Fannie & Freddie CEO's to walk away with millions

Is this a great country or what?

The ex-CEO of Fannie Mae, Daniel Mudd, is expecting to receive "up to $8.4 million in compensation," and the former head honcho of Freddie Mac, Richard Syron, is looking to pocket $15.5 million.

That's pretty damn good wages for running two of the most important corporations in the nation into the ground! How important? "The two companies own or guarantee about $5 trillion of the nation's outstanding mortgages, about half the nation's total."

Senators Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Jack Reed, D-RI, are not happy about this. In a letter to James Lockhard, director of the FHA, Schumer and Reed state emphatically "We find it way out of line that these two executives will be rewarded with millions of dollars in bonus compensation at a time when taxpayer dollars may have to be deployed to cover any financial losses caused by errors in management."

Lockhart, however, has the power to reduce the numbers if he so desires.

This is just another example of how the corporate predators prey on the public with the advice and consent of the Bush administration!

Palin and the big duo, Freddie and Fannie

It's quite disconcerting to be told that Sarah Palin has had, well, tons of executive experience -- especially compared to that worthless community organizer, Barack Obama -- and then find, that maybe she doesn't have a fricking clue what the hell she's talking about.

It's not that she's dumb, but it could be that she's ignorant and not everything can be covered in the Repugnican playbook, you know.

Give her a break?

Nah.

The Huffington Post has the story, but I'll tell it my way:

Sarah Palin, the commercial fisherwoman and failed car wash owner turned mean mayor and godawful governor - oh, yeah, we musn't forget hockey mom -- was speaking in front of a bunch of people who might vote in the coming election in the town of Nazareth, Colorado, better known as Colorado Springs.

Attempting to show her expertise with regard to things economic and thereby prove her executive prowess and her ability to step up to the plate on day one, she spoke of the "perilous housing market."

Unfortunately, her handlers weren't able to get to her on time and she must have been off-script, for Ms. Palin said the "lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had 'gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.'"

Everybody who knew anything about Fannie and Freddie said "Huh?"

As McClatchy noted, these companies "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies." Furthermore, it is very likely that the American taxpayers are going to be hit with a huge financial blow in order to bail them out.

"Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement ... saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration."

Yup. And, you know, I think because she thought they were "guv'rmint" companies, she said they had gotten "too big." That's part of the mantra being chanted by the Christian Republican Party - the Democrats want a HUGE guv'rmint! My God, they're tooooooo big. Shut 'em down!


You're probably thinking, "Oh, boy, the Repugs must be worried now!"

Wrong. As Mr. Davis, the head honcho (and major lobbyist) running the McSame campaign said, this election isn't about issues, its about personalities. In other words, McSame and Palin/Bush can say any damn dumb thing they want, because nobody cares. Just portray them as "celebrities" and they've got the thing won.

I'm afraid Mr. Davis is right.

Huffington Post here.