You are invited to a reading and to meet Danny Schechter next Monday — 12/15/08, at the Half King Bar & Restaurant (a Chelsea institution) as part of their reading series. To listen to some of their past readings/podcasts, click here.

Editors Note: Danny is not the type of person to place himself before the “news.” However, it is vital to alert the NewsDissector.com readers of this event because his book, “Plunder,” will do for the economy/global financial market and the administration of “43″ what “Fahrenheit 9/11″ accomplished for the the “war.”

Rant by Steve Fournier: “How could he be so reckless, when he’s already under suspicion, as to offer Obama’s senate seat to the high bidder?

It seems reckless to ordinary citizens, but public officials are not like us. Government is a racket, as they know, and cautious, law-abiding people don’t make good racketeers. Hence the governor’s surfeit of confidence: he was just doing what was expected of him as a corrupt public official.”

JESSE JACKSON JR SAYS HE IS NOT A TARGET OF PROBE
OBAMA SAYS ROD SHOULD GO
OVERSIGHT OF BAILOUT FAULTED

Think of politics as a favor bank. ‘I help you, you help me’ is the mantra. That’s the real cesspool that “pols” fall into; compromising whatever values that led them into “public service” to get deals done. Remember the axiom: “Don’t go to a whore house if you don’t want to…” Politics is a business and cynicism is its religion. Self-interest is pervasive. Some office holders know how to be discreet; others don’t.

What was unique in this developing soap operate is how pathetically stupid the good Governor in the Land of Lincoln was. He will soon, no doubt, be sharing a cell with his predecessor.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. Rejects All Insinuations

WASHINGTON – Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. says he is not a target of the investigation that led to this week’s arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. A lawyer for Jackson acknowledged Wednesday that the Illinois Democrat is the so-called Senate Candidate 5 in the federal complaint against Blagojevich.

Wiretapped conversations indicated that Blagojevich felt the candidate would raise campaign money for him in exchange for being appointed to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Jackson told reporters in Washington he spoke with the U.S. attorney’s office Tuesday. He says he was told he is not a target of investigation and isn’t accused of any misconduct.

Obama Wants Rod Out

President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday joined others calling for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign, distancing himself further from the unfolding scandal over allegations that the governor schemed to barter Obama’s vacant Senate seat for personal gain.

“The president-elect agrees with Lt. Gov. (Pat) Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois,” Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said in response to questions from The Associated Press.

Background On Obama -Blagojevich Relationship — Questions Arise About the Obama/Blagojevich Relationship

“Obviously like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the US attorney’s office today,” said President-elect Obama this afternoon in Chicago, speaking of the criminal complaint against Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for corruption. “But as this is a ongoing investigation involving the governor I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time.”

CHICAGO MAGAZINE: MORE ON ROD’S POLITICAL STYLE

• His guns-blazing, iron-fisted style with state legislators has resulted in all-out war and, consequently, political gridlock. Blagojevich doesn’t want to make deals; he wants a dogfight.

• He picked bad enemies and possibly even worse friends.

• He has never shifted his mindset from campaign mode to the reality of governing—favoring grandstanding photo ops and public-relations blitzes to the serious policy duties of the office.

• He has failed to right the state’s fiscal ship, in large part because of his dogmatic refusal to raise income or sales taxes.

• The credibility factor: Lawmakers and voters don’t trust Blagojevich—he has broken or reneged on too many promises.

• The buck doesn’t stop with Rod. He never accepts blame for his—or his administration’s—mistakes.

• How rude! Even some of the governor’s friends gripe about his chronic tardiness, his absenteeism in Springfield, and his enduring aversion to returning phone calls.

WAS HE SET UP? MORE ON ROD’S FALL AFTER HE ATTACKED BANK OF AMERICA

“I do not care what the Illinois Governor did or how much sun shine’s out of Fitz’s a%$. Someone in the the DOJ and someone even higher up in the Bush administration gave the prosecutor the green light to arrest Gov. Rod Blagojevich today because yesterday the Democratic governor dared to f*&# with one of the high holies of the Republican business community, a company that had recently been anointed with $25,000,000,000.00 [billion] blessed tax payers’ dollars — Bank of America. And no one in the United States messes with Big Business and lives to tell about it.

ENTER JP MORGAN CHASE: OFFERS HELP TO WORKERS

CHICAGO (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co offered $400,000 on Wednesday to help pay severance to laid-off workers occupying a Chicago factory, whose protest has come to symbolize resentment over the federal bailout of big banks while workers suffer.

JPMorgan Chase’s offer, announced by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who has been mediating the dispute, follows on Bank of America Corp’s pledge to make an unspecified, limited loan to Republic Windows & Doors on behalf of the 250 workers.

Both banks are creditors of Republic, a family-owned window and door manufacturer that fell victim to the housing downturn and shut down on Friday.

MEDIA ANGLE - Some Questions for Tribune (and Sam Zell): CJR’s roadmap to the Blagojevich complaint By Clint Hendler

On Monday, Tribune Company, the jobs-shedding media conglomerate, filed for bankruptcy, casting a heavy cloud over its future.

But then came Tuesday, and the two count federal criminal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, which describes an attempt by the governor and his chief of staff, John Harris, to leverage at least $100 million in state funds for the Chicago Cubs—owned by Tribune Company since 1981—in exchange for changes to the paper’s editorial page, possibly including firing the entire board.

What was Tribune’s response to this corrupt bargain? We don’t know. But, according to Harris’ reports to his boss, it wasn’t a plain, firm, “No.”

That, along side the rest of the complaint, raises a lot of uncomfortable questions to which Zell presumably knows the answers. Until we hear from him, the implications aren’t pretty.

FT: US Treasury urged to step up scrutiny of rescued banks

The US Treasury should more closely scrutinise banks receiving public capital to ensure the money is being used to support the economy and not hoarded, a watchdog said on Wednesday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel said the Treasury had not adequately answered basic questions about the $700bn Troubled Assets Relief Program, including what the administration’s strategy was and why this had changed so abruptly from one based on asset purchases to one based on capital injections.

Soon after the legislation was passed, the Treasury announced a plan to invest in bank equity and on November 12 Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, said the government was no longer proceeding with the purchase plan.

REPUBLICANS THREATENING TO BLOCK AUTO RESCUE BILL

NYT: WASHINGTON — Even as House Democrats pressed for a vote Wednesday afternoon on a government rescue of the automobile industry, the Bush administration failed to generate enough support for the measure among Senate Republicans who have the power to kill the bill, dimming the prospects for the $15 billion plan.

The White House chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, attended a weekly lunch of Republican senators in an effort to persuade them to support the auto rescue plan. But he encountered stiff resistance. Some senators said the automakers should be allowed to go into bankruptcy while others said the White House plan for a car czar was weak.

Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, and one of the few outspoken Republican supporters of a government rescue for the auto industry, emerged from the lunch and suggested there was little hope that the bill could be approved. He said that even substantial changes to the bill may not change the minds of many colleagues.

The Libertarians are also up in arms:

“It’s insanity,” says Libertarian Party spokesperson Andrew Davis. “It’s insane that we keep going back to the taxpayers to bailout struggling corporations who, for lack of good management and sound business practices, have become unprofitable. Who in Congress is standing up for the taxpayers? Where are the Republicans, who claim they stand for the free market? Where are the Democrats, who claim they oppose corporate welfare?”

WHY THIS BIAS AGAINST THE INDUSTRY? Joe Conason explores the issue in NY Observer

Why is it that most Americans oppose federal assistance to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, which must be worrying news for members of Congress as they ponder whether to support the proposed $15 billion emergency loan package. Political analysts warn of the consequences for lawmakers who support the “bailout everyone loves to hate.”

Like any survey that asks people to answer simply yes or no, however, the polling on the auto bailout reveals little or nothing about the information (or misinformation) behind the negative response. As they prepare to vote, the legislators should also consider how voters will feel when the nation suffers the full consequences of a cratering auto industry—and find out that the facts were not quite what they seemed to be.

Media coverage of the auto crisis has been powerfully biased against assistance to the industry, in part because reporters, editors and TV producers—not to mention the corporate owners—have yet to shed the outdated free-market fundamentalism that has shaped American journalism for so many years. The worst example in recent weeks has been the constant repetition of skewed statistics on auto worker compensation, which was said to exceed $70 per hour.

Such stories were meant to emphasize the supposed greed of the unionized workforce. Yet that $70-plus figure, which actually includes pensions and health benefits to retirees, grossly distorted what Detroit’s assembly mechanics receive in their weekly paychecks. And it most certainly stoked hostility to those workers and the industry among Americans who listened to the crude propaganda - [myth debunked here and here].

INDUSTRY MAP - Here is a map from USA Today on how the auto industry affects the economy:

REAL NEWS: PETER SCHIFF OPPOSES STIMULUS