Larry Roibal

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Governor Blagojevich called everyones bluff by appointing Roland Burris to fill Obama’s vacant Senate seat.
The 71 year old Burris received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale before studying abroad on scholarship at the University of Hamburg, Germany majoring in International Law and earning his Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law in 1963. He became the first African-American National Bank Examiner for the US Treasury , served as Chief Operating Officer for Operation PUSH and became State attorney general for the State of Illinois.
Many believe that Blagojevich named an African American to diffuse the controversy surrounding his appointment, but black or white, Burris’s skin had better be thick because he’s receiving a chilly welcome from fellow democrats who blocked him from his claim on the seat and turned him away from yesterdays swearing in ceremony.

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A Ponzi scheme, named after the notorious Charles Ponzi who perpetrated the scheme in the 1920’s, promises a large return on investments, then in order to to gain legitimacy and prolong the scheme, pays returns to existing investors with funds from new investors. Eventually the pyramid comes crashing down, this time on the head of present day Ponzi, Bernard Madoff.

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Bill Richardson withdraws his name from consideration as the Commerce Secretary over pay to play scandal.

Happy New Year!

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PM of Israel, Ehud Olmert’s offensive on Hezbolla in Lebanon in 2006 failed to effect change and Hezbolla is stronger today than when Olmert took office.

Yesterday in it’s third day of air strikes, Israel stepped up it’s offensive on Hamas targets in Gaza.

Is history repeating itself?…stay tuned.

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The sultry singer, dancer, actress, star of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her 1953 Christmas song Santa Baby, passed away on Christmas day. The multi talented Kitt won two Emmy awards and had multiple Tony and Grammy nominations but I will always remember her as the sexy Cat Woman on the campy Batman TV series. She was 81.

With this years commissions almost all sewn up, I’m in full Holiday mode, decking the halls and singing fa la la… be back soon with an all new doodle. Happy Holidays!

Ball point pen on the morning newspaper

This morning, in perhaps his final act as President of the United States, George W. Bush is doing what the legislative branch fail to, bail out the big 3 U.S. automakers. In the eleventh hour, Bush was forced to concede what the majority of Americans have come to believe, ideology is less important than a competent and timely handling of issues in the best interest of the country, given the current set of facts.

In normal times Bush said he would not be in favor of government intervening in the bankruptcy process but “In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action,”

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Baugh was the best all around football player of his or any era. He set 13 NFL records at three different positions: quarterback, punter and defensive back. Fifty six years after his retirement, he still holds the Redskins record for career touchdown passes 187, and completion percentage in a season 770.3. His 31 interceptions on defense are third on the team’s career list. He was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 1963.
Sammy Baugh passed away last night at the age of 94.

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President-Elect Obama’s choice for Secretary of the Interior is Senator Ken Salazar.
Salazar earned a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Colorado College and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He served as Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources before being elected Colorado State Attorney General in 1994. He was  and reelected in 2002 before running and being elected to the US Senate in 2004.

Fellow Chicagoan Arne Duncan was named yesterday as Obama’s choice for Education Secretary. Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University where he was also co-captain of Harvard’s basketball team. After graduating he played four years of professional basketball with the Eastside Spectres in Australia. Upon returning to the US he ran an education nonprofit on Chigaco’s South Side before being named  the Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools.

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Early Obama supporter Caroline Kennedy let it be known that she would like to fill Clinton’s New York Senate seat.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Yesterday in Iraq President Bush suffered a grave Arab insult, having two shoes thrown at him.

“This is your farewell kiss, you dog” the corespondent to an Egyptian TV station yelled as he hurled his shoes at Bush.

The President, managed to duck both incoming shoes and later joked they were “a size 10″

SEE THE VIDEO

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A Senate report released today blames Rumsfeld and other Bush officials for the inhumane treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

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Recession…what recession? Yanks sign Sabathia to a seven year 161 million dollar contract….That’ll buy a lotta knish!

Carsten Charles Sabathia is a big, hard throwing left handed pitcher. He spent his first seven years in the majors with the Cleavland Indians before having a cup of coffee with the Brewers. CC was the recipient of the 2007 American League Cy Young Award given to the best pitcher in baseball. He has 117 career wins, against 73 losses and a 3.66 career ERA.

Welcome to the Bronx CC.

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Illinios Governor Blagojevich was arrested yesterday in the middle of what the US Attorney described as a political corruption crime spree. Blagojevich was taped by the FBI driving a “hard bargain.” selling President-Elect Obama’s Senate seat. Blagojevich called the Senate seat “a &%$#en valuable thing. You just don’t give it away for nothing.”

“I’ve got this thing and it’s &%^#en golden and uh, uh, I’m not just giving it up for *&%#en nothing,”

Among the prizes Blagojevich envisioned were a position in Obama’s Cabinet, an ambassadorship, a $300,000 job with a union-backed group–even a highly paid position for his wife, Patricia.

Of Obama he was taped saying “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation.”

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The National Accountability Bureau of Pakistan was set up by one time Prime Minister, President and General, Pervez Musharraf to supposedly route out corruption in government. In practice it was used to detain and intimidate Musharraf’s Political rivals.The current Prime Minister of Pakistan is Yousaf Raza Gilani. He spent five years in prison under the Musharraf military government. He was elected to PM in 2008.
Since their nations origin in 1947 India and Pakistan have fought three wars and relations between the two nuclear powers are again at the breaking point. India claims that the 10 gunmen who killed 171 people in the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks were all Pakistani. Pakistan claimed yesterday to have captured the mastermind behind the attacks. India wants to take custody of those responsible but Pakistan said they will be tried in Pakistani courts.

Stay tuned

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Hoffman is one of the finest actors of our time, of that, there is no Doubt

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I’m not a Buddhist or Hindu, but I like to think that Karma exists.

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President-Elect Obama has chosen Bill Richardson to serve in the position of Commerce Secretary. Richardson earned an undergraduate degree in French and Political Science from Tufts University where he also played baseball as a pitcher. He earned his Masters degree in International Affairs from Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Richardson first ran for Congress in 1978 to represent New Mexico’s 1st district but narrowly lost to Manuel Lujan. In 1980 he was elected to represent newly created 3rd district of NM. He spent 14 years in Congress before going on to serve as The Ambassador to the United Nations and US Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration. Richardson was elected Governor of New Mexico in 2002 becoming the only hispanic Governor in the United States.
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I’ve always told my kids that talent isn’t as important as hard work and a little brains. It’s a hard sell when as a society we lionize professional athletes who regularly flout the rules, skip meetings, don’t practice and are rewarded with million dollar contracts and diamond studded Super Bowl rings. But along comes Plaxico Burress and all is right in the world of parental lectures. A very talented receiver for the NJ Giants, Burress had the world on a string, a Super Bowl Ring, a young talented championship team, a young talented quarterback who liked to throw to him, a thirty five million dollar contract… and oh yeah, a self inflicted bullet hole in his leg and two felony charges. I wonder if this guy can appreciate the irony that he was carrying a gun to protect all that he had.

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With two wars to fight, President-Elect Obama has elected not to switch horses in midstream and has asked Robert Gates to continue serving as Secretary of Defense. Gates earned a BA in European History from the College of William and Mary, an MA in History from Indiana University, and a Ph.D in Russian/Soviet History from Georgetown University. He has spent most of his career in the defense and intelligence agencies including serving as Director of the CIA, Assistant to the president and Deputy National Security Adviser, Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and Deputy Director of Intelligence.

Doodle note: This morning I did this warm up doodle on the back of a piece of scrap paper complete with coffee mug stain. Peaking through the back side is a Clinton doodle and my note to self is coming out his right ear. When drawing with ball point pen on newspaper the results are spontaneous. I only get one shot on the article but today I think I captured him better over the coffee stained scrap… so I posted it.

Ball point pen on coffee stained scrap paper

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I have to be out early this morning…just had time for a quickie.

…and the beat goes on.

La de da de de, la de da de da

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…When added to the 700 Billion, the numbers start to get abstract. A trillion dollars is a million million. If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times. One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.
The tab so far for bailouts has reached 8.5 Trillion Dollars! I wonder how long it will take my great grandchildren to pay it back to China.

Blogging note: A special thanks to Charley Parker over at Lines and Colors, for featuring my blog yesterday. I’ve been a big fan of L&C and I am honored to be included in the pantheon of great art that I’ve so enjoyed reading about over the years. I’ll try to live up to the honor.

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Obama unveiled his economic team yesterday. The starting Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, from the University of North Carolina and University of Michigan, Melody Barnes. At Secretary of the Treasury, from Dartmouth College and John Hopkins, Timothy Geithner. Starting Director of the White House Budget Office, from Princeton University and London School of Economics, Peter Orszag. At Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, from the College of William and Mary and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Christina Romer. Starting at Director of the National Economic Council, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Lawrence Summers
The stock market has rallied 900 points in two sessions.

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When the first whispers of the subprime motgage meltdown started, Citigrpup’s then COE Charles Prince resigned claiming Citi had 11 billion in writedowns. Once the nations largest bank, today we know that Citibank had been taking huge risks and had far greater exposure to subprime mortgages than it let on. Yesterday Citi owned up to 65 billion in writedowns. Citi’s Stock plunged to 3.77 as Citi entered into desperate talks with the treasury. The government has stepped in with an additional 20 billion to guarantee Citi’s 306 billion in assets.

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Partisanships is alive and well on the hill. While Obama is looking to reach out across the isle, many of the old guard democrats didn’t get the memo. Presidents come and go, but these modern day Neros, secure in their chairmanships, snipe while our country is burning.

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Obama has chosen Tom Daschle to be Secratary of Health and Human Services. Daschle graduated South Dakota State University with a degree in political science. He served three years in the US Air Force as an intelligence officer, spent five years as an aid to South Dakota Senator James Abourezk, was elected to the US Congress in 1978, and the US Senate in 1986. Daschle rose to Minority Leader in 1994 and served briefly as the Senate Majority Leader before loosing an election in 2004 to John Thune. Daschle was an early supporter of Barack Obama and served as national co-chair for Obama’s presidential campaign.

President-elect Obama also named his chief campaign stratagist, David Axelrod, as his Senior Adviser.

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President-elect Obama chooses Eric Holder to be Attorney General. A Columbia Law School graduate, Holder was appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve as Superior Court Judge of the District of Columbia. He stepped down in 1993 to accept an appointment to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1997 Holder  was elevated to Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno in the Clinton administration. He was generally viewed as a centrist in the Justice Department.

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Nancy Pelosi will not schedule a vote on the bailout until it is clear the bill will pass the senate. That may not be feasible until after January 20th when the democrats will increase their numbers. Ford, perhaps the healthiest of the three, has burned through seven billion in assets in the third quarter but has enough liquidity to survive into the new year. GM however is only months away from closing up shop and warned it might not see years end. While that news may have some wanting to act quickly, Pelosi did say that auto makers will need to show long term economic viability before being considered for a loan. That makes sense. After dividing the 25 billion between the big three, that provides each with a little over eight billion each. When you consider that Ford and GM are loosing about two billion a month, that gives them a four month window to turn their industry around. Will Detroit be able to retool and make a product Americans want in four months? Will this recession be over in four months? Will they be able to restructure contracts in four months to be competitive with other American made cars that have half the labor cost. What about the nearly half a million retired GM workers receiving pensions and benefits for life?
If the argument for putting this deal together is that the collapse of GM alone will cost the government an estimated 200 billion in additional unemployment insurance, then it’s certain it will cost the taxpayers much more than 25 billion before this bailout is done, because that argument will still be here at the end of the four month window when the automakers are unable to address any of the issues that have caused them to fail.

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Could the Clintons survive a vetting by Obama’s team to clear the path for Senator Clinton to become Secretary of State. Will Bill disclose a complete list of donors to his library? Does Bill Clinton’s post presidency dealings with rogue states constitute a conflict of interest?

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The US Senate is attempting to pass a bill giving 25 billion dollars in emergency aid to the US auto makers. Leaders say they might not have the votes, but if they did, would it help? GM is loosing 2 billion dollars a month and has 16 billion left before they could no longer meet their obligations and go out of business. Even if GM could retool and start producing smaller, more fuel efficient cars in the small window the law makers are hoping to give them, they still have to deal with a prolonged downturn in the economy combined with nearly half a million former workers drawing pensions and health benefits. Cost cutting plant closings and layoffs only seem to magnify GM’s problems, creating a greater percentage of those drawing a GM check and benefits while not contributing to producing a product. That business model has made it impossible for GM to compete in the global auto making industry.

GM stock price is 2.98 a share at this writing. When Richard Wagoner Jr. took the helm of General Motors in May of 2003, GM’s stock price was 35.50.

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It seems that presidents like to appoint Goldman Sachs alumni to lead our Treasury. As Henry Paulson is on the way out, Robert Rubin and Jon Corzine are on the short list to become Treasury Secretary. As a Jerseyan my advice to President Elect Obama would be to go with Rubin.