The Big Takeover

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution

It's over — we're officially, royally f***ed. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

The Dirty Dozen: Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis - and the officials who let them get away with it.

The latest bailout came as AIG admitted to having just posted the largest quarterly loss in American corporate history — some $61.7 billion. In the final three months of last year, the company lost more than $27 million every hour. That's $465,000 a minute, a yearly income for a median American household every six seconds, roughly $7,750 a second. And all this happened at the end of eight straight years that America devoted to frantically chasing the shadow of a terrorist threat to no avail, eight years spent stopping every citizen at every airport to search every purse, bag, crotch and briefcase for juice boxes and explosive tubes of toothpaste. Yet in the end, our government had no mechanism for searching the balance sheets of companies that held life-or-death power over our society and was unable to spot holes in the national economy the size of Libya (whose entire GDP last year was smaller than AIG's 2008 losses).

So it's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity. And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial — we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream. When Geithner announced the new $30 billion bailout, the party line was that poor AIG was just a victim of a lot of shitty luck — bad year for business, you know, what with the financial crisis and all. Edward Liddy, the company's CEO, actually compared it to catching a cold: "The marketplace is a pretty crummy place to be right now," he said. "When the world catches pneumonia, we get it too." In a pathetic attempt at name-dropping, he even whined that AIG was being "consumed by the same issues that are driving house prices down and 401K statements down and Warren Buffet's investment portfolio down."

Liddy made AIG sound like an orphan begging in a soup line, hungry and sick from being left out in someone else's financial weather. He conveniently forgot to mention that AIG had spent more than a decade systematically scheming to evade U.S. and international regulators, or that one of the causes of its "pneumonia" was making colossal, world-sinking $500 billion bets with money it didn't have, in a toxic and completely unregulated derivatives market.

Nor did anyone mention that when AIG finally got up from its seat at the Wall Street casino, broke and busted in the afterdawn light, it owed money all over town — and that a huge chunk of your taxpayer dollars in this particular bailout scam will be going to pay off the other high rollers at its table. Or that this was a casino unique among all casinos, one where middle-class taxpayers cover the bets of billionaires.

People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout.

The mistake most people make in looking at the financial crisis is thinking of it in terms of money, a habit that might lead you to look at the unfolding mess as a huge bonus-killing downer for the Wall Street class. But if you look at it in purely Machiavellian terms, what you see is a colossal power grab that threatens to turn the federal government into a kind of giant Enron — a huge, impenetrable black box filled with self-dealing insiders whose scheme is the securing of individual profits at the expense of an ocean of unwitting involuntary shareholders, previously known as taxpayers.

For Matt Taibbi's complete report, including the people behind the crash and a look at those who stand to profit from it, check out Issue 1075 of Rolling Stone.

Estelle Getty of 'Golden Girls' dies at 84

Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica.

"She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived."

"The Golden Girls," featuring four female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older viewers.

Three of its stars had already appeared in previous series: Bea Arthur in "Maude," Betty White in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rue McClanahan in "Mama's Family." The last character to be cast was Sophia Petrillo, the feisty 80-something mother of Arthur's character.

When she auditioned, Getty was appearing on stage in Hollywood as the carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy." In her early 60s, she flunked her "Golden Girls" test twice because it was believed she didn't look old enough to play 80.

"I could understand that," she told an interviewer a year after the show debuted. "I walk fast, I move fast, I talk fast."

She came prepared for the third audition, however, wearing dowdy clothes and telling an NBC makeup artist, "To you this is just a job. To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look 80." The artist did, Getty got the job and won two Emmys.

It culminated a long struggle for success during which Getty worked low-paying office jobs to help support her family while she tried to make it as a stage actress.

"I knew I could be seduced by success in another field, so I'd say, 'Don't promote me, please,'" she recalled.

She also appeared in small parts in a handful of films and TV movies during that time, including "Tootsie," "Deadly Force" and "Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story."

After her success in "The Golden Girls," other roles came her way. She played Cher's mother in "Mask," Sylvester Stallone's in "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" and Barry Manilow's in the TV film "Copacabana." Other credits included "Mannequin" and "Stuart Little" (as the voice of Grandma Estelle).

"The Golden Girls," which ran from 1985 to 1992, was an immediate hit, and Sophia, who began as a minor character, soon evolved into a major one.

Audiences particularly loved the verbal zingers Getty would hurl at the other three. When McClanahan's libidinous character Blanche once complained that her life was an open book, Sophia shot back, "Your life's an open blouse."

Getty had gained a knack for one-liners in her late teens when she did standup comedy at a Catskills hotel. Female comedians were rare in those days, however, and she bombed.

Undeterred, she continued to pursue a career in entertainment, and while her parents were encouraging, her father also insisted that she learn office skills so she would have something to fall back on.

Born Estelle Scher to Polish immigrants in New York, Getty fell in love with theater when she saw a vaudeville show at age 4.

She married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman (the source of her stage name) in 1947, and they had two sons, Carl and Barry. The marriage prevailed despite her long absences on the road and in "The Golden Girls."

Getty was evasive about her height, acknowledging only that she was "under 5 feet and under 100 pounds."

In addition to her son Carl, Getty is survived by son Barry Gettleman, of Miami; a brother, David Scher of London; and a sister, Rosilyn Howard of Las Vegas.

http://tv.yahoo.com/show/30728/news/urn:newsml:tv.ap.org:20080722:obit_getty

Only one Starbucks closure brewing for Arizona

The Valley has dodged the Starbucks bullet, at least so far.

According to a list, released Friday, detailing the locations of 600 stores the coffee purveyor is set to close, just one Arizona store will close; the Eloy location at 4985 N. Sunland Gin Road.

In comparison, 88 California stores are set to close and 19 in Washington state .

Exact dates for store closings haven't been set, but closures will begin this month and continue through next year, according to the company.

And although it released a detailed list Friday, the Seattle-based company said that list could change depending on market factors or other events.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) said it be closing the stores as a way to improve performance across its retail network.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/07/14/daily67.html

Hall of a parade: New and old, all-stars ride high in New York

Bob Gibson wore a smile, rather than a scowl.

Known for throwing hard, high and tight, the no-nonsense pitcher presented a much different face Tuesday. He waved to thousands of fans and beamed for their snapshots as a parade of Hall of Famers rolled through midtown Manhattan in a prelude to the all-star game.

Hey Gibby, going soft on us at 72? Not even one glare for the crowd?

"I really am getting tired of it," the St. Louis Cardinals great said. He was joking, sort of.

"I didn't do half the things they said I did," he said. "They said I was always knocking guys down and hitting guys. But I won a game or two in there."

Gibson and Gary Carter rode together for the 1 1/2-mile route up the Avenue of the Americas - and down baseball's memory lane.

Yogi Berra, George Brett and 40-some Hall of Famers took part, too, sitting in the back of shiny pickup trucks. The two-hour procession included the present stars playing in Tuesday night's showcase at Yankee Stadium.

Bob Feller recalled the first all-star game held at the big ballyard in the Bronx - it was 1939, and the 20-year-old fireballer threw 3 2-3 scoreless innings to preserve an AL win.

On that day, the men who would become monuments were on the field. Joe DiMaggio homered and an ill Lou Gehrig was an honorary captain.

"I was not much in awe," said Feller, the oldest living Hall player at 89. "I had good stuff that day. I threw that overhand high fastball out of the bleachers. We figured the National League hitters hadn't seen it."

Outside of Cooperstown, baseball hadn't seen such a galaxy of stars for quite a while.

Fans who were at Fenway Park for the 1999 all-star game still rave about the scene that night for a rousing salute to Ted Williams. Canadian tough guy Larry Walker teared up, Mark McGwire leaned in for a listen and Tony Gwynn steadied Williams for the ceremonial first pitch.

Then again, all-star games often are about moments more than results. Reggie Jackson hitting the light tower, Cal Ripken homering in his final game, Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse.

Baseball hoped this blend of old and new would create a lasting image at a ballpark in its last season.

Gibson spent very little time at Yankee Stadium.

"Only pitched there once," he said, matter of factly.

The part he left out: That one time was Game 5 of the 1964 World Series, when he struck out 13 while going the distance in a 10-inning win.

Hank Aaron gladly shared his favourite memory at the park - Milwaukee winning Game 7 of the 1957 World Series for his only championship. That was about enough time in New York for him.

"This is not the easiest city to play in," Aaron said. "You can't shuck 'n jive the people in this city."

On this sunny afternoon, everyone got an easy ride.

Berra and Whitey Ford sat together, and it was fitting. They were the starting battery for the 1960 all-star game at Yankee Stadium.

Robin Yount and Paul Molitor rode with each other, recalling their days with the Brewers. Jim Palmer and Earl Weaver shared the same pickup. Naturally, the need-to-be-perfect pitcher and his often-ornery manager sat with their backs to each other.

New Hall electees Goose Gossage and Dick Williams drew cheers.

"I'm done writing my speech, it's about 10 minutes long. I hope I make it through," Williams said. "Tony Gwynn told me don't look at anyone in your family or you might not make it."

Plenty of fans were on hand for the parade, standing four and five deep as the players rode past Radio City Music Hall. A Cardinals rooter called out to Ozzie Smith for one more all-star performance.

"Too old, man," the Wizard said, rubbing his back.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqiVIWhbA_QE9rgMbyjgMS0xCNHA

Willie Randolph attending All-Star Game as George Steinbrenner's guest

Willie Randolph will be a part of Tuesday night's celebration after all.

Removed from the NL coaching staff after he was fired as Mets manager following their June 16 game in Los Angeles, Randolph will attend the All-Star Game as a personal guest of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

Accompanied by his wife Gretchen, Randolph arrived just before 6 p.m., but steamed past a cluster of reporters waiting outside the Press Gate without commenting. He gave no response to questions from the Daily News asking if he was glad to be back at the Stadium.

The Boss also arrived about 20 minutes later, but he was surrounded by about a dozen NYPD officers. He put his weight on one of them as he also entered the Stadium without commenting to the media. Steinbrenner, who was slated to be honored by MLB and the Yankees before Tuesday night's game, smiled when someone in the crowd yelled out "We love you George."

Randolph played 13 seasons for the Yanks, making five All-Star teams and helping win back-to-back championships in 1977 and 1978, before earning four more rings as a third-base coach under Joe Torre.

"(Steinbrenner) has deep affection for him," Yanks spokesman Howard Rubenstein said. "They're still very good friends. George was delighted that he agreed to come and help celebrate the great moments in the history of Yankee Stadium."

Randolph will not be seated in Steinbrenner's personal box, but he is expected to be situated in a luxury suite on the Club level.

“That’s good. He should be here,” Mets closer Billy Wagner said. “Everyone knows he’s always going to be a Yankee. It’s good. He should be represented and honored for what he’s done. He’s a great Yankee.”

Fellow All-Star David Wright said he hasn’t spoken to Randolph since he was fired, but has exchanged several phone messages, including a “Good luck” wish from his former skipper Tuesday afternoon.

"He actually just left me a message just today,” Wright said. “It’s good for Willie. He’s obviously earned the right to come and participate in the last All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

“I consider Willie a very close friend of mine. He’s done tremendous things for my career. I’ll be forever grateful. I’ll keep in touch with him for as long as he wants to keep in touch with me.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/15/2008-07-15_willie_randolph_attending_allstar_game_a.html

Fulfilling the need: Remote Area Medical treats hundreds at Heritage Middle

At 1:40 a.m., while most people in Blount County were asleep comfortably in their beds, Brenda Moore and hundreds of others were lined up in front of Heritage Middle School, just hoping their pre-dawn arrival had been early enough.

Remote Area Medical (RAM) -- an organization that provides free medical services for un- and under-insured individuals through volunteer doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from all over the country -- held a free clinic in Blount County Saturday and today. The group offered free medical, vision and dental services for people who could not afford them otherwise.

But the doors did not open until 6 a.m. -- hours after Moore arrived.

At about 3 p.m. -- more than 14 hours after she got to the school -- Moore was still waiting to see a dentist about her troublesome wisdom teeth. But the wait was worth it, she said, because otherwise there was no way she could afford the work she needed done.

"I think (the RAM clinic) is wonderful," she said. "So many of us just cannot afford to take off of work to go to a dentist."

Getting to Heritage Middle School as early as she did, Moore was still not the first person in line.

"Guess what my number was," she said. "134. At 1:40 in the morning."

People from as far away as Kentucky -- and some even farther than that -- made their way to the clinic Saturday. The sheer number of people in need of medical care was a shock for Moore, and it speaks to a larger problem, she said.

That problem: People need help.

"That should be the eye-opener right there," Moore said.

Within three hours of opening, the number of people seeking help overwhelmed the clinic, and staff had to stop accepting new patients. People turned away Saturday were told to come back today. Bill Hogan, president-elect of the Alcoa Kiwanis Club, said 499 people came through the doors Saturday. An additional 300 people, at least, are expected today.

"You obviously see what the need is," he said. "There's a fantastic need.

"And I think that's unrealized."

The clinic was organized by the three Blount County Kiwanis Clubs -- Alcoa, Maryville and Foothills.

Ed Kelly, a dentist from the Atlanta area, drove up Friday night and arrived at the school at about 5:30 a.m. He learned about Remote Area Medical from a TV report on "60 Minutes".

Organizers told Kelly and other volunteers to expect a lot of people. But hearing that, and seeing hundreds of people in desperate need of medical assistance who lined up before sunrise, well, those are completely different things.

"It still hits you," Kelly said. "It opens your eyes.

"It makes you see what real need is."

Kenyatta Manns, an emergency room RN from George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C., came down to Blount County, on her own time, to volunteer in this weekend's RAM clinic.

Like Kelly, Manns said the number of people seeking help was staggering.

"I'm really overwhelmed," she said. "The need is just so great."

Zena Marashi, a senior nursing student at Knoxville's South College, was at the clinic volunteering Saturday. Since the doors opened at 6 a.m., "it's pretty much been non-stop," she said.

It's busy and it's exhausting, she said. But as long as people were still sitting in the bleachers waiting for their turn in the dentist's chair, being tired just didn't matter.

"It's like you're tired, but you feel bad for being tired," she said.

There were dentist's who had been on their feet all day long, but wouldn't take a break because that meant someone in the crowd had to wait even longer for care, Marashi said.

"It's astonishing how many people need (care)," she said. "It's really sad.

"Our country is so great in so many ways, but it doesn't seem to want to reach out to people (needing medical care)," she said. "We're still in the stone age in that regard, and it's sad."

Professionals who donated their time for the clinic -- who Marashi called "wonderful people" -- had not uttered a complaint the entire day, even though working on teeth at a middle school gymnasium was less than optimal, she said.

Moore -- who also called the medical professionals "wonderful people" -- said she was treated wonderfully by everyone at the clinic.

"All of them are so generous," she said. "They are so concerned about the patients.

"If my number comes up next, it was worth it to have gotten here at 1:40 this morning."

Hogan said organizers are planning on holding another clinic in 2010. But this weekend, this clinic, was a success, he said.

"Oh a great, great success."

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20080713/NEWS/630896589

Snow Brought a Measure of Dignity to White House

Even as he struggled with cancer, former White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters: "I'm a very lucky guy."

In fact, George Bush was lucky to have had Snow as his spokesman during the period when it became clear that, while Bush could not renew his failed presidency, he could be less of an embarrassment to himself and his country.

Snow was a true-believer Republican who, to a far greater extent than many of the people around the president, took seriously the work of communicating the ideas and ideals of the Bush-Cheney presidency to the American people.

Before he joined the administration, Snow had bluntly argued in a column that the president's "wavering conservatism has become an active concern among Republicans, who wish he would stop cowering under the bed and start fighting back against the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Wilson."

"The newly passive George Bush has become something of an embarrassment," concluded Snow.

To his credit, Bush's reaction to the criticism was to invite Snow to help him do a better job of explaining his views.

To Snow's credit, he accepted the offer.

The dynamic put Snow in a position to be more than just a mouthpiece. In an administration that has suffered from a surplus of "yes men" and "yes women," the veteran Detroit News writer and Fox News commentator joined Bush's inner circle as someone with self-respect -- and the president's respect.

That made the brief period when Snow served as White House press secretary in 2006 and 2007 a time that saw the administration display a measure of dignity. It was also a time when Bush began to put more distance between himself at the noxious influence of Vice President Cheney -- a process that continues to this day.

Unlike his predecessor, Scott McClellan, who has acknowledged that he was duped by the sleazier elements (Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney) in the White House, and his successor, Dana Perino, who might charitably be described as "ridiculous," Snow was a mature adult who was not going to be duped and who cared enough about his reputation to offer up a rare commodity from this administration: honesty.

Snow's death, at age 53, after a long struggle with cancer, robbed the party to which he was resolutely loyal and the movement to which he was sincerely committed of one of its most serious and effective communicators.

George Herbert Walker Bush, with whom Snow worked almost two decades ago, may have said it best when he recalled that, "(Tony Snow) won the respect of even those who violently disagree with the president's proposals and policies. For that I think he'll be remembered. He brought a certain civility to this very contentious job."

One does not need to have agreed with Tony Snow's political views to agree with the former president's assessment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080712/cm_thenation/1336564