Chicopee John Posted October 28, 2008 Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 First the NYT times prints a front-page critique of Obama's economic plan. It wasn't pretty. Look for the author and his/her editor get fired or get their wrist severley slapped. Now the sacred of sacred cows in CT and the Senate gets critiqued by the shill Hartford Courant. PS This is a NATIONAL, not a local story. 'Friends Of Angelo' Were VIPs, And Knew It Rick Green October 28, 2008 Sen. Dodd keeps trying to tell us how he is helping save America from the mortgage banker sleazebags but we can't forget the favors he got from the mortgage banker sleazebags. The senator is struggling to figure out why folks can't get over those no-big-deal mortgages handed out to the VIP friends of former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo. "It is what it is," Dodd said after a speech in Hartford. But a few days later — with The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Connecticut newspapers and bloggers piling on — "it is what it is" became an "ongoing inquiry." Rick Green Rick Green Bio | E-mail | Recent columns We're told that an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee prevents Dodd from releasing all of the juicy details about how the man who is now the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee saved a few bucks on a re-fi for homes on Main Street in East Haddam and in Washington, D.C. Never, during months of questions from reporters, did Dodd or his spokesman say it was the "ongoing inquiry" blocking his candor. Luckily, there is somebody from Countrywide who remembers plenty — and who is still talking. Former loan officer Robert Feinberg, who first spoke to Portfolio magazine about the VIP deal last summer, told me Monday that Dodd "absolutely" knew he was getting special treatment from Countrywide. "A senator becomes a high priority," Feinberg said. "He got the best of everything." Dodd has called the red carpet treatment "a courtesy," adding that "no one ever said to us you're going to get some special treatment." But Feinberg, who handled the "Friends of Angelo" for years and oversaw Dodd's two loans, said this wasn't some fast-track courtesy for a repeat customer. Dodd and his wife "knew they were in the program. Everybody knows they are in the program because you were giving them that sense of importance." "There isn't one person that was in my pipeline ... that didn't know they were getting VIP service. You are not being processed in the normal situation." "Friends of Angelo" would have fees waived and get special rates on loans not available to others unless they paid for it, Feinberg told me. Among FOAs, there was no bigger FOA than a high-ranking senator, Feinberg said. "FOA puts you at the highest status you can possibly get to. [Dodd] knew who he was. Everybody did. You are telling them what the discount they are getting is. You tell them they are getting special pricing from Angelo, special pricing as a VIP." Feinberg has said that the savings Dodd reaped on one loan would have saved him about "$77,000, if the loan was kept for a 30-year period of time." And those non-negotiable "fees" that lenders whack consumers with? Being a prominent politician and a leader on the Senate Banking Committee makes them disappear. "The fees that are waived are what we call lender fees; the world calls them junk fees or garbage fees. You are [waiving] document preparation, underwriting fees and processing fees." This saved Sen. Dodd "in the neighborhood" of $1,000 or $2,000, Feinberg has said. If this seems like small change, so was the hot tub at John Rowland's vacation cottage. "I wasn't offered deals, reduced rates or no fees. I wasn't treated like a customer, let alone a 'friend,'" said Steve Kutscher, a West Hartford homeowner who has a loan with Countrywide. "That privilege is reserved for an esteemed member of the Senate Banking Committee." "Just as Countrywide took my business for granted, Dodd takes the votes of constituents for granted," Kutscher said. "I don't know what makes me angrier, Dodd's arrogance or apparent malfeasance." People are mad, Senator. It's ongoing and it is what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. T Posted October 28, 2008 Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 maybe because there are a lot alike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicopee John Posted October 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 Why did you mention an article about Obama but paste an editorial about Dodd? Because both articles are extraordinary given their sources: The New York Times and The Hartford Courant, examples of 'newspapers' that would rather cease to exist - we can only hope - than betray their Moonbat heroes. I didn't think it would be that difficult to connect the dots. Another crack in the media show of solidarity for their chosen ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicopee John Posted October 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 So this is you admitting that your so called "liberal media" isn't really like Fox News after all? (Studies had already proven that. You're safe to read the real papers and watch the real news now.) No, Shep. And you didn't miss the obvious point. Fox has Colmes to keep things fair and balanced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencyguy Posted October 29, 2008 Report Share Posted October 29, 2008 So this is you admitting that your so called "liberal media" isn't really like Fox News after all? (Studies had already proven that. You're safe to read the real papers and watch the real news now.) No, Shep. And you didn't miss the obvious point. Fox has Colmes to keep things fair and balanced. I detest smileys, but that's the funniest line of the day. I like how the paper of record reporting news suddenly becomes "a crack in the dike"--exactly what major stories has the NYT been sitting on all these years? The magnificent economy? The smiles und sunshine in Iraq? The truth about 9/11? Does the NYT editorial page lean to the left? Sure it does, and fairly heavily--and it doesn't help that they essentially replaced an all-world conservative columnist like William Safire with a hack like Bill Kristol. But the editorial department is separate from the news department, and I don't know of any major stories that they've supressed for fear of upsetting their overlords, unless you count the "questions" about Obama's citizenship or nefarious Muslim ties. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicopee John Posted October 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2008 So this is you admitting that your so called "liberal media" isn't really like Fox News after all? (Studies had already proven that. You're safe to read the real papers and watch the real news now.) No, Shep. And you didn't miss the obvious point. Fox has Colmes to keep things fair and balanced. I detest smileys, but that's the funniest line of the day. Dennis Lighten up Dennis. It was intended to be that way !!!! This doesn't necessarily pertain to you but I laugh when libs say that conservatives are not funny. Actually, the truth is that liberals don't have a sense of humor unless it is 'sanctioned' by Comedy Central or SNL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted October 29, 2008 Report Share Posted October 29, 2008 So this is you admitting that your so called "liberal media" isn't really like Fox News after all? (Studies had already proven that. You're safe to read the real papers and watch the real news now.) Even the ACLU defends the Klan. Once in a great while... WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencyguy Posted October 29, 2008 Report Share Posted October 29, 2008 Fox has Colmes to keep things fair and balanced. I detest smileys, but that's the funniest line of the day. Dennis Lighten up Dennis. It was intended to be that way !!!! This doesn't necessarily pertain to you but I laugh when libs say that conservatives are not funny. Actually, the truth is that liberals don't have a sense of humor unless it is 'sanctioned' by Comedy Central or SNL. I was being serious when I said that was funny, and I thought that you might be joking, but I wasn't sure. My confusion came from the fact that I know people who are serious when they say that the fact that Colmes shows up for his nightly sodomizing is proof of FNC's fairness. As for humor, I dunno--I think that the "conservatives are humorless" thing comes from the fact that the highest-profile pundits are stuck in a perpetual state of moral outrage. That said, Rush Limbaugh did tell one of my favorite political jokes of all time: Dan Quayle, Ted Kennedy, and Bill Clinton all enter a spelling bee. Who wins? Quayle, because he's the only one who knows that "harass" is one word. I think that TDS has been a one-note show over the last couple of years, but I still watch on occassion because they play that one note pretty well. Then again, I'm boring, so I like it best when the person in question is witty rather than trying to tell a joke, which is why I always liked William F. Buckley and William Safire. Heck, even Scalia can be pretty funny in his opinion-writing when he's not throwing a hissy-fit. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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