Normally I wouldn’t bother, but not only is the added level of “man-crush” love spreading among the libs just so darn sweet, but it provides further evidence of their ignorance.  In this hysterical post (mostly saved as a picture here in case he tries to cover his a**), Modern Esquire over at “BS-B” (aptly abbreviated) proves through his erroneous writing that his arguments are moot for several reasons.

But perhaps the most blatant thing is that even though he can’t read, he still ASSumes to know what he’s doing and as such falsely attacks the innocent (much like their approach to abortion…can’t “see” the baby yet or read an ultra sound, so let’s rip him or her apart limb from limb).

I wrote the Hoffman post, you moron …. exactly how do you expect anyone to “buy” the crap you’re writing  when you get THAT wrong right off the bat?  Zheesh.  If you went to public screwal, I want a refund.  If you went to private school, your parents should demand one…

You owe Tom an apology.

It is disappointing, but not at all surprising, that the Democratic Party affiliation of the politicians involved in the union-driven campaign to force Wells Fargo Bank not to liquidate the Chicago-area operations of Hartmarx, the high-end clothier which has made suits for President Obama, has not been noted in the vast majority of stories I have reviewed about ongoing developments there.

The two Illinois politicians (there are others named below) are Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who has formed a US Senate seat exploratory committee in hopes of unseating current occupant Roland Burris, and 13th District Congressman Phil Hare.

The situation, for those just learning of it, is described pretty well at this Chicago Sun-Times story by Sandra Guy, who at least flagged Hare’s Democratic affiliation:

Even after Hart Schaffner Marx plant workers in Des Plaines unanimously stood up shouting their approval of staging a sit-in if Wells Fargo presses their parent company to liquidate, Wells Fargo said parent company Hartmarx is unable to repay more than $114 million it owes the bank.

Wells Fargo issued a statement that it has continued to finance operations at Chicago-based men’s suitmaker Hartmarx after Hartmarx filed in January for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, even though Hartmarx “has been in default of its loan obligations to banks in the group that have provided it credit, including Wachovia Capital Finance, part of Wells Fargo.” Hartmarx issued a statement responding, “Since we value the confidentiality of any dealings with our senior lenders, it would be inappropriate and counter-productive to respond to the content of the Wells Fargo statement.” Wells Fargo said it wants Hartmarx, which employs 3,000 nationwide and 1,000 in the Chicago area, to stay in business “so we can earn all of their business and help them succeed financially.” “We’re trying to do whatever we can to keep Hartmarx in business, but it’s something they’re going to have to work on,” a Wells-Fargo spokeswoman said.

….. Hartmarx filed for bankruptcy protection in January after its U.S. creditors pulled its credit lines.

At the Hart Schaffner Marx plant in Des Plaines, union officials with Workers United rallied the 600 workers, who shouted and applauded and stood on their feet in support of a sit-in should Wells Fargo force Hartmarx’s liquidation.

….. Longtime labor leader Bruce Raynor, who shouted out the message, “We’re not afraid of Wells Fargo,” said labor leaders chose Hartmarx’s plant outside of Chicago for the sit-in action because Hartmarx is headquartered here and because Illinois “has given us” President Barack Obama, who regularly wears Hart Schaffner Marx suits.

U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., who spent 13 years cutting the linings for men’s suits at at Hartmarx plant, said he had called White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to try to get President Obama to talk with Wells Fargo’s chairman of the board.

Hare said that though Wells-Fargo claimed it never asked for the $25 billion in federal bailout money it received, “I told the bank, ‘I didn’t see you running down Pennsylvania Avenue trying to give the money back.’” State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who last week threatened to drop Wells Fargo as his office’s money custodian and to take the bank off its list of preferred vendors if it pressed Hartmarx into liquidation, said Monday he will encourage other states in which Hartmarx plants are located to do the same.

Des Plaines Mayor Martin J. Moylan, whose city received $63,626 in property tax revenue and $47,860 in utility revenue in fiscal 2008 from the Hart Schaffner Marx plant, wrote a letter to President Obama seeking Obama’s intervention.

Guy did not identify Giannoulias as a Democrat. Des Plaines Mayor Moylan ran last month as an independent, but this Chicago Clout blog post from March says that “Marty should never sell out his (Electrical) Union or the Democrat Party no matter what.”

The list of stories in which the Democratic affiliations of Giannoulias, Hare, or both men are not identified includes at least these:

• In the May 12 New York Times (“Workers Pressure Bank to Keep Clothier’s U.S. Plants Open”), reporter Steven Greenhouse did not identify the party of Hare (D-IL), Barney Frank (D-MA), or Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The union has asked Frank and Schumer to intervene in the situation. Schumer, in whose state Hartmarx also has a plant, exercised his alleged business acumen somehow learned during a lifetime in politics, by saying that a Hartmarx liquidation “would certainly hurt the economy in several states, including New York, and might not serve their shareholders well either.” Greenhouse also managed to keep Giannoulias’s name completely out of the story, even though the Illinois Treasurer is the one who has threatened to take away $8 billion in state-related business from the bank if it liquidates Hartmarx.
• In a brief item at the Chicago Tribune, Sandra M. Jones kept the politicians and party associations totally out of the story.
• Also at the Chicago Tribune (“A touch of history in Hartmarx struggle”), columnist David Greising mentioned Giannoulias, but not his party.
• Like the Sun-Times, Crain’s Chicago Business (“Hartmarx workers rally to preserve firm”) identified Hare as a Democrat, but not Giannoulias.
• For an idea of how the story is being treated outside Chicago, Sophia Tareen of the Associated Press, in an item carried at the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, mentioned Giannoulias but not his party, and didn’t note Hare’s presence at all. The AP, violating its own written standards as usual, apparently doesn’t think non-local readers should know these things, even though they would likely be quite curious.
• The only identification of a Democrat at this link was of the newspaper carrying the item, namely the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. In fact, the story gives no indication at all that the union’s actions are being politically encouraged. The Rochester, NY plant’s workers are taking a sit-in vote today.

I suppose the excuse will be that as news consumers we’re “just supposed to know” that politicians conducting intimidation campaigns against banks and private companies must be Democrats. That’s lame. Republicans have occasionally done some similar heavyhanded things (e.g., urban eminent domain proceeding in various cities involving various, sports stadiums). More important, less than fully-engaged readers need to know which party happens to be engaging in intimidating activity — especially when it involves potential union sit-ins and TARP-associated blackmail.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

I’ll admit to being from the Mesozoic Era (actually, I went to grade school and high school during the 1960s and early 1970s).

During that long-lost era, I distinctly remember being involved in a spirited grade school class debate in 1966 or 1967 about the Vietnam War. There were strong opinions on both sides. After it was over, I recall that nobody took it personally or shunned anyone because of their opposing views.

So given that background, I was more than a little surprised to see this quote I stumbled upon yesterday in a Family Circle Magazine (March 2009; free registration might be required) from a “Steve Schlozman, MD, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital”:

Adolescents need to know you trust them to make good decisions,” he says. “Your faith builds their confidence to take age-appropriate risks — ask someone out on a date, audition for the play, offer a political opinion.“

Huh?

The not-so-good Dr. Schlozman immediately follows with this absurd, dangerous, family-destructive statement which makes his credibility very, very suspect:

Prying can also spur kids to act out. “Kids need to have a separate life their parents don’t know all about,” adds Dr. Schlozman.

Really? Here’s a ditzy doc who says in essence that kids need to learn to be little sneaks to grow up well-adjusted. I hope that’s not typical family magazine advice, but I fear that it is.

Back on point: Since when did the decision to express a political opinion, whether inside a classroom or not, become an “age-appropriate risk”? And what are the potentially bad consequences of taking such a risk?

I have a sense of what the answers are, but it would be interesting to hear from others. I apologize for having to moderate comments, which makes posting far from immediate, but I don’t watch the blog 24-7, and will not allow spam, profanity, and other inappropriateness (not necessarily in that order) to appear.

Noteworthy Net-Worthies:

From Doug Ross — “Which party promotes racism?” Money quote, concerning results at charter schools in Harlem: “in mathematics, the charter school approach completely eliminated the black-white achievement gap.” Yet Democratic Governor Ted Strickland is “trying to destroy charter schools” in Ohio. Obvious follow-up question: “Which party practices racism?” Read the whole thing.

You don’t say? — “Criminal Charges Against ACORN Raise Concerns About Its Partnership With Census Bureau.” That would only be among those, none of whom are apparently in the Obama administration, who believe that the Census shouldn’t be yet another set of government-cooked books.

On the so-called “torture” issue, lefties who want to go after Bush administration officials are first going to have to openly admit that Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress and the Senate were okay with it when it was explained to them, that they knew it was going to happen, that they later knew that it had happened, and they they didn’t start raising a stink about until years later when it became politically opportunistic to do so (CNN and many others reported that there were “40 briefings for members of Congress from September 2002 to March 2009″). Then they will have to insist on congressional discipline of Pelosi and others, up to and including forced resignations or impeachments, for blatantly lying to the public. Finally, to be consistent, they will have to mandate that the practices such as waterboarding currently used on tens of thousands of our own service personnel as part of their training be prohibited there too. Hell will freeze over first.

Charming — “A leading Palestinian cleric commandeered an evening devoted to interfaith dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI on Monday to rant against Israel for ‘killing Gaza’s children,’ ‘bulldozing Palestinian homes’ and ‘destroying mosques.’ …. He also called for the immediate return of all Palestinian refugees, and called on Christians and Muslims to unite against Israel. …. Even those who did not understand his Arabic quickly understood that the Muslim cleric was giving a militant speech. Several attempts were made by Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land Fouad Twal, a Palestinian, to politely stop (Sheikh Tayseer) Tamimi. But Tamimi would not be deterred ….” Last week, Rahm Emanuel said that Israel must make peace with the likes of Tamimi and others before the problem of a near-nuclear Iran is addressed (according to Israeli TV reports, [Emanuel said that] “the efforts to stop Iran hinged on peace talks with the Palestinians”). Yikes.

From Catholic News Agency — “Echoing other reports of coercion in enforcement of China’s one-child policy, Chinese authorities have reportedly forced mothers to abort their children in a crackdown on the country’s underground surrogate pregnancy industry. …. The paper also reported that the mothers had agreed to undergo ‘remedial measures’ in accordance with the law.” This, of course is not “draconian,” according to Ted Turner, father of five.

Must read, at American Thinker — “Letter of Amends from a Recovering Liberal in Berkeley” (HT Taxman Blog, with a reminder that hyperlinks are your friends :–>).

From Bozeman, Montana:

May 9, 2009

Peering through her new quarter-size eyeglasses, 14-month-old Rhoby Combs held onto her mom’s neck with one hand and reached out her other.
“Give her a high five,” Aimee Combs said, prodding her daughtter.

Rhoby smiled and stretched her tiny fingers apart as a visitor put a palm against hers.

Princess Rhoby – as her family and friends know her – and her parents, Aimee and Ray Combs are just beginning to celebrate life as a family.

When Rhoby was born four months early in February 2008, she was so tiny that her dad’s wedding ring fit around her arm.

A micro-preemie weighing 1 pound 3 ounces, Rhoby was the smallest baby in the state of Montana at the time. Her twin brother, Will, who weighed slightly less, died after 22 minutes of life.

“They didn’t think she was going to survive,” Aimee, 27, said. “They gave us a 20 percent chance of survival.”

“She’s our miracle baby,” said Ray, 50.

The family plans to spend a quiet Mother’s Day together at home today. Rhoby’s gift to her mom will be nothing – no new medical issues, no new worry, no immediate crisis. And that is exactly what Aimee wants. ….

Go here for the rest of the story.

“Sure ma’am, Mr. Hoffman is having our ‘Falsehoods & Innuendo’ entree with a side dish of hate.”

Oh…never mind…I’ll stick with an order of truth, thanks.

I’ve been meaning to get to this laughable editorial by Steve Hoffman (ABJ).  It’s almost as if Steve was in a hurry to get it posted and didn’t have time to “check his work.”  Relevant however, is the clear sign of what we are going to see en masse from the liberal press as they scramble to help the democrats maintain seats in 2010…

Here is the tripe in its entirety (counterpoints are outside the block):

In the catbird seat, thanks to John Kasich

Strickland looks strong against another ideologue

By Steve Hoffman
Beacon Journal editorial writer

Published on Thursday, May 07, 2009

When the head of a well-respected think tank on public policy solutions for Ohio recently described Ted Strickland as ”in the catbird seat,” the hope being expressed was that the governor would eventually end up in an enviable position in budget negotiations.

Once the House (dominated by Democrats) and Senate (led by Republicans) pass their versions of the two-year spending plan, a conference committee will sort out the bloody details. And that, perhaps, could provide Strickland with political cover.

Such a scenario seems wildly optimistic. When asked about it, Strickland said he sees himself ”in the hot seat” instead as Republicans criticize his spending blueprint as too dependent on one-time money to be sustainable in the long run.

Stop. So you condone Strickland taking a one-time, federal hand-out to plug holes in the state budget leaving us to clean up the mess after we throw [your] man-crush Mulligan out of office?  We’ll remember that Steve, when you complain about any, future budgets…

Last week, the House passed a budget bill to the governor’s liking, hiking spending by using rosier projections. But this week, Strickland’s budget director, Pari Sabety, projected a $600 million deficit in the current budget year, which ends June 30. That will put a big dent in the $948 million rainy day fund, which Strickland was counting on for the next two fiscal years.

Stop. Strickland can’t count Steve, that is the problem.  Your man-crush Mulligan is a buffoon.

Republican Bill Harris, the Senate president, indicated the Senate might have to draw up a whole new budget. Will Republicans blink and agree to a tax increase, even a temporary one? Don’t bet on it. Instead, they will cut, even if it means trashing Strickland’s sweeping plan to change school funding. Republicans will blame Strickland for acting irresponsibly, then portray themselves as bravely (and responsibly) making the tough choices.

Stop. Oh that’s rich.  You will blast Republicans for making tough choices in light of how Strickland has “turned around” education for the most vulnerable in this state?  Funny, I cannot find one post where you criticized your man-crush Mulligan for stripping (vetoing) vouchers away from disabled children, And how did he “turn that around?”  Well, instead of making provisions for them in the education budget, he (and the other “for the children” democrats) are trying to make small businesses pay for the gap through their insurance (via the costly HB 8 entrenched in this year’s budget)  Wow, nothing says “I love you educational lobby and want to pay you back for getting me elected,” like taking resources from disabled children.

From a public policy perspective, it’s hard to see how anything good would come out of that, since what Ohio needs to change course is increased investment in education and technology.

Still, it is entirely possible, even likely, that Strickland will be elected to a second four-year term next year. His path to the catbird seat isn’t a House-Senate conference committee, but the Republican Party’s apparent determination to nominate another right-wing ideologue as its candidate, John Kasich.

After sending Ken Blackwell up against Strickland in 2006 in a campaign that saw Strickland get 61 percent of the vote to Blackwell’s 37 percent, the Republicans might want to reconsider returning to the pragmatic, centrist approach that rebuilt the party in the 1980s.

Stop. Clearly you haven’t you been paying attention.  Republicans governing “in the center” is exactly why they have experienced the blood baths of 2006 & 2008.  While some might argue that NO Republican was going to win in 2006, Blackwell’s ideas were fine to most until he came out of the primary battered, bruised & broke and allowed the centrists up at the ORP (who were responsible for that condition), to run his campaign.  Note to Kevin DeWine & John Kasich.

But it’s probably too late for that. Kasich filed papers last week to begin raising money for next year’s race. Possible primary opponent Kevin Coughlin, a state senator from Cuyahoga Falls, is said to be getting out of the race.

Kasich is a former U.S. House member from central Ohio, not a position that generates statewide visibility. He is an on-air commentator for Fox News and was, for six years, managing director of Lehman Brothers’ investment banking division, until the company collapsed last fall.

Democrats are already targeting the Lehman Brothers connection, and being a television commentator might not be the kind of experience Ohioans want to turn to during a budget crisis.

Stop. Maybe not, but in 1994, John Kasich set out to get Washington’s house in order, and by 1997 his budget committee balanced the nation’s budget for the first time in 30 years.  Make no mistake Steve-o, THAT is EXACTLY the kind of leader we want.

Kasich’s big idea (Blackwell had his proposed constitutional amendment to cap state spending) is to gradually eliminate the state income tax, already trimmed 21 percent by members of his own party when they were in power in Columbus. (In fairness, the final phase of the cut is under Strickland’s watch.)

Stop. Ha!  By now we all know you haven’t ANY interest in being fair.  Regarding spending, that’s the problem with you marxists…you all think that it is good to spend more than any budget takes in…

Rather than stimulate the economy, growing it to the point where a lower tax rate generates the same or additional revenue, the tax cuts so far have helped contribute to the state’s bleak fiscal future, a structural deficit.

Stop. Ha!  That’s the other problem with marxists…you say things as if they are fact when they are only [hopeful] opinions that fit whatever cockamamie narrative you are trying to spew.

The end of Ohio’s income tax would result in the loss of 34 percent of the state’s revenue, a stunning number even in good times.

Stop. Gee, you forgot to mention here the upside of eliminating the income tax, the revenue it would generate, or give examples of the nine states like Texas, who currently run just fine without it.

So, yes, a recent Ohio Poll from the University of Cincinnati shows Strickland’s approval rating dropping to 56 percent, 5 percentage points less than a year ago, among Ohio adults. Given the circumstances, that’s not bad.

Stop. Interesting, whatever happened to “if the incumbent is barely breaking 50%, he’s in trouble” guideline?  Additionally, if very few have heard of Kasich as you assert, then I think those numbers are pretty impressive, especially with so much time left.  Lastly Steve, I can’t seem to find a post where you made the same allowance for G.W. Bush with something like: “The President’s poll numbers are dropping, but he did inherit a recession, had to deal with 9/11, successfullly prioritized national security, not to mention is dealing with a inept Congress & even more inept press corps.  Given those circumstances, his ratings aren’t bad…”

The latest statewide survey of Ohio voters by Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn., shows Strickland looking strong in a matchup with Kasich, beating him 51 percent to 32 percent, Blackwellian territory.

Stop. Ha!  Dream on sparky, even the most uninterested citizen is not going to buy a Blackwell comparison…

Sadly, Republican primary voters show signs of knowing better. In a hypothetical gubernatorial primary between former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and Kasich, DeWine would win 35 percent to 23 percent. DeWine would lose to Strickland, but by 48 percent to 36 percent, if the race were held now.

Stop. Ha!  Funny you mention DeWine…there are many who plan on throwing [your] man-crush Mulligan out of office with as much fervor as they did DeWine.  You see, it’s not about D or R for many of us…it’s about good, responsible, LIMITED government, and Strickland simply isn’t getting it done.

Numbers like that have kept the former senator below the political radar as 2010 approaches. Not so with Kasich, something for which Strickland should give thanks every day.

So which is it, Steve?  A few paragraphs ago, you said it was unlikely that [your] man-crush Mulligan would be re-elected.  Now, Strickland should be happy that Kasich will be fraudulently beat up by two-bit partisan hacks pretending to be journalists who will “sway” the vote?

Don’t flatter yourself…you’re not that talented.

Life is intervening for a few hours, to be followed by a PJM column-drafting session, so posting by yours truly will be light.

In the meantime here’s advance notice that workers at the Hartmarx plant that makes President Barack Obama’s suits, and which was the subject of this post on Friday, are poised to do to it what unionized workers did with Obama’s blessing to Republic Window in December. This is from a “Workers United, an SEIU affiliate” press release (bolds are mine):

Chicago-area Factory Making President Obama’s Suits is Threatened with Closure by Bailout Recipient Wells Fargo

Union Workers Rally and Hold Historic “Sit In” Vote to Save their Jobs at Hartmarx Corp.

“Wells Fargo has received $25 billion in taxpayer assistance through TARP. In other words, the workers Wells Fargo may throw out on the street have been subsidizing its operations during these tough economic times. So much for returning the favor.” – Congressman Phil Hare

500 Hartmarx Workers Will Be Joined by SEIU President Andy Stern, Rep. Phil Hare, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias & Other State, National Leaders

CHICAGO, May 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — This Monday, May 11, 500 workers at the Chicago-based apparel firm Hart Schaffner & Marx will hold a rally and historic “sit in” vote to fight for their jobs as major lender and TARP fund recipient Wells Fargo & Co. pushes for a bankruptcy closure of the facility.

Mirroring the struggle of 250 Republic Windows and Doors workers who succeeded at saving their jobs last December, Hartmarx workers, members of the union Workers United, an SEIU affiliate, are receiving growing support from state and national leaders who are slamming Wells Fargo — a $25 billion taxpayer bailout recipient — for shortsightedly refusing to invest in U.S. companies and workers. Illinois Treasurer Giannoulias has vowed “Unless the company remains open, [Wells Fargo] will not be doing business with the state of Illinois any longer.”

The Hartmarx workers’ struggle sounds the alarm on what could be a firestorm of job losses and company closures perpetuated by U.S. financial institutions. Ruby Sims who has worked at Hartmarx for 31 years states “I can’t believe that a bank that got some of this [TARP] money would turn around and do us like this.”

In an effort to hold banks that have received over $450 billion in taxpayer bailout funds accountable for mounting costs to U.S. workers, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) will announce the formation of a toll-free hotline to gather stories of workers hurt by shortsighted banking practices at Wells Fargo and other financial institutions.

Chicago-based Hartmarx, the largest menswear manufacturing company in the nation, filed for bankruptcy protection in January after U.S. banks curtailed its lines of credit. The clothing maker employs 3,500 across the nation, with about 1,000 of its employees located in Rock Island and suburban Des Plaines where suits for President Obama are made.

WHEN: Monday, May 11th at 10:00 a.m.-Noon CDT; Press Conference at 11:00 a.m. CDT

WHERE: Hart Schaffner & Marx factory, 1680 E. Touhy in Des Plaines.

**Reporters and camera crews will be allowed to observe an up or down vote on a “sit in” and interview workers afterwards. No one will be allowed inside the plant after 10:45 a.m. A rally will follow.

WHO: 500+ Hartmarx suitmakers, SEIU President Andy Stern, Rep. Phil Hare, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, other state and national leaders.

Workers United, an SEIU affiliate, is a union representing more than 150,000 workers in the US and Canada who work in the laundry, food service, hospitality, gaming, apparel, textiles manufacturing and distribution industries. Workers United is a the new incarnation of the former ILGWU, ACTWU, UNITE and UNITE HERE unions. ….

“Somebody” thought that Republic Window was a test run for similar future efforts in December.

The other related item is this from Glenn Beck. It’s related because TARP lenders got rolled here too:

It’s a whole new wrinkle on the old joke about accountants (when asked what 2 + 2 is, he or she replies, “What do you want it to be?”).

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the reported results of the financial institution stress tests were negotiated:

Banks Won Concessions on Tests
Fed Cut Billions Off Some Initial Capital-Shortfall Estimates; Tempers Flare at Wells

The Federal Reserve significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation’s biggest banks shortly before concluding its stress tests, following two weeks of intense bargaining.

The overall reaction to the stress tests, announced Thursday, has been generally positive. But the haggling between the government and the banks shows the sometimes-tense nature of the negotiations that occurred before the final results were made public.

It’s also clear that the negotiations were over clearly non-trivial amounts:

At least half of the banks pushed back, according to people with direct knowledge of the process. Some argued the Fed was underestimating the banks’ ability to cover anticipated losses with revenue growth and aggressive cost-cutting. Others urged regulators to give them more credit for pending transactions that would thicken their capital cushions.

….. Bank of America’s final gap was $33.9 billion, down from an earlier estimate of more than $50 billion, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

A Bank of America spokesman wouldn’t comment on how much the previous gap was reduced, though he said it resulted from an adjustment for first-quarter results and errors made by regulators in their analysis. “It wasn’t lobbying,” he said.

Wells Fargo’s capital hole shrank to $13.7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Before adjusting for first-quarter results and other factors, the figure was $17.3 billion, according to a federal document.

“In the end we agreed with the number. We didn’t necessarily like the number,” said Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Howard Atkins. He said the company was particularly unhappy with the Fed’s assumptions about Wells Fargo’s revenue outlook.

At Fifth Third Bancorp, the Fed was preparing to tell the Cincinnati-based bank to find $2.6 billion in capital, but the final tally dropped to $1.1 billion. Fifth Third said the decline stemmed in part from regulators giving it credit for selling a part of a business line.

Citigroup’s capital shortfall was initially pegged at roughly $35 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The ultimate number was $5.5 billion. Executives persuaded the Fed to include the future capital-boosting impacts of pending transactions.

Given the size of the change at Citi, it seems odd that the Journal’s David Enrich, Dan Fitzpatrick and Marshall Eckblad mentioned it so late in their rundown.

It’s also more than a little strange that the name of Treasury Secretary Tim “Tax Cheat” Geithner, who is credited with designing the stress test, never appeared in the Journal’s coverage. In fact, the word “Treasury” doesn’t appear in Journal report, even though other sources, including the one to be cited next, indicate that the 150 regulators thown into the exercise were from the Treasury Department. But the Journal treated the stress test entirely as an enterprise of the Federal Reserve.

It’s all too easy to forget that the stress test is part of a bigger Geithner/Treasury plan that is very ominous to those who believe in free markets, as the UK Telegraph reminded us on Thursday:

Geithner’s stress tests likely to prove too little too late

….. The FSP (Geithner’s “Financial Stability Plan”) consisted of three parts – a “comprehensive stress test” of America’s largest financial institutions, the creation of a public-private investment fund, and up to $1 trillion (£668bn) to support consumer and business lending.

Somehow, I think that if a presidential administration other than Dear Leader Barack Obama’s was involved in negotiated financial reports like the stress tests have turned out to be, we’d be hearing a lot more about how “arbritrary” and “meaningless” the results are.

There’s also this: I know it’s considered impolite in the Dear Leader Era, but the fact that Treasury regulators were testing the health of banks onto which they have forced government investment, from which they are in many cases refusing repayment, and with which they are “negotiating” the terms of specific business transactions such as the Chrysler bankruptcy and the General Motors mess, presents conflicts of interest and independence, not to mention potential for breathtaking corruption, that no investor or taxpayer should tolerate. Oh well ….

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Here are the first two paragraphs of Toyota Motor Corporation’s press release announcing its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2009 (most Japanese companies end their fiscal years on March 31; bolds are mine):

Tokyo – TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) today announced operating results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009.

On a consolidated basis, net revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009 totaled 20.53 trillion yen, a decrease of 21.9 percent compared to the last fiscal year. Operating income decreased from 2.27 trillion yen to a loss of 461 billion yen, and income before income taxes, minority interest and equity in earnings of affiliated companies was a loss of 560.4 billion yen. Net income decreased from 1.72 trillion yen to a loss of 437 billion yen.

Across the board, the financial press reports I read translated the company’s reported losses expressed in yen into dollars ($4.4 billion in $US for the year, and $7.7 billion in the fourth quarter), but not its revenues (about $207 billion and $35 billion, respectively).

Why is that?

It may have something to do with the fact that Toyota, despite its considerable recent troubles, especially during most recent quarter, is leaving rivals Ford and General Motors in the rear-view mirror. That certainly distracts from the bailout blather about how GM’s and Chrysler’s crises were “unavoidable.”

Just two years ago, Toyota passed GM and became the world’s largest carmaker. In the most recent quarter, Toyota’s top line far exceeded Ford’s and GM’s ($24.8 billion and $22.4 billion, respectively).

If the fact that Ford outsold GM in the first quarter of 2009 is news to you, you’re not alone. The press has ignored the fact that Ford leapfrogged GM in the first quarter to become Number One in Detroit.

As to Toyota’s results, despite the figure’s presence in yen in the first sentence of its press release, none of the half-dozen reports I reviewed translated the company’s revenues into dollars:

• Dow Jones translated the company’s quarterly and annual net losses. While it noted final-quarter revenues in yen, it didn’t translate the number.
• MarketWatch also translated the company’s losses, and not its revenues.
• AFP only noted that Toyota’s “revenues slumped 21.9 percent” for the year, and laugably claimed (as did MarketWatch) that “Toyota fared even worse in the quarter to March than General Motors, which said Thursday it lost six billion dollars.” GM’s quarterly loss was about 27% of sales; Toyota’s historic loss was about 22%. GM burned through $10.2 billion in cash during the quarter. Toyota also happens to have about $30 billion in cash and cash-equivalents on hand, $8 billion higher than a year ago.
• The UK Telegraph noted a decline in unit sales, but did not deal with revenues.
• A BreakingViews.com story carried at CNNMoney.com did not mention revenue dollars, but did uniquely point to the company’s stash of cash, and reminded readers that “Toyota is in much better shape than General Motors.”
• A New York Times report by HIroko Tabuchi noted annual sales, but only in yen, while translating the company’s quarterly and annual net losses.

While there’s no denying that the largest loss in the 72-year history of the company is big news, it’s hard to believe that the growing disparity between its sales volume and that of its rivals is not. Maybe it will be news if, as seems pretty likely, Toyota outsells Ford and GM combined within the next few years.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Note: This column originally appeared at Pajamas Media on Thursday.

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Chrysler’s holdout lenders have a higher duty – and it’s not to him.

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On April 30, President Barack Obama denounced “hedge funds” that he claimed ruined concession discussions that might have enabled Chrysler to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

Since then, most of the outrage in the establishment media has focused on these holdouts. Matt Goldstein of Business Week called them “cowards” for not revealing their names (remember the AIG bonuses, Matt?). No one in the establishment media leveled a similar charge at Team Obama when they similarly refused. When the holdouts issued a press release describing their legal rights and why they were asserting them, Jessica Pressler at NYmag.com disgracefully accused them of playing “the Obama-is-a-communist card.”

First of all, these are not all presumably evil (unless you’re John Edwards and happen to have worked for one) “hedge funds.” As the lawyer representing these firms, Tom Lauria, told Frank Beckmann of WJR Radio in Detroit last week:

…. what people really need to understand is that the people who bought this debt are pensioneers, teachers’ credit unions, personal retiree accounts, retirement plans, college endowments. That’s who my clients act as fiduciaries for.

Lauria was also saying in so many words, “We’re just doing our job.”

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), passed in 1974 with strong bipartisan support, subjects retirement plans to a very strict standard of fiduciary duty, specifically:

(1) …. a fiduciary shall discharge his duties with respect to a plan solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries and—
(A) for the exclusive purpose of:
(i) providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries; and
(ii) defraying reasonable expenses of administering the plan;

There is nothing ambiguous about this requirement, and nothing about the words “solely” or the term “exclusive purpose” to misunderstand. The Wall Street Journal’s Gregory Corcoran also pointed out on April 30 that hedge fund managers are subject to a nearly identical common-law standard, “to the exclusion of any contrary interest.”

Fiduciary duty directly ties in to the situation at Chrysler. As Lauria explained to Beckmann — in between describing what he alleges are threats to his clients’ reputations and safety, which he later expanded to include death threats that have been turned over to the FBI — the creditors he represents have collateralized first-lien rights.

In a normal bankruptcy, first-lien creditors get paid what they are owed before anyone else. Since assets rarely fetch their ongoing-use value in liquidation, it appears reasonable that Lauria’s group would have come down in negotiations from 100% to 65%, and then to 50%, in the interest of avoiding bankruptcy. Presumably, 50% is a reasonable estimate of what might be realized in liquidation.

But Obama, Steve Rattner, and his car people wanted Lauria’s group to come down to 29% of their collateralized value in return for what appears to be almost nothing. Under current plans, the United Auto Workers’ health care trust will own a majority of the company if and when it emerges from bankruptcy. It appears that lenders who have no first-lien rights, and whose arm’s-length interests are questionable, given that many of them have received Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds, will receive company shares in an amount roughly proportional to the total of all debt balances, including those of Lauria’s non-TARP first-lien lenders.

In other words, Obama et al want Lauria’s group to essentially act as if their first-lien status doesn’t exist. They frame this as being “in the national interest.”

There’s only one “little” problem: Under ERISA, Barack Obama’s definition of “the national interest” is not relevant to “the interest of the (retirement plan) participants and beneficiaries.” It is also not relevant to hedge funds’ common-law duties. If the non-TARP lenders act against their participants’ and investors’ interests and give in to such a deal, they will more than likely be virtually defenseless against shareholder and participant lawsuits.

Perhaps the example of Bank of America’s Ken Lewis is weighing on the minds of those who are still in Lauria’s group.

Lewis claims he was intimidated by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke into hiding from the public the extent of losses at its recently acquired Merrill Lynch subsidiary. Bank of America is being sued by shareholders, and Ken Lewis is no longer BofA Chairman. Does anyone think that the government will provide witnesses to defend Lewis or BofA?

There will likely be an anti-Chrysler backlash by those who see Team Obama’s tactics for what they are. Before the bankruptcy filing, General Motors was catching almost all of that heat.

At GM, in the first full month following Obama’s sacking of Rick Wagoner that signaled the company’s de facto nationalization, it sold all of 171,258 vehicles. Only about 131,000 vehicles were sold to individual consumers, a 45% drop from April 2008. Some of the company’s fleet (i.e., not individual) sales may have occurred because of a sped-up purchasing campaign announced in early April by an Uncle Sam desperate to prop up GM any way it conceivably can.

Since the first bailout funds were sent in December, Chrysler, whose CEO Bob Nardelli spent most of 2008 ruining the company on his own, has somewhat stabilized, and may even have been the beneficiary of a bit of public sympathy. More than likely, that is over, and Nardelli’s announced departure won’t stop it. As it is, Chrysler sold a pathetic 15,558 cars (i.e., excluding light trucks) in April, putting it in eighth place, behind even Hyundai and Kia.

What has happened since the bailouts began has become so obvious that after reviewing April’s results, the Associated Press’s auto writers told readers that “Detroit’s Big Three is becoming Ford and the other two.”

It’s reasonable to believe that the Team Obama’s “Chicago Way” tactics have accelerated the downward trend at GM, and that it will now spread to Chrysler. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if we learn a few months from now that one, the other, or even both are gone, and aren’t coming back.

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UPDATE, May 9 — In a Wednesday BizzyBlog post that went up the day after I submitted the above column to PJM, and the day before it was actually published (“The Non-TARP Lenders Aren’t Making Stories of White House Pressure Up”; also carried at NewsBusters and the Wall Street Journal), I noted that the lender group’s membership had shrunk from $1 billion in first-lien Chrysler debt to about $300 million.

So the following news from yesterday shouldn’t be that surprising (bolds are mine, and replace bolds used at original article):

Dissident Chrysler Group to Disband

1:34 p.m. – A group of Chrysler creditors opposing the carmaker’s reorganization will disband after two more investment firms withdrew from its membership, a lawyer representing the firms told DealBook on Friday.

The decision to dissolve the unofficial group was made in connection with the withdrawal of OppenheimerFunds and Stairway Capital Management, said Glenn M. Kurtz, a White & Case partner representing the bloc. With those two firms pulling out, the so-called Committee of Non-TARP Lenders would hold below 5 percent of Chrysler’s $6.9 billion in secured debt. That would almost certainly eliminate the group’s standing in federal bankruptcy court.

The committee is unlikely to regroup unless other dissident creditors come forward, Mr. Kurtz said.

“After a great deal of soul-searching and quite frankly agony, Chrysler’s non-TARP lenders concluded they just don’t have the critical mass to withstand the enormous pressure and machinery of the US government,” Thomas E. Lauria, a partner of Mr. Kurtz’s and the lead lawyer for the group. “As a result, they have collectively withdrawn their participation in the court case.”

As Michael Barone would say, or actually did say, welcome to “Gangster Government”:

The Chrysler negotiations will not be the last occasion for this administration to engage in bailout favoritism and crony capitalism. There’s a May 31 deadline to come up with a settlement for General Motors. And there will be others.

In the meantime, who is going to buy bonds from unionized companies if the government is going to take their money away and give it to the union? We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government. It is likely to be part of a continuing series.

It’s actually a series that began back in December; the series, which has actually been ongoing for some time, continued on Thursday in Des Plaines, Illinois.

UPDATE 2: …. and in California.

Yes, it can — be done:

From Buenos Aires, Argentina (HT Daily Good):

Hundreds of Argentines have been donating to a taxi driver who found a bag with $32,500 (£21,600) in cash in his taxi and returned it to its owners.

The donations started after a website was set up in his honour calling for gestures of gratitude for what is seen as an extraordinary act of honesty.

So far the equivalent of $14,580 has been donated, according to the site.

Santiago Gori, a taxi driver in the coastal city of La Plata, found the money after driving an elderly couple.

They only went a short distance but when he dropped them off, they left a bag in the back of his taxi.
A few days later he managed to locate his passengers again and he returned the bag.

For Argentines used to corruption at all levels of society, this was an extraordinary story.

Web rewards

Two young advertising agency employees decided to set up a website to thank Mr Gori further for his exemplary behaviour.

Now thousands of people have accessed the site and have left hundreds of rewards and messages for Mr Gori. ….

Go here for the rest of the story.