Politics Plus

When one speaks of strange bedfellows, it’s usually a metaphor, but not among Banksters.

Friday, as news of the allegations of fraud at Goldman Sachs spread, I got a call from someone who works in the insurance business.

"Check out the former head of ACA" he said referring to the now-defunct and formerly down-graded bond insurer who asked the-not-so-omniscient hedge fund manager John Paulson to choose which securities to put into the CDO, Abacus, that Goldman Sachs subsequently sold to two big clients, the German bank IKB and the Royal Bank of Scotland — without disclosing that Paulson would be shorting his own hand-picked stocks on the other side of the trade.

Now the SEC’s complaint states that ACA had no idea that Paulson was shorting the stocks he’d been asked to select, yet my deepthroat was not so convinced.

"ACA had a horrible reputation," he told me, which led me to ask the obvious question so why would Goldman want ACA’s stamp as selection manager on the CDO they were marketing? Fabrice Tourre, the 31-year-old named as the architect of Abacus, is quoted as insisting that Goldman wanted ACA’s brand name and "credibility" on the CDO.

My source told me to check out who the head of ACA was married to. "I think you’ll find it’s a senior woman at Goldman Sachs," he said.

Well, yep, it is.

Alan S. Rosenman took over ACA Capital as president and CEO in 2004 – because — wait for it — his predecessor Michael Satz had "personal income tax issues" — (how murky is this story going to get you must be asking?)

According to a Business Week article dated April 3 by David Henry and Matthew Goldstein, Rosenman "immediately began to push ACA into CDO insurance, an area his predecessor, Satz, had only begun to explore."

Rosenman’s wife, or at least partner — they are listed as sharing a house together for which they paid $6.1 million in 2005 in New York — is Frances "Fran" R. Bermanzohn, who is managing director and deputy general counsel at … Goldman Sachs.

Hmmmn.

I called Mr. Rosenman who gave me the illuminating statement: "I am not offering any comment at this time."

I asked him, did he ever disclose their relationship to buyers of Abacus? Did she? And Could ACA really therefore not have known about Paulson’s activities?

"No comment."

One thing that is certainly puzzling is that if ACA did know, then why on earth would it have issued protection on the so-called "superior senior tranche" which turned out to be of course anything but ‘super senior," thanks to Paulson betting against it — and ACA went bust in December last year?

But, just as much as the SEC is claiming Goldman should have disclosed that John Paulson had hand-picked stocks he was choosing to short (which means, by the way, in case anyone has missed this point, that Mr. "supposed-good-guy " Paulson just made one billion dollars off the back of the German tax payer who had to bail out the German bank IKB on the back of its collapse) so too this relationship should have been disclosed. That it is not mentioned in the SEC’s complaint strikes me as being very odd.

I was still waiting for Goldman Sachs to respond as this article went to press… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

The issue had reached a turning point.  Should we be considering Too Big to Fail or Too Big to Jail?

If Comcast gets NBC, what would happen to the few rational voices remaining in broadcast news, like Maddow, Olbermann and Shultz?  Here we may have a hint of what will be:

Comcast is fighting its way through a battle to acquire NBC and related assets (including MSNBC) without being deemed a monopoly (which they are, and should be barred from owning NBC). For a preview of how dangerous it is to have one corporation control access to the Internet and cable TV, have a look at their new joint venture: RightNetwork. [Teabuggery delinked]

Check out the slick ads, the Kelsey Grammer intro, and please have a look at their debut reality series called "Running".

What isn’t apparent at first blush becomes apparent while watching the promo. They call it a reality show, but it’s really just a big teabagger campaign ad wrapped up in a half-hour broadcast and packaged for the web, mobile and cable broadcast.

They have a slick little "lookbook" you can download (PDF) for an overview of what they’re about. Nice piece of marketing literature. They’re marketing themselves as the "anywhere, anytime" network for "engaged people".

On television, through partners including Comcast, RightNetwork delivers programming on demand that enables our audience to watch what they want, when they want. Everything Right, at the click of a remote. the lineup focuses on entertainment with pro-America, pro-business, pro-military sensibilities — compelling content that inspires action, invites a response, and influences the national conversation.

There’s this quote from Ed Snider, Chairman of Comcast-Spectacor:

We’re creating a welcome place for millions and millions of Americans who’ve been looking for an entertainment network and media channel that reflects their point-of-view. Rightnetwork will be the perfect platform to entertain, inform and Connect with the American majority about what’s right in the world.

When they launch, they’ll have lots of content, since they’ve been embedded with the Tea Party Express for its tour across the country. The YouTube channel has video from key tea party locations… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s a brief clip of what we can expect.

How would you like to get this Teabuggery instead of Rachel, Keith or Ed?

Hard as it is to shock me, this did.

Yesterday, the AP reported that Marlene Griffith, a widow of William Griffith, one of the 29 men killed in last week’s explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia, is suing Massey Energy, the owner of the mine. Griffith filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Raleigh County Circuit Court, arguing that Massey’s handling of work conditions at the mine plus its history of safety violations amounted to aggravated conduct that rises above the level of ordinary negligence. Marlene and here husband were to celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary weeks after the deadly blast on April 5.

Indeed, as the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has reported, the mine where William Griffith worked had been cited for over 3,000 safety violations. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who has mocked safety regulators as being “as silly as global warming,” had gummed up the safety regulations process by filing endless appeals instead of paying fines and fixing safety problems.

Responding to the lawsuit, Nathan Coffey, the Public Affairs Coordinator of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) [a front group for Big Coal], took to Twitter yesterday to mock Marlene Griffith. Coffey posted a link to the AP story about Marlene Griffith, sarcastically commenting that “Everyone wants free money!”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Free?  He said FREE?  The loss of a life partner of 33 years is FREE?!!?  It doen’t get more expensive than that!