Angry taxpayers burn bank execs in effigy, demand end to using bailout dollars to fight bank reform

Remember those summer protests against healthcare reform, when angry conservatives overwhelmed congressional town hall meetings with accusations that President Obama was a closet socialist?

Well, apparently the Right does not have a lock on voter rage.

Today, for the third day in a row, taxpayers, mobilized against the big banks for taking $17.8 trillion in government bailout money and then using some of it to lobby against reforms, are gathering at the American Bankers Assn.'s annual meeting in Chicago.

True, these are organized protests, spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and other advocacy groups that support the White House effort to enact reforms.

Still, the protesters are making a splash. Yesterday they took over the lobby of Goldman Sachs headquarters in the Windy City, demanding the dismantling of banks deemed "too big to fail."

And Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin joined the protests, urging voters "to push back" against the business lobby's efforts to fight financial reform.

Inside the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, industry officials defended their practices. "You did not make any abusive subprime loans; you did not take big bonuses for products that later blew up," ABA President Edward Yingling said during his opening remarks, blaming a few bad apples for last fall's financial collapse. "We can never again let bad actors and bad policies create a financial disaster."

-- Johanna Neuman

Click here and get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us  @latimestot  Also on Facebook here.

Photo: Reuters

What Obama's trying (Applause) to tell union folks these days (Applause)

After narrowly escaping a roundtable discussion with workers in Ohio today, President Obama flew into Pittsburgh to address the AFL-CIO convention.

And he turned it into something of a pep rally. Or a coach's halftime locker room talk without the garbage can kicking. Obama needed 10 thank you's just to quiet the crowd before he said a word. He claimed to be blushing. Think they like him?

We said Tuesday morning the president was returning to the campaign trail and, boy, did he ever in Pittsburgh. You'd have thought the election was tomorrow and Obama was delivering the gospel.

The president recalled the bad economic times of last winter, as if they're over. He mentioned a huge federal deficit he inherited. He hailed the economic stimulus package that his administration wanted and obedient Democrats pushed through Congress and assured everyone it "didn't include any of the usual Washington earmarks or pork-barrel spending." A remarkable claim.

The president said he's stopped the country's "economic freefall." He said he would not allow the United States to return "to the culture of irresponsibility and greed" of recent years. He made his now familiar healthcare argument with the requisite sad worker story. He said the fundamental issue facing the country was whether it would become a nation of rich haves and middle class have-nots.

That he would not only save millions of jobs but create millions of new ones. And better educate all the children for the future. And free the nation from dependence on foreign oil. And create a new green industrial base.

Obama said his healthcare reforms were essential for America's future, urged the union members to make phone calls and knock on doors in support.

"We can't wait! We can't wait!" they chanted.

Yes, there was one heckler. But it wasn't about lying this time. "I love you!" they screamed. Obama returned the sentiment.

"Arm in arm," the president told the team, uh, audience, "we are going to get this done."

Once he had them fired up, Obama asked the crowd if it was fired up?

The audience replied in the affirmative. You can read it all below. And here's another Ticket item on the president's day in Pennsylvania.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Are you signed up? For Twitter alerts on every new Ticket item. Click here. Or follow us   @latimestot

Remarks by President Obama at the AFL-CIO convention, as provided by the White House

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, AFL-CIO. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.  Please, everybody have a seat.  Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much, everybody.  All right, you guys are making me blush. Thank you.

AUDIENCE:  Obama!  Obama!  Obama!  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much, everybody. You know, I tell you what, the White House is pretty nice, but there's nothing like being back in the House of Labor. (Applause.) Let me begin by recognizing a man who came to Washington to fight for the working men and women of Pennsylvania and who has a distinguished record of doing just that, Arlen Specter. (Applause.)

I want to give my thanks and the thanks of our nation to one of the great labor leaders of our time, a man whose entire life has been devoted to working people, who brought new life to a movement, who worked tirelessly on behalf of organized workers, and who will be stepping down tomorrow, your President, John Sweeney. (Applause.)  John, I know that Maureen is looking forward to seeing a little more of you, and your granddaughter Kennedy is about to get a whole lot more spoiled by her grandpa. But we are so proud of the work that you've done, and grateful for your lifetime of service.

I know it's bad luck to congratulate somebody before they are officially elected, but I'm going to....

Obama scripts town-hall meeting on health care. What would Bush say?

Remember when public opinion turned so dramatically against the Iraq war that the White House only let invited guests attend George W. Bush's out-of-town speeches?

Well it seems like the same thing might be happening to President Obama's healthcare proposal.

As the Ticket reported yesterday, Obama answered questions at a town hall at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., about protecting the uninsured, giving consumers a public option and converting medical records from paper to digital files. The White House portrayed the town-hall meeting as one in a series of public outreach events, a way for the president to keep his finger on the pulse of public opinion, and in turn to sway Americans on the complex and contentious issue.

This morning, the Washington Post is reporting that "of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for 'tweets.' " And the three audience members he called on randomly? The Post says "all turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee."

None of this would surprise any good White House advance staffer. Better to control the crowd, screen the questions, anticipate the topics. And, to be fair, a college campus in a Democratic county might be expected to produce friendly questioners.

The problem is that Obama himself made an issue of transparency, promising an administration that allowed the public to see what its government was doing. In fact on Jan. 22, his first full day in office, Obama issued a series of executive orders instructing government agencies to open their files, saying, "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

So, naturally, reporters jumped on the apparent discrepancy, led by veteran Helen Thomas, a thorn in the side to many a presidential administration, and CBS' Chip Reid. See what you think.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, deflecting the criticism, protested that the White House was not trying to manage the questions. Thomas reminded him that the Obama administration, unlike its predecessors, calls reporters the night before a press conference to tell them they will be called on, a new way of managing the topics.

Waving off the criticism and arguing that the healthcare forum would be expansive, Gibbs asked the reporters how they could make the case that the White House is muffling dissent when "you haven't heard the questions."

"It doesn't matter. It's the process," Reid argued. "Even if there's a tough question, it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or who was screened or the question was screened."

With the president's popularity dropping from his stratospheric inaugural highs -- the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll this week found that Americans are evenly split, 48 to 48%, on how Obama is handling the deficit -- the White House may be just trying to improve his standing by controlling the optics.

Saving his healthcare plan might prove more difficult.

-- Johanna Neuman

Click here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot

Who's Steven Chu? Some aren't sure when White House's economic goodwill tour hits Midwest

As members of President Obama's Cabinet continue their tour across the country’s heartland today – pledging millions of dollars in help – the trip of Washington goodwill has left local residents feeling more than a little skeptical.

Take folks in Fort Wayne, Ind., the state’s second-largest city. An estimated 24,000 people in the surrounding four-county area rely on the auto industry for their livelihood. Think most of them recognized Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, when he stopped into town yesterday to tour a “green” energy company and speak to local leaders? Nope.

In fact, quite a few people were confused about why the White House would be sending out Chu to this northeastern stretch of the Hoosier State instead of … well … Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis or someone from the automotive task force.

It could have been stranger. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar spent yesterday talking about the economic benefits of parks and conservation – in Cleveland, Ohio. Yep, that’s right: Cleveland, the Rust Belt town that blossomed on the backs of steel mills and auto facilities, and where the Cuyahoga River itself has caught fire because of industrial pollution.

So Fort Wayne got Chu, a 61-year-old Nobel-prize winner who reminisced Tuesday about how he last visited Indiana when he was a college student – and promised that green energy would turn around the Hoosier economy.

Chu spent his morning touring WaterFurnace International Inc., a local maker of geothermal heating and cooling systems for homes and commercial facilities. As Chu walked across the factory floor with company executives, workers in blue shop shirts stopped to stare at the slight man in a crisp suit.

 “Who’s he?” murmured one woman standing on the assembly line.

“Some guy saying GM isn’t going to save us,” replied her co-worker.

Here comes card-check/EFCA: Another bipartisan bridge to nowhere

Big day today for heated controversy in D.C. Maybe you felt the heat on the side of your face facing East. And it's not going away for many months. Count on it.

Democrats, now obviously controlling Capitol Hill and the White House, introduced a long-promised, eagerly anticipated, much-dreaded, surely divisive, middle-class-encouraging, job-threatening piece of legislation in both houses to change the way American workers can opt for or against union representation at the plant.

Democrats call it the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA; store that one in your cranial RAM as you'll hear it often). Republicans and employers call it "card check." (Ditto.) Right now, in a vote to decide whether a plant will have a union, workers have the right to a secret ballot. (See amazing Teamsters news release below.) The unions and their supporters want a simple nonsecret card where workers could check "yes" or "no," likely in the presence of a persuasive union official.

Unions claim elections are costly and time-consuming, allowing employers to make a case against voting yes. Employers say two union officials showing up at a worker's door, asking him to....

Text of VP Biden's once-top-secret union speech (except still no cameras)

Vice President Joe Biden, who's been touting the Obama administration's commitment to government transparency so much that he couldn't remember the recovery.gov website name last week, gave a speech to the AFL-CIO's Executive Council today where few working people can afford to go -- the newly-redecorated Fontainebleu Hotel in Miami Beach. (Discount rooms available now online for $399 -- each night.)

And the vice president's appearance brought a whole new level of opacity to transparency.

The vice president's remarks were originally closed to all media. Outcry. According to some sources, the VP's office felt the pressure and agreed to allow a pool of print reporters and the usual White House transcript. But still no cameras for a replayable video record of remarks to one of the administration's largest group of supporters who want the card-check legislation passed (suspending secret ballots on union affiliations).

Then the questions, stoked as always by idle, bored reporters barred from the scene. Whose idea was the closed session? The union said the VP. The VP said the union. The union then said it was a joint decision. Play it safe.

Here's a Biden quote: "Mr. President, you know, you go home with them that brung you to the dance. Well, you all brought me to the dance a long time ago. And it's time we start dancing, man. It's time we start dancing. (Applause.)"

So you can easily understand why the Democratic administration would want to keep such hugely embarrassing comments secret. Say what?

That (Applause.) line appears at the end of many, many paragraphs. They love the guy, according to the transcript, which we're publishing below in its entirety. How embarrassing for a new Democratic presidency to be seen as popular among labor leaders.

This is the transcript that nobody would have given a fig about. Except the Triple-A league move of a rookie White House. Even the most scatter-brained teenager quickly figures out, it's the closed room door that makes parents most want to enter.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo: Fontainebleau Hotel

President Obama touts transportation jobs, unveils 'recovery' emblem

The market was in free fall, the Dow on Monday falling to 50% below its peak in 2007.

The housing market was sinking, with the National Assn. of Realtors reporting today that seasonally adjusted pending U.S. home sales in January sank to a record low, falling 7.7%.

And the unemployment rate was inching toward double digits, already far past that in places like Detroit.

So today President Obama went to the Transportation Department to tout the job-creating benefits of his just-signed $787-billion stimulus plan. Flanked by Vice President Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Obama said that the recovery plan would unleash 200 new infrastructure construction projects within the next few weeks, creating 150,000 jobs by the end of next year, most in the private sector:

I want to begin with some plain talk. The economy's performance in the last quarter of 2008 was the worst in over 25 years, and frankly, the first quarter of this year holds out little promise for better returns. From Wall Street to Main Street, to kitchen tables all across America, our economic challenge is clear.

Two weeks after signing the bill, Obama came to the DOT to mark the release of $26.6 billion in recovery funds to states and local transportation authorities. Urging Americans to "hold us to account" by tracking projects on www.recovery.gov, Obama said, "Shovels are hitting the dirt."

Your Money at Work from White House on Vimeo.

And just in case taxpayers miss it, he also unveiled a new "recovery" emblem that will mark those new projects improving highways, bridges, high speed train service and Internet connections. It's a round, red-white-blue-and-green symbol that features a leafy branch and some stars from the American flag.

Read the White House fact sheet below on transportation jobs.

-- Johanna Neuman

We can stay in touch with us by registering here for alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo Credit: White House

Word for word: A look at an actual Obama Executive Order

Yes, yes, we're a little late with this one.

But because The Ticket, like all good Americans, wants to help the Obama administration promote its much-promised record government transparency, we're going to print an entire recent Executive Order here.

That way everyone can all understand what's going on in Washington while we're busy not spending much money because the president scared us so much with his continued dire economic talk Monday and Monday night.

This'll be an occasional new feature on The Ticket, printing an entire official document so everyone can see for themselves. So make of this what you will. And be sure to let us know what you think below:

EXECUTIVE ORDER: USE OF PROJECT LABOR AGREEMENTS FOR FEDERAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, 40 U.S.C. 101 et seq., and in order to promote the efficient administration and completion of Federal construction projects, it is hereby ordered that:

Section 1. Policy. (a) Large-scale construction projects pose special challenges to efficient and timely procurement by the Federal Government. Construction employers typically do not have a permanent workforce, which makes it difficult for them to predict labor costs when bidding on contracts and to ensure a steady supply of labor on contracts being performed. Challenges also arise due to the fact that construction projects typically involve multiple employers at a single location. A labor dispute involving one employer can delay the entire project. A lack of coordination among various employers, or uncertainty about the terms and conditions of employment of various groups of workers, can create frictions and disputes in the absence of an agreed-upon resolution mechanism. These problems threaten the efficient and timely completion of construction projects undertaken by Federal contractors. On larger projects, which are generally more complex and of longer duration, these problems tend to be more pronounced.

(b) The use of a project labor agreement may prevent these problems from developing by providing structure and stability to large-scale construction projects, thereby promoting the efficient and expeditious completion of Federal construction contracts. Accordingly, it is the policy of....

Dramatic tapes of Hilda Solis-White House emergency radio chatter

In an amazing news coincidence, on the very same day as the US Air Flight 1549 emergency radio tapes were released, The Ticket has exclusively obtained the tapes of recent emergency radio conversations between ground traffic controllers with the Obama administration's White House and Rep. Hilda Solis.

She's the California House member and secretary of Labor-designate whose confirmation is before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Hers is the latest Obama Cabinet nomination in trouble over tax issues. Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer have already gone under the bus.

The dramatic tape excerpts tell a compelling story of confused but calm determination and political professionalism during the sudden tax emergency and unexpected descent this week. Here are the exchanges between Solis and the White House:

HS: We had a problem on takeoff. Flew into a flock of liens.

WH: Of what?

HS: Liens. Tax liens. My husband has more than 6,000 in unpaid business taxes.

WH: That's a lot of faxes!

HS: No, not faxes. Taxes. You know, like money. That regular people pay to government.

WH: We've heard of that.

HS: It was an accident. An unintentional oversight.

WH: We've heard of that too.

HS: For about 16 years.

WH: Oh.

HS: Yes.

WH: How long have you been in public office?

HS: For about 16 years.

WH: Oh.

HS: What should we do?

WH: Well, you could pay the taxes.

HS: OK. OK. Hadn't thought of that. I suppose we could.

But won't it look funny to not pay 15 tax liens over 16 years? And then suddenly the day before the committee's scheduled vote we pay them? What if USA Today goes poking around?

WH: They wouldn't do that. The newspapers are all wrapped up in Sunday's Pro Bowl.

HS: OK, we'll pay the taxes Wednesday and say we're gonna appeal them.

WH: Good. Then Thursday we'll have the press secretary say that your own taxes are just fine. They are, aren't they? And no decent American would want to penalize a hard-working wife for her husband's mistakes. It worked for what's-her-name up in New York.

HS: But I'm worried about Thursday's vote.

WH: We'll get the unions to turn up the heat on committee members. We've got the majority. We'll be fine.

HS: OK, good.

WH: We'll be OK as long as there's no last-minute postponement of the vote.

HS: What about a boat?

WH: You'll need one if you go in the river.

--Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of votes, cast yours here to register for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are available over here. And we're now on Kindle as well.

Photo credit: Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images

Pelosi: More Americans to lose jobs than there are Americans

President Barack Obama, in an apparent effort to push his embattled economic stimulus package, has taken to opening virtually every public statement with some powerfully convincing new dire economic statistic, such that some of us have stopped spending altogether.

Now, at a session with Washington reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked if pushing that stimulus package for signing-in time for Presidents Day was perhaps rushing things a bit.  And the California representative took her recession cheerleading to a thoroughly depressing new level.

She predicted that if legislators didn't hurry with the plan, more Americans would lose their jobs than there are Americans -- 500 million.  (Listen for yourself on the video below.)  "I don't think we can go fast enough," she added.

According to the Census Bureau's Population Clock, total U.S. population this afternoon is coming up on 306.8 million.  Meaning that without the Great Change Agent's economic plans, unborn generations of fellow citizens already have hopeless lives laid out for them even before their conception.  What's the point of anything anymore?

She probably just misspoke out of her excitement over the current bad news.  Millions.  Thousands. What's the difference once you're in D.C. in these days of trillions?  Or she was kidding.  Or just being Pelosibolic.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of jobs, yours is to register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item.  RSS feeds are also available here.  And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.