The Rundown 5-27-2011

Segment 1 Ben

Senate stays in session [TYT Clip]
Tim Pawlenty's foreign policy slip-up [TYT Clip]

Segment 2

Fox and Friends on Medicare
Alan West: It was candidate quality in NY-26

Segment 3

Rick Scott removes Democrats from event
Joe Walsh says Obama only elected because of white guilt
Peter Fonda
Michelle Bachman going to run for president?
3 percent of 3 percent
Republican high school pictures [TYT Clip]

Segment 4 Ben Jacki Misty

Hilter's Nazi Dogs [TYT Clip]
Hines Ward opens leftovers restaurant
Nude sun bather
St. VD's head

Segment 5

House with pot growing amenities up on Craig's List
Arnold's mistress's daughter speaks out [TYT Clip]
Man sues flower shop for pricking his finger on a thorn
Caffine laced pants
Mullet Bandit
John Edwards indicted

The Rundown 5-26-2011

Segment 1

Fed's low interest rates and loans to foreign banks [TYT Clip]
Justice Dept going after John Edwards
Dominique Strauss-Kahn update
Sarah Palin preparing to enter the presidential field
Gingrich staffer was Tiffany's lobbyist

Segment 2

Interview with Neil Barofsky, Inspector General for TARP [TYT Interview]

Segment 3

GOP doubles down on Ryan Medicare plan
Cheney worships Ryan [TYT Clip]
Bill Clinton's conversation with Paul Ryan [TYT Clip]
Dan Webster, religious zealot [TYT Clip]
Joe Walsh saying Americans Jews don't support Israel enough [TYT Clip]
Herman Cain doesn't know the right of return [TYT Clip]

Segment 4 Jacki Bray

Herman Cain political ad from the past
Woman tries to sell 13 year old's virginity for $10,000
Mexican jail has alcohol, guns, cell phones, and drugs [TYT Clip]
Taliban tunnels into a prison
Prediction: There is something weird about Herman Cain being CEO of Godfather's Pizza

Segment 5

How do people watch The Young Turks? Facebook pictures
Teacher sex with students [TYT Clip]
Cops hunt down fake white tiger
Massive circumcision party in Phillipines

The Rundown 5-25-2011

Segment 1

NY-26 Hochul wins [TYT Clip]
GOP runs away from Medicare cuts
Democrats to cave on Medicare [TYT Clip]

Segment 2

Elizabeth Warren hearings
Interview with John Yarmuth D-Kentucky

Segment 3

Tim Geithner generally positive about Warren, not dismantling Medicare, GOP has told Wall Street donors that they will raise the debt ceiling
Geithner mad at Wall Street firms for opposing the regulations they've passed so far
James Carville: Obama looking like a 2008 Republican
Republican townhall - no sympathy [TYT Clip]
Sarah Palin may actually run for President [TYT Clip]
Palin adviser private tweets
Mitt Romney is claiming credit for the auto-bailouts [TYT Clip]
Freedom Works vs Romney

Segment 4 Misty

Badass Sheriff has deputies charged with felonies
Dumbing down your resume
Kim Kardashian is engaged [TYT Clip]

Segment 5

Nipple pierces man's butt
Should child entertainers be licensed?
Adele outraged at taxes [TYT Clip]
Laruen Hill says she doesn't want white people to listen to her music
Dentist fights with 85 year old patient

Segment 6

Human magnet boy [TYT Clip]
Utah outlaws sexiness [TYT Clip]
Ex-Kiss guitarist animal cruelty

The Rundown 5-24-2011

Segment 1

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Congress [TYT Clip]

Segment 2

Republicans say Obama wants high gas prices [TYT Clip]
Republicans want to cut Commodity Futures Trading Commission budget
Tornados - Cantor holds aid money hostage [TYT Clip]
West Virginia report on Massey safety violations. [Actual report] [TYT Clip]

Segment 3

Right-wing radio ratings crater
Gingrich's special treatment at Tiffany's
Frank Bailey's insider book on Sarah Palin has juicy details [TYT Clip]
Focus on the Family CEO admits defeat on gay marriage

Segment 4 Ana

Harold Camping: Physical rapture delayed until October 21 [TYT Clip]

Segment 5

Less Leopold: Free college paid for by financial sector tax
Plastic surgery in Asia to get a more "Western" look
Parents want baby to choose its own gender [TYT Clip]
Restaurants go for smaller potions
People walk out of shocking Cannes film

The Rundown 5-23-2011

Segment 1

• Mitch Daniels takes himself out of the presidential race, GOP field looks grim
• Bob Schieffer clobbers Newt Gingrich over $500k bill from Tiffany's [TYT Clip]
• Herman Cain lectures us about re-reading the constitution while quoting the Declaration of Independence [TYT Clip]
• Donald Trump says he might re-enter the race for President
• Frank Bailey (former aid to Sarah Palin) writes tell-all book. Schwang wang wang

Segment 2

• Interview with Ted Rall (cartoonist) against the ObamaBots [TYT Clip]

Segment 3

• Roger Ailes article in New York Magazine [TYT Clip]
• GOP was warned about the Medicare plan's unpopularity but went ahead anyway
• Scott Brown will vote no on Ryan's budget
• Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday, Crooks and Liars video
• Cenk Prediction: Obama is going to let the Republicans off the hook on Medicare by cutting it in his own budget.
• Hochul leading in the polls in NY-26
• Paul Ryan on Meet the Press [TYT Clip]
• Woman starts campaign to get women driving in Saudi Arabia and gets arrested [TYT Clip]

Segment 4 Jacki Bray

• Viagra makes you go deaf
• Playboy sex survey/ideal number of partners [TYT Clip]

Segment 5

• back to Playboy poll
• The Rapture didn't happenZach Galifianakis/January Jones story [TYT Clip]
• 25% of participants in Wrestlemania VII have died [TYT Clip]

Foreclosure Crisis

I haven't heard Cenk talk about the foreclosure fraud mess that is becoming more worrying everyday.  I imagine this topic is coming soon and I have already seen the direction Cenk is going to take on it.  

Basically the underlying problem is that some financial institutions have turned into foreclosure mills.  They process mass amounts of foreclosures using computer programs and low-paid employees.  This has lead to corner cutting and outright fraud.

Another problem is that banks may have violated their contracts with those who bought mortgage backed securities.

Here is a quote from David Indiviglio at the Atlantic:

The investors who hold that MBS might be able to claim that the bonds they hold were not created properly, contracts were breached, and the bank that originated the mortgages needs to buy back the bonds. This, of course, would require many billions of dollars in capital in excess of that banks have lying around. And remember these aren't pretty bonds. They are mostly toxic and full of losses. Those losses would then be passed on to the banks.

Rosner imagines this leading to a Lehman-type weekend, where the financial industry again nears collapse. That might be a little melodramatic, but it isn't impossible. If these investors have the legal standing that Rosner thinks, they would be sort of crazy not to force banks to take back these bad deals. After all, it's better for the investors that they force these losses back to the banks who wrote the mortgages.

If this problem turns out to be real, and the worst-case scenario that Rosner imagines come to be, then it's hard to see how the government could fix it simply without tramping over contract law. Instead, more aggressive approached would be required.

It was Geithner during the AIG-bank bonus scandal who argued vigorously that the government could not and should not step on the sanctity of contracts.  Contracts underpin all that is holy about the free market system.
My guess is that now Geithner's advise will now be different.  Contracts-schmontract s, you can't make banks buy these things back!  They don't have the money!

Another thing to think about:  Who owns these mortgage backed securities now?  The answer is mainly Frannie, Freddie, and the Federal Reserve.  Do you think that the US government is going to ask for it's money back from the banks?

HahahhHAHAHahahaha.

The reason we won't make the banks buy back these assets is pretty simply though.  These government institutions knew they were toxic assets when they bought them.  We were trying to get them off of the banks' books.  To come back now and force the banks to buy them back because of a technicality seems absurd to me.

That said I don't know that much about this topic.  I'm eagerly awaiting Cenk's take on it. 

Obama Brings It

I just watched Obama's big Madison speech in lew of TYT. 

Obama is fighting and fighting well.  He talked about the Republicans trying to pass a "$700 billion tax cut for millionaire and billionaires."  That is strong and I think it will work.  Seriously, if you watch the whole speech it really reminds you of the Obama from 2008.  Don't get me wrong, Democrats are still going to get trounced, but I do think they'll be able to get many of us out of this fowl mood we've been in for the past year or so. 

Here's the thing though.  They are going to schedule that tax-cut vote for after the election.  They may pass this tax cut for millionaires and billionaires, and Obama might sign it.  Sigh.

And by the way Obama, it is a coincidence that you put the car in (D) to go forward and (R) to go back.  That's a good line never-the-less.