dollar spent on excess overhead or unneeded programs . . . is a dollar not available to support our troops" or to deal with future threats.

"We must come to realize that not every defense program is necessary, not every defense dollar is sacred or well-spent, and more of everything is simply not sustainable," Gates said.

In response to questions, he emphasized that the $78 billion reduction over the next five years actually represents a "decline in the rate of growth," since the Pentagon budget will grow "in absolute dollars" every year. "The focus here is on a reduction in the rate of growth as opposed to absolute cuts," he said.

So there you have it. I know it's shocking to hear, but Obama pretended to take a stand by not actually doing anything or taking any sort of stand at all.

Most of these cuts are going to be personnel, also they're going to buy less f-35's as a form of "punishment"for fucking the program up so bad. They're also going to cut an over all $178 billion worth of stuff. Well, not really either. $100 billion of that is getting "reinvested" back into the military-industrial complex.

I'm not even going to get into the news that Obama was cheering at the latest employment numbers where they slightly went down... but only because a couple million people dropped off the face of the planet and no longer exist. For they are done looking for a job and no longer on unemployment benefits. So to our government, they don't exist.

Yup.. Way to go into 2012 doing nothing but pissing in the wind.