St. Louis Bomb Blast: Economic Terrorism?

Bomb Blast in St. Louis Parking Garage
Injures Prominent Takeover Attorney

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As they hunt for the person(s) responsible for a Thursday morning bomb blast that injured John Gillis, investigators are likely considering the possibility the incident might somehow be linked to the current economic crisis. And for good reason.

Gillis, is senior counsel at Armstrong Teasdale, a large law firm based in downtown St. Louis, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report published today. A bio page on the prominent law firm's web site attributes a number of "significant accomplishments" to the 69-year-old St. Louis attorney, including:

* Counsel to seller in $210 million sale of Nasdaq listed company in negotiated tender offer followed by a back-end merger;

* Counsel to seller in $500 million sale of Nasdaq listed bank holding company;

* Issuer's counsel in $50 million dutch auction self tender offer for common shares; and

* Counsel to boards of directors or special board committees in a number of negotiated and hostile takeover transactions.

Just after 11 a.m. yesterday, according to witness accounts, Gillis attempted to move a package from near his vehicle parked on the sixth parking level of a 16-story office building adjacent Gillis' condo-building home in Clayton, an affluent St. Louis suburb. As reported in this post yesterday, the bomb blast shook the downtown area and prompted evacuations of area buildings.

Considering the type of work Gillis has performed, the enormous amounts of money at stake and the heady personalities often involved in such high-stakes transactions, it will be interesting to find out whether or not this crime indeed has its roots in the economic crisis or if some other motivating factor — personal, professional, terrorism or other — was in play.

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ALSO at Bob McCarty Writes: Bomb Explodes in St. Louis Parking Garage! (Updated)

by Bob McCarty
image: Bob McCarty Writes
Source: Does St. Louis Blast Have Ties to Economic Crisis?

Rep. Brad Sherman: Congress Threatened with Martial Law over Bailout

Rep. Brad Sherman:
Congress Threatened with Martial Law
If Bailout Bill Not Passed
Mainstream Media Mum

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A Democrat congressman makes a claim that was televised on C-SPAN that some congressmen were told that if the bailout bill wasn't passed, there would be "martial law in America"--and the Mainstream Media is silent.


"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."
--Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) on C-SPAN





A C-SPAN video of Rep. Brad Sherman speaking to Congress during the bailout bill. Sherman rightly says that "creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere" was in play. After seeing this video, an attempt was made to find out more about Sherman's claim.

Googling was little help.

The Washington Post ran a story October 2 which claimed that Sherman was "spectacularly unpopular" with Democrat and Republican House leadership over his opposition to the bailout bill.

If the House of Representatives was a playground, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) might be most likely to get beat up.

Sherman, who led the House revolt against the bailout bill this week (and will do so again on Friday), has become spectacularly unpopular with both the Republican and Democratic leaderships, not to mention K Street.

Lobbyists and House aides were gossiping this week that House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) angrily told the more diminutive Sherman in front of his colleagues at a Democratic caucus meeting last week to "shut up and sit down."

On the martial law theme, there were a few articles mentioning "a little-noticed story...a couple of weeks ago in the Army Times newspaper about the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team."

A little-noticed story surfaced a couple of weeks ago in the Army Times newspaper about the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. “Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months,” reported Army Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro, “the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” Disturbingly, she writes that “they may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control” as well.

It's disturbing that no rebuttal or confirmation of Sherman's claim has been offered.

It's even more disturbing that no Mainstream Media news organization has investigated the scary claim in Sherman's speech.

Perhaps they were too busy hyping the "Financial Meltdown" and shilling for the bailout.


by Mondo
hat tip: Ernest Hancock, Freedom's Phoenix
image: wikimedia

Twenty-five Financial Bailout Quotes

Twenty-five Quotes about the
Financial Bailout




Twenty-five quotes about the proposed financial bailout by those involved: politicians, watchdogs, candidates and the media.



This meeting ended bad - real bad.”
--Fox News source
On the financial bailout meeting at the White House September 25, 2008



"There are disagreements over aspects of the rescue plan," he said, "but there is no disagreement that something substantial must be done. We are going to get a package passed."
--President George W. Bush
'We are going to get a package passed': Bush, September 26 2008


"I don't think a president has been repudiated so strongly by the congressional wing of his own party in a very long time now. Maybe this isn't the last word, but that's where we are now."
--Rep. Barney Frank
'We are going to get a package passed': Bush September 26 2008


"I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems. I regard them as great assets."
--Barney Frank
In response to efforts to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae 2002

ALSO at DBKP: DBKP Library of Quotes OVER 30 collections of Quotes by Sarah Palin, W.F. Buckley, John Edwards Scandal, Don King, Liberals, and more.

“All of us around the table take this issue very seriously and we know we’ve got to get something done as quickly as possible."
--President Bush
Deal for Financial Bailout Disintegrates as Obama, McCain Look On



“We must protect taxpayers and limit the Treasury’s powers. We must prevent those who contributed the most to this crisis from further profiting. We must establish strong oversight with a permanent in-house watchdog and a robust external congressional monitor."
--Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
Kanjorski asks bailout that protects taxpayers, September 25, 2008


"The top five [Sen. Christopher Dodd, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Paul Kanjorski] received nearly one-half million dollars from the FMx2 [Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae]."
--"Contributions: Obama, Dodd and the Freddie Fannie Five"
DBKP, September 26, 2008


"CBS News found 21 former staffers from the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and House Financial Services Committees are now lobbyists for financial firms. Their job? To lobby those in Congress who will shape the financial bailout. The former staffers now represent hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks and the failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."
--Who’s Lobbying Congress On The Bailout?
CBS News, September 26 2008



“There should be a three year cooling off period so former staffers do not have these intimate relationships that they exploit for large paychecks.”
--Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen
On former Senate staffers lobbying for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,
Public Citizen has actively pushed for more lobbying transparency and accountability



"He [John McCain] hasn't been involved. He doesn't know anything about it. This is a stunt. I hope people will be able to ignore it."
--Rep. Barney Frank
US Rep Frank: House, Senate Dems agree on bailout


"I think Wall Street will get over it."
--Barney Frank
On the possible collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae April 2004


"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions."
--2008 Republican Party platform

"One of the major government privileges granted to GSEs is a line of credit with the United States Treasury. According to some estimates, the line of credit may be worth over $2 billion. This explicit promise by the Treasury to bail out GSEs in times of economic difficulty helps the GSEs attract investors who are willing to settle for lower yields than they would demand in the absence of the subsidy. Thus, the line of credit distorts the allocation of capital. More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a huge unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt."
--Rep. Ron Paul
To the House Financial Services Committee, September 10, 2003

"I don't think a single call to my office on this proposal has been positive."
--Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) at the Senate hearing, September 23 2008



"Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae's regulator reported that the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole."
--John McCain on the Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
US Senate, May 25 2006


"It [REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 2005] never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis."
--Democrats.org September 25 2008



“It was a photo op for John McCain. … It was a rescue plan for John McCain.”
--Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Deal for Financial Bailout Disintegrates as Obama, McCain Look On, September 25 2008

Though Sen. Chris Dodd implied that Sen. McCain sandbagged the rest of the negotiators by bringing up alternative proposals, McCain himself did not bring up those proposals, according to four independent sources briefed by four different principals inside the meeting, including two Republicans and two Democrats.

"McCain has not attacked the Paulson deal," said a third Republican who was briefed by McCain direclty. "Unlike the [Democrats] in the [White House] meeting, he didn't raise his voice or cause a ruckus. He is urging all sides to come together."
--Marc Armbinder, The Atlantic
"What Happened In The Cabinet Room...

"People who want to be president need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time."
--Obama Sr. Advisor Brad Woodhouse
On MSNBC, September 26 2008


"[Chistopher]Dodd,[and Barack] Obama got nearly a quarter-million dollars from Freddie, Fannie"
--Contributions: Obama, Dodd and the Freddie Fannie Five
DBKP, September 26 2008


"A week ago, Senator Obama laid out his principles."
--Obama Sr. Advisor Brad Woodhouse
On MSNBC, September 26 2008


"Barack Obama was able to appear in Washington, while his principles were in Florida."
--E.K. Clark
DBKP, September 26, 2008


"Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money."
----Democrats.org September 25 2008

"Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion. ... To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection--a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end. ...It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.We must not forget that, for the last six or eight years, monetary policy all over the world has followed the advice of the stabilizers. It is high time that their influence, which has already done harm enough, should be overthrown."
--F.A. Hayek, Nobel prize winner
June 1932

"As it became clear to Paulson that Republicans weren't backing his plan, he called Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urging him to bring McCain back to Washington in order to broker a deal the GOP could get behind. As a new plan was put forth Thursday, Democrats saw this as an opportunity to undermine McCain by creating the illusion he was to blame for the negotiations breaking down.

Democrat after Democrat was sent before cameras, microphones, and tape recorders to belittle the Senator from Arizona and create the appearance that the financial bailout took a wrong turn due to his appearance at the negotiating table.

Now, with the deal seemingly dead, the Democrats are saying they're behind the Paulson plan. If it succeeds, they can take all the credit; if it dies, they can blame it completely on McCain and the Republican party."
--Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters
"AP Publishes McCain-Bashing Bailout Piece Olbermann Should Love"


compiled by Mondo

Obama Campaign: From 'Juggernaut' to 'Meltdown' in 4 Months

Headed for the Exits
Obama in May: "JUGGERNAUT"
Obama in September: "MELTDOWN"




“We’re witnessing nothing less than a full-on meltdown..”
–Rush Limbaugh


Barack Obama's campaign--described as a 'juggernaut' less than four months ago, is now facing renewed questions, scrutiny and fund-raising challenges--and one commentator calls it a "meltdown".

Barack Obama knows it. The election he had in the bag is slipping away…

Democrats know something, and desperation is setting in. They have a novice campaigner who wanders off message. With every advantage in the primaries, Obama couldn’t win the big states — New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania — against Hillary Clinton, even when he got to define the rules for running against him. She could never risk alienating the base she’ll need in 2012; John McCain and Sarah Palin have no such constraints — hence the panic.

Panic Sets In For Obama, Democrats, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Less than four months ago, Joe Trippi, the string-puller for Howard Dean and John Edwards, said, "“Obama has been battered, beaten, screamed at, yelled at, kicked and - nothing, totally unflappable, his staff’s unflappable, no schisms. McCain has imploded twice. So you have to have more confidence in Obama’s ability to put a team together and keep it together.”

Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant who pioneered some of the successful grassroots and internet techniques when he ran Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004, said that John McCain is already in “deep, deep trouble” because of a poor organisation and an anaemic fundraising total of about a fifth of the $500 million raised by Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton.

“Obama’s got the strongest organisation in history because of what he’s done with the internet and plugging volunteers into the paid organisers operation. McCain’s team is in a shambles. He has no organisation and no grassroots fundraising operation.”

If the election were only held among Democrat strategists and Mainstream Media pundits, they could have turned out the lights in May. However, there's the little matter of an election that involves millions upon millions of voters whom turn off politics until the last eight weeks before the election.

Actually, some people turn off politics and talking heads until the day before the election. Whatever the case, the spirits don't seem to be as high in the Obama organization these days.

Red Planet Cartoons has a generous helping of links to back up the cartoon at the top of the page. Among them are:

FoxNews: McCain Gains 16 Points Among Independent Voters.

HotAir: Obama’s Fundraising Drying Up.

ABC11: McCain leads by 20 in North Carolina.

Rasmussen: Obama’s Lead Down to 2… in Washington.

For the complete listing of the polls that have tightened up or changed in the last week, check out "Heading for the Exits" at RPC.

Why the sudden and swift reassessments?

Readers will make their own judgments.

Obama may or may not be in a 'meltdown', but he's certainly not a 'juggernaut' anymore.

by Mondoreb
image: Red Planet Cartoons

Sarah Palin, Barack Obama: Feminism, Racism, the MSM

Obama, Palin's Nomination:
Losing Clout - Feminism, Racism, the Mainstream Media

Liberal Meltdown Nancy Morgan RightBias.com September 8, 2008

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In a delicious stroke of cosmic justice, it seems that the left, not the earth, is in meltdown stage. The sacred pillars of liberal orthodoxy are in the process of losing their underpinnings and it is not a pretty sight.

With the nomination of Barack and Sarah, three major industries and shibboleths of the left, feminism, racism and the media are losing their clout, big time.

The feminists who have preached against the 'social construct' of male patriarchy and female victimhood have achieved their stated goal, and they're furious. After 40 years, the feminist mantra that a woman can and should have it all, has come to fruition in Sarah Palin.

There's only one small problem. Palin doesn't buy into the feminist line. As Peggy Noonan so aptly put it, "she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way." When feminists see Sarah Palin, they see a woman. When conservatives see Palin, they see a conservative. Who'se sexist?

Feminists are furiously backtracking on one of their core tenets, questioning whether Sarah Palin has the ability to juggle home and job. Instead of applauding a woman who has it all, they instead question whether she will have time to be VP, what with her family and all. Liberal feminist Whoopi Goldberg got it right when she described Sarah Palin as "a dangerous woman."

The Jacksons and Sharptons of the world who have spent their lives preaching racism are also in melt down stage. With the nomination of Obama, racism is in the process of becoming a hard sell, even the silent 'institutional racism' that has been in vogue these last few years. How will the race hustlers raise funds without genuine victims? How will blacks retain their hard won political power, which is based largely on white guilt? Who will pay for black oppression if there isn't any?

The presidential race of 2008 will go down in history as a turning point - as the pivotal event that exposed the shallowness of liberal policies, institutions and people. A mere 5 months ago, the liberals were on the brink of victory. And now...

Now, it appears that not only are the masses not buying what the left is selling, but have instead shown their stubborn allegiance to traditional values and God, as embodied so well by Gov. Palin. This, despite the herculean efforts by another liberal institution, the media.

The same media, which a study showed to have been the decisive factor in Obama's nomination, is now having to report that Palin is more popular than both McCain and Obama.

Unable to believe they've been on the wrong side of history, the media is lashing out in ever more frivolous and blatant attempts to smear Gov. Palin and prop up Obama. Only this time, they're encountering a backlash.

US Weekly Magazine is losing subscribers due to the vicious smear piece recently published about Palin. A new website has even been launched to organize a boycott of US Weekly and their advertisers. Adding insult to injury, Rasmussen reported a whopping 51% of American women believe the media is trying to hurt Sarah Palin and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for McCain.

More surprisingly, hundreds of small town residents in a small town outside Milwaukee "taunted reporters and TV crews travelling with Sen. John McCain on Friday, chanting "Be fair!" and pointing fingers at a pack of journalists as they booed loudly." Even Oprah is experiencing a backlash for refusing to have Palin on her show until after the election.

The media, like the rest of the liberal world, can't comprehend what is happening. The conservative, traditional worldview they thought they had thoroughly invalidated is rearing its ugly head and they can't understand, much less control, it.


Obama's nomination goes a long way towards discrediting the racism canard. And Gov. Sarah Palin shows that the American dream is available without help from either government or the self-anointed elites. She shows that faith in God is more powerful than faith in man. She shows that sexism and racism are indeed constructs, but artificial constructs designed not by old white men, but by liberal utopians - designed to achieve money and power, not liberation.

The times, they are a changin', but not in the way the left envisioned. The rules are changing as we speak. Because the liberal elites have consistently shown they are incapable of adjusting their world-views to include conservatives, I predict this will be the death of them.

I'm smiling.

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina

Article may be reprinted, with attribution

image: thatdj

KOS Wishes For U.S. Economic Meltdown: Treason is So Passe On the Left

Treason or Dementia?

It's hard to salute the flag when you're in a straitjacket.

John Hawkins at Right Wing News reveals one the thoughts of one brave KOS economic warrior and her solutions to what ails her world.

After spending half her diary comparing America to Nazi Germany, Daily Kos diarist
Granny Doc openly roots for an "economic meltdown" in America,

The parallels are undeniable, and I see only one solution if America, The Grand Experiment, is to survive.

I want to stand by and watch it all blow up.

I want the dollar to plunge to worthless paper.
I want the stock market to implode.
I want the economy to plunge into chaos.
I want the Chinese to call in all the debt they hold.

Without pausing for breath or thought, she continues at length in the same vein.

Poor Granny Doc! In America past, such talk would have earned her accommodations in a nice relaxing rubber room. There she could have calmed her fevered mind and contemplated how many buckles were on the nice white jacket that had been thoughtfully provided for her.

Something on the line of "I wrote this America-hating Screed and all I got was this lousy straight jacket."

Now she barely raises the attention of a few right wing bloggers looking for another "man bites moonbat" storyline. Is it treasonous to wish economic destruction on one's own country? Granny's too busy with rapturous thoughts of Americans selling apples and souplines stretching from Maine to Wisconsin to wonder whether a U.S. stock market implosion might set off an economic 'Big Bang'. No thoughts about treason wrinkle her well-furrowed brow.

Besides, treason is so passe on the Left.

Hawkins concludes with this advice to the obviously distraught Granny:

Granny Doc better be careful. If she keeps writing posts like this, even someone as influential as Kos won't be able to get her a job any better than Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy in the Treasury Department of a future Clinton Administration.

Granny certainly would be in the running. One wishes Granny well, if only because it is to her crowd that Democrats are increasingly paying attention. They are anxious to hear what the Granny Docs at KOS are saying, after all, KOS is the new Democratic center.

The Democrats might be surprised that many Americans don't know who KOS is, nor do they care. They might care more about the American economic meltdown that is wished on their country by KOS's Granny Doc. Many might decide that the new Democrat center no longer speaks to them.

Of course, for KOS, Granny Doc and many Democrats: it's hard to put your finger in the wind when your fist is always in the air.

by Mondoreb
[image:tuberose]
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