Logistics Monster

Governor Sarah Palin is about to hold a press conference, and information being reported prior to the PC is stating that not only will she not run for re-election for governor of Alaska, but that she is resigning her governorship and handing over the governorship to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell at the end of the month.

As soon as I can find video of the press conference, I will embed it, and I will update this post as more information comes in.

UPDATE: Greta is reporting that Sarah signed a letter two weeks ago looking for funding for SarahPac.

UPDATE: It looks like Sarah Palin is stepping down because Alaskans are spending money defending Governor Palin against the political smear campaign and ethics violations.

UPDATE: She is resigning because she doesn’t want to draw a paycheck as a lame duck governor.

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” Palin said after the announcement, according to a press release from her office. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose.”

Matt Taibbi has part of the puzzle, but not all of the pieces.  Make sure to follow the link and watch the video Rolling Stone has of Matt Taibbi, and then go over to GoldmanSachs666.  Mike Morgan has been covering this tentacle of the Pilgrims Society, and just won his court case against Goldman Sachs over copyright infringement.  One has to cheer David on when he beats Goliath.

From Rolling Stone:

The Great American Bubble Machine

Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression

In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on “the Wall Street Bubble Mafia” — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi’s piece is “an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories” and a spokesman adding, “We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good.” Taibbi shot back: “Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it.” Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi’s piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They’ve been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they’re preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

See Taibbi discuss Goldman Sachs’ big scam.

(Matt, if you by chance land on The Monster, drop me an email and I will help fill in the blank spots.)

GET USED TO THIS PICTURE!

Congress is going great guns with their “let them eat cake” program.  For those of you that are just landing on The Monster, make sure to check out the related link at the bottom, “H.R. 2918; THE Reason Congress Thinks We Are Stupid” for even more information on just how much our non-representative, lawmakers are soaking us for.

Congress’s Travel Tab Swells

Spending on Taxpayer-Funded Trips Rises Tenfold; From Italy to the Galápagos

WASHINGTON — Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.

The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That’s a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as “codels,” has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.

Paris Air Show

In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force’s version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night.

The lawmakers were invited to a dinner party at the U.S. Embassy and had cocktails at a private party at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Inouye attended a dinner sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. trade group. Another senator on the trip, Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, took a cruise on the River Seine with defense-industry executives and elected officials from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Mr. Inouye and Mr. Shelby declined to comment.

Congressional Fleet

The congressional trips are possible thanks in part to an unlimited fund created by a three-decade old law. Nearly two dozen government officials work full-time organizing the trips. Much of the costs are not made public, including the cost of flying on government jets. The Air Force maintains a fleet of 16 passenger planes for use by lawmakers.

Documents obtained by the Journal show that the cost of flying a small group of lawmakers to the Middle East is about $150,000. Larger trips on the Air Force’s version of the Boeing 757 cost about $12,000 an hour. Two federal agencies pay for most of the travel — the Defense Department and the State Department.

Then you add the $3.1 Million each and every house rep gets to run their offices, we all know why they are willing to walk on fiery broken glass to get to Washington DC.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Are You Ready To Fire Congress Yet?