By his “friends” you shall know him

New York Post:

JP Morgan honcho Jamie Dimon, once a "fat cat” ally of President Obama, seems to have strayed to Republican contender Mitt Romney.

Dimon, a lifelong Democrat who was rumored to be on Obama’s short list for treasury secretary before he settled on Tim Geithner, met privately with Romney on Tuesday morning before a fund-raiser at Brasserie 8¹/2 hosted by Highbridge Capital, a JPMorgan-owned hedge fund.

Unsurprising.  After all, the well-being of "lifelong Democrats” and their too-big-to-fail crony corporations is always an important concern for the RINO Republicans.  If Romney wasn’t one of them, he’d have had enough sense to not get caught anywhere near that crowd.

Elsewhere, related:

(Post story via Insty.)

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Trial balloon?

North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue says the times are too grave for us to indulge in that "election” stuff:

You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things.  I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.  I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.

Spokesman Chris Mackey later said the governor was "...obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem...” (well, what else would he say?), but witnesses report "her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea.”  Anybody have a recording?  (UPDATE: Jeff does!)

Every day in every way, Glenn Beck sounds less crazy.  Which is not necessarily a Good Thing.

Elsewhere:

More (110928 14:30):
Oh, THAT Explains It  Dept:
(Via Daily Caller via Ace. New Republic link HT: Jeff.)

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Connection? What connection?

From today’s Ace Of Spades sidebar:

Related:

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Son of “Why government costs so much”

Associated Press:

The federal government has doled out more than $600 million in benefit payments to dead people over the past five years...

But wait, there’s more!

More than 89,000 stimulus payments [not the same thing]... went to people who were either dead [$18 million] or in prison [$4.3 million]...

You may call it fraud.  Our politician friends probably call it "taking care of the constituency.”

(Via:  Radley)

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And while we’re culling agencies...

(Via:  Reason via Insty)

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Let’s do it For The Children!

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Clipfile - September 21, 2011

"...It can be said that the President desires nothing more than to promote the general welfare, and the general welfare requires a reduction in the vast disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of us.  Perhaps so: but note that the President does not offer the alternative of giving up some of the regulations and rules and the swarms of officers who harass the people and eat out their substance.” - Jerry Pournelle

(Via Bill Quick)

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“Arrr-r-r-Roger, tower?”

What, you mean it’s not "Talk Like a Pilot Day”?

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Today’s Crony Capitalist update

Michelle Malkin:

In a normal, free-market environment, of course, business executives take their cue from customers — not from the East Wing. [link added - O.G.]

But this is no normal, free-market environment.

And, I might add, Darden Restaurants is no normal restaurant chain.

At a time when most food service providers are struggling under the weight of increased taxes, health care mandates, and regulations, Darden Restaurants just happens to be one of the few and fortunate businesses to obtain one of those coveted Obamacare waivers.

(The Darden brands, just in case you’re interested: Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52.)

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal quotes Jeff Immelt:

Speaking at an event in New York, GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said he sees "good, decent economic growth everywhere.”

As to whether Mr. Immelt expects any of that "growing” to include GE’s operations in the U.S... the article doesn’t say.

Oh, guess which well-connected Wall Street insider firm was there "helping” now-bankrupt Solyndra get that $535 million DOE loan guarantee?

And guess how much of that $535 mill the taxpayers aren’t likely to recover:

...bankrupt Solyndra will retain Imperial Capital at the cost of $150,000 per month (this is cash that is immediately leaving the estate, thus minimizing recoveries to US taxpayers), a $1 million confirmation fee, a $1 million sale fee (the two are not exclusive), a 1%/3%/5% financing fee (i.e., Imperial arranges follow through financing, although good luck with that), and so on. In other news, should this bankruptcy stretch for more than the usual 1 year period from filing to emergence, US taxpayers will be on the hook for another roughly $3 million, in order to hire a banker whose ultimate value added will be an "orderly" liquidation of the company.

You know what they say: A million here, a million there, and sooner or later there’s no money left...

(Malkin via DP, Goldman via Glenn)

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September Blog•Meet query

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