Dan Quayle buys a bit o' Northern Ireland for £1bn

[seemslikeadream]

If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.


Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and a child.


It's wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.


I stand by all of the misstatements that I have made.


It isn't pollution that is harming the enviroment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.


I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix.


I beleive that we are on an irreversible trend towards freedom and democracy - but that could change.


Welcome to President Bush. Mrs. Bush and my fellow astronauts.


I have made some good judgements in the past. I have made some good judgements in the future.

Dan Quayle
last updated: August 06, 2012

Former U.S. Vice President
Project for the New American Century: Founding Member
Hudson Institute: Honorary Trustee Emeritus
Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.
Former vice president and presidential candidate James Danforth "Dan" Quayle, best known for his verbal gaffes and adherence to conservative family values while in office, chairs the global investments division of Cereberus Capital Management.[1] Quayle is also a trustee emeritus at the Hudson Institute, one of several neoconservative groups he has supported over the years.

Quayle entered politics in the early 1970s, serving in the Indiana Attorney General's office and later for Governor Edgar Whitcomb. According to his official biography, his "political career began when he was elected to the United States Congress in 1976 at age 29. He was elected to the United States Senate at age 33. On January 20, 1989 he took the oath of office as the 44th Vice President of the United States at age 41."[2]

His bio continues, "In his constitutional role as Vice President, Dan Quayle served as president of the United States Senate. On February 9, 1989, President Bush named Dan Quayle head of the Council on Competitiveness, which worked to ensure US international competitiveness in the 21st century. He made official visits to 47 countries, was chairman of the National Space Council, and served as President Bush's point man on Capitol Hill."[3]

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) says that during his political career Quayle "enjoyed particularly cozy relationships with corporations, both within and outside of Indiana. … After four years in the House of Representatives, Quayle used his alliances with business to help him upset Senator Birch Bayh."[4]

As head of the President's Council on Competitiveness, he worked to scale back business regulations. According to CPI, "in 1992, Quayle's group recommended eliminating many of the recoupment fees levied on defense contractors. The fees, which were more or less a tax on arms exports, were designed to recoup the research and development costs of new weapons systems borne by taxpayers. On June 19, 1992, President Bush adopted Quayle's recommendation, saving the defense industry nearly $75 million a year."[5]

Leading neoconservative figure William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, served as VP Quayle's chief of staff, earning the moniker "Dan Quayle's Brain." Kristol appears to have had a strong influence on Quayle. According to journalist Jacob Weisberg, Kristol "saw an opportunity to promote conservative ideas in working for someone who he was convinced wanted to be an 'activist' vice president."[6]

Quayle's proclamation at Yeshiva University in 1989 that he would work to undo the UN's "Zionism is racism" resolution had "Kristol's fingerprints all over it," according to Jacob Weisberg.[7] "Speaking at Yeshiva on Human Rights Day, focusing on 'Zionism is racism,' arguing that anti-Zionism is a cloak for anti-Semitism, and quoting Jeane Kirkpatrick on the U.N.'s loss of moral authority are all hallmarks of the neoconservative milieu in which Kristol is steeped." Weisberg added.[8]

Quayle has supported a number of neoconservative advocacy groups. After leaving office, Quayle joined the board of the neoconservative Hudson Institute, where he now is an honorary trustee emeritus. He servedfor a time on the boardof Freedom Houseand, in 1997, was one of the 25 founding signatories to the now-defunct Project for the New American Century, founded by Kristol and Robert Kagan. PNAC forged an influential coalition of rightist political actors in support of its calls for an aggressive "war on terror" aimed largely at the Middle East, including the invasion of Iraq.

In 2001, shortly after the election of President George W. Bush, Quayle was appointed to the Defense Policy Board, a Pentagon advisory board then chaired by Richard Perle.[9] Observers were critical of many of the appointees at that time because of their extensive ties to the defense industry, suggesting a clear conflict of interest.[10] Perle eventually stepped down as chair after his various industry ties were widely discussed in the media. Other members serving with Quayle at the time included Newt Gingrich, Ken Adelman, James Woolsey, Eliot Cohen, Richard Allen, and Martin Anderson. Many of these men had risen to prominence in the Reagan administration after initially joining forces in the late 1970s on the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a hardline anticommunist pressure group.

Quayle's name has resurfaced on various occasions in recent years as observers have compared his track record—particularly his verbal gaffes—with those of contemporary political figures. In July 2012, for example, a writer for Bloomberg News asked whether the 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's ill-fated trip to London (during which he insulted his guests by suggesting they had not properly prepared for the Olympics) was his "potatoe" moment, a reference to Quayle's infamous, caught-on-television effort to correct a student's spelling of the word "potato" by telling him to add an "e" to the end of the word, an event that Quayle would later characterize in his autobiography as "a defining moment of the worst kind imaginable."[11]

The London visit, wrote Bloomberg's Julie Hirschfeld Davis, "recalled candidate slip-ups of years past—from Dan Quayle's misspelling of potato to Al Gore's claim of inventing the Internet—questioning whether Romney's could do lasting damage to his image and electoral prospects."[12]

Earlier, during the 2008 presidential race, many observers compared John McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, to Quayle. David Greenberg wrote for Slate.com: "Indeed, the losing vice presidential candidate Palin most resembles is none other than Dan Quayle. Handsome, young, popular with the right-wing base, self-styled champion of family values, scourge of the 'liberal media' and embodiment of Heartland America, Quayle likewise confounded observers in 1988 when Bush Sr. tapped him as his No. 2. … Moreover, both Palin and Quayle, perhaps not coincidentally, enjoyed critical support from the journalist-operative Bill Kristol, whom Jacob Weisberg dubbed 'Quayle's Brain' when he served as the vice president's chief of staff, and who helped push Palin onto the McCain team's radar screen. Quayle, too, we should recall, hit the best-seller list with his 1994 memoir, Standing Firm. And like Quayle, Palin seems destined—if she even seeks the presidency in 2012—to bow out early on, perhaps after the 2011 Iowa straw poll."[13]

Tod Lindberg, a rightist scholar based at the Hoover Institution, has also compared Quayle and Palin. In a November 2010 article for the Weekly Standard, Lindberg provided a hypothetical midterm report on a McCain presidency.[14] Regarding Palin, he wrote: "Would she be a second coming of Dan 'P-o-t-a-t-oe' Quayle, who never recovered from the initial impressions of him as a lightweight? There were, of course, calls on Bush 41 to dump Quayle from the ticket in 1992—not that doing so would have helped Bush in any obvious way; indeed, it would only have antagonized conservatives further. But Palin is Quayle-squared: She is a political phenomenon, polarizing and galvanic, capable of drawing and exciting a crowd as well as becoming a totemic object of fear and loathing for her opponents. It likely would have fallen to Palin to keep conservative Republicans from eating McCain alive, and if anyone could, she would have pulled it off. A Vice President Palin would be an even more fascinating figure in calculations of the future of the GOP than she is as an outsider phenomenon. We certainly know enough about her to say that she would not willingly retreat from the limelight, as Quayle mostly did after leaving office, only to reemerge in 1999 in a short-lived bid for the GOP presidential election and discover that there were insufficient reservoirs of goodwill toward him on which he could draw to make a comeback. Come what may, Sarah Palin would remain where she thinks a mama grizzly belongs, namely, in your face."[15]

Nama Northern Ireland property loan portfolio 'sold for £1bn'

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) is based in the Republic of Ireland's Treasury Building in Dublin

Nama, the Republic of Ireland's state-controlled "bad bank", has sold its entire NI property loan portfolio.

The buyer is an international investment firm, Cerberus Capital Management, based in New York.

It is understood they paid more than £1bn.

Nama's properties include office blocks, shopping developments, pubs and hotels and development land, and the Northern Ireland deal represents its largest single transaction.

Nama (National Asset Management Agency) was set up to handle property loans made by the Republic of Ireland's banks before the financial crash.

The Irish state broadcaster, RTÉ, reported the deal was for more than £1.3bn.

Nama had previously revealed that it paid around £1.1bn for the loans when it acquired them from the Irish banks.

However, as the loans originally had a value of £4.5bn, Irish taxpayers will still have lost out as ultimately they paid for the recapitalisation of the banks.

First Minister Peter Robinson said the sale was "excellent news for the Northern Ireland economy".

'Great encouragement'
"For some time I have made clear the danger to the local economy of leaving valuable assets undeveloped and the threat that these posed to otherwise profitable businesses. I believe that this deal can be of real benefit to our economy," Mr Robinson said.

It controlled loans related to office blocks, shopping developments, hotels and pubs.

It was set up during the Republic of Ireland's banking crisis when the Dublin-based banks were collapsing under the weight of huge, often toxic, property loans made during the boom.

Nama bought over all those loans. Its job has been to get its money back by selling the properties or the loans themselves.

These loans have now been sold at a big discount to Cerberus Capital - the deal is understood to be around £1bn.

This effectively gives Cerberus control over almost 1,000 properties.

This is likely to lead to greatly increased activity in the local property market as the new owner manages its portfolio, does deals with borrowers and makes sales.

"I am grateful to the authorities in the Republic for the way in which this transaction has been handled and the importance of assisting the Northern Ireland economy."

The first minister said he had spoken to Nama chairman Frank Daly and former United States Vice President Dan Quayle of Cerberus Capital Management on Thursday evening.

He said the conversation with Cerberus provided "great encouragement that they will work with the developers and the executive to the benefit of all concerned".

"Dan Quayle offered to send a team to Belfast to meet with us to discuss the way forward and we intend to take him up on that offer.

"In the weeks to come the Northern Ireland Executive will work with Cerberus to ensure that the deal can help kick-start growth in this area of our economy."

'Reckless'
Michael Noonan, the Irish finance minister, said: "Today's announcement by Nama of the sale of their Northern Ireland loan book to Cerberus is very good news for the Irish taxpayer, Nama and the Northern Irish economy.

"This is the biggest loan sale that Nama have completed to date and highlights the progress the agency is making in generating a return on its assets for the Irish taxpayer."

Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson, Pearse Doherty TD (member of Irish parliament), said he was concerned that Nama had not got the best price for the portfolio.

He said: "This policy of accelerated disposals seems reckless to me.

"A gigantic volume of loans and money has just transferred hands and the ball seems to have begun rolling on this only a couple of short months ago.

"Fire sales at the cusp of property price and economic recovery ring every alarm bell there is.

"While I support Nama's endeavours to dispose of loans effectively, I am concerned that, with six years to go until the agency's wind-up, they may be jumping that bit too soon at interested investors."

[kelley]

quayle's tenure was a beta test for the dubya shite. it was deliberate, and allowed clinton to follow, and so on.

i've no proof for this, but just saying. in retrospect it seems somewhat clear.

[Searcher08]

Cerebrus owns Dyncorp.

[seemslikeadream]

Cerebrus owns Dyncorp.

Dyncorp pedophiles and their apologist Donald Rumsfeld

Posted by seemslikeadream on Sat Apr-09-05 09:24 PM

OUT OF THE PENALTY BOX IF YOU WILL

...

Moreover, the British report was not the first such case reported. In fact, it followed on the heels of a report from Portugal. On November 27, 2002, the press reported a scandal of pedophile ring run from a state orphanage. The Guardian reported that the scandal threatened to engulf diplomats, media personalities and senior politicians. Photographs of senior government officials with young boys from Lisbon's Casa Pia orphanage were among the evidence. More shocking however, were the revelations that systematic sexual abuse of children at the home had allegedly been going on for more than 20 years and had been known to police and other authorities for most of that time.

On January 14, 2002, Insight Magazine reported the charges leveled by Ben Johnson against his employer Dyncorp, a major defense contractor. Johnson charged that officials and employees of Dyncorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior and were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and participating in other immoral acts. Johnson had witnessed his supervisors and fellow employees buying 12- to 15-year-olds as sex slaves.

While prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, the global sex trade is big business. The impact of illegal immigrant traffic in Canada is estimated at between $120 million to $400 million per year accounting for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving in Canada per year illegally. The estimate is from Organized Crime Impact Study, prepared for the Solicitor General of Canada. The majority of the illegal immigrants are forced into prostitution and come from Vietnam and China. Once smuggled into Canada the young girls are sold into bondage throughout a North America network. Moreover, Canada is not alone. Young Russians and Ukrainian women that wish to immigrate to Israel are often smuggled into the country destitute and at the mercy of their pimp.

More disgusting is the role the United States government plays in facilitating this global sex trade. Instead of banning the previously mentioned Dyncorp from further defense contracts, the regime of George W Bush rewards it in granting major contracts for the Iraqi war. Even more shameful is the wink and nod the state department grants the Saudis. The Arabian Peninsula has long been known to be purchasers of slaves. Mostly the slaves came from India or Africa however, with the advent of the oil wealth the Saudis have became more selective and are known as high-end buyers. The Saudi Arabian Government continues to refuse to sign the United Nation’s treaty on slavery and extradition treaties. There have been several incidents in the past where the media has reported a slave of a Saudi prince brought into the United States escaped. The State Department then intervenes and returns the escaped slave to the Saudi prince and the incident forgotten. The State Department exempts the Saudi princes from normal custom procedures. A child slave bought by a Saudi prince can be delivered to his plane and allowed to depart without the required passport for the child. One fortunate victim that became entangled in the Saudi sex ring was the former Miss USA Shannon Marketic. She had been lured to Saudi Arabia by what she believed was legitimate modeling work. Being a high profile case she was returned to the United States and filed suit. The former Miss USA lost her lawsuit as the State department granted immunity to her abductors.
more
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/08/163 ... hp#1635683

Transcript of Representative Cynthia McKinney's Exchange with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, and Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Tina Jonas, March 11th, 2005

Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld in House Hearing on FY06 Dept. of Defense Budget
Chairman Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and witnesses Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and JCS Chairman General Richard Myers hold a House Hearing on the FY 2006 Budget for the Department of Defense and Military Services.
3/11/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 2 hr. 5 min.

CMK: Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
DR: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
RM: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers
TJ: Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Tina Jonas
DH: Chairman Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

25:20
CMK: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, I watched President Bush deliver a moving speech at the United Nations in September 2003, in which he mentioned the crisis of the sex trade. The President called for the punishment of those involved in this horrible business. But at the very moment of that speech, DynCorp was exposed for having been involved in the buying and selling of young women and children. While all of this was going on, DynCorp kept the Pentagon contract to administer the smallpox and anthrax vaccines, and is now working on a plague vaccine through the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program. Mr. Secretary, is it policy of the U.S. Government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?

That's my first question. My second question, Mr. Secretary: according to the Comptroller General of the United States, there are serious financial management problems at the Pentagon, to which Mr. Cooper alluded.

Fiscal Year 1999: $2.3 trillion missing.

Fiscal Year 2000, $1.1 trillion missing.

...

27:26
DR: Thank you, Representative. First, the answer to your first question is, is, no, absolutely not, the policy of the United States Government is clear, unambiguous, and opposed to the activities that you described. The second question -

CMK: Well how do you explain the fact that DynCorp and its successor companies have received and continue to receive government contracts?

DR: I would have to go and find the facts, but there are laws and rules and regulations with respect to government contracts, and there are times that corporations do things they should not do, in which case they tend to be suspended for some period; there are times then that the - under the laws and the rules and regulations for the - passed by the Congress and implemented by the Executive branch - that corporations can get off of - out of the penalty box if you will, and be permitted to engage in contracts with the government. They're generally not barred in perpetuity -

CMK: This contract - this company - was never in the penalty box. If you could proceed to my second question, please.

DR: The second question - I've forgotten what the second question was.

more
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/w ... ript.shtml

'Dancing Boy' Scandal Taints Both Americans and Afghans
To win over Afghan locals, American contractor DynCorp bankrolled 'bacha bazi' parties -- the culturally accepted practice of pedophilia by men against boys.

December 28, 2010 |

Every culture has its dark secrets, the practices that many people on the outside would frown on or shudder at. There’s Mormons and polygamy. Hindus and sati. Muslims and virgin brides. And many other cultures that have very specific practices associated with them.

The list is endless but it's also not comprehensive. Not all Mormons practice polygamy -- in fact a comparatively few percentage of them do. The same for Hindus and sati or Muslims and virgin brides. Over time, increased awareness of these issues and any problems associated with them, has led to laws that provide rights to the victims of these practices. But even more effective than laws are social changes. Society's rejection of these practices are a more powerful enforcement against them than laws can ever be, it seems. Which is why public awareness is critical to changing these practices from the ground up.

This week, the WikiLeaks cables publicized another culture's dark secret: the Pashtuns and bacha bazi, the ancient practice of pedophilia by men against boys. Not all Pashtuns practice it, but like other dark secrets in other cultures, it is an inescapable fact that it exists and is strongly associated with Pashtuns.

When the issue arises, so does the sensitivity. No one wants their culture to be known for a horrible thing. But the subject cannot and should not be avoided. Bacha bazi -- literally "playing with children" -- is practiced amongst Pashtuns in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. Not all of them do it, but it is acceptable among certain sections of Pashtun culture, which is why it is openly practiced. And also why, as the WikiLeaks cables demonstrated, the American contractor DynCorp took advantage of the practice to appease local Pashtuns in an area of Afghanistan in which they needed to rein in the locals to be able to continue their work there.

It was very easy for DynCorp to bankroll bacha bazi parties for those local Pashtuns who practice it. They arranged for the boys to be purchased, for the venue, and for the guests who would attend the party. Some Pashtuns came. They saw. And they partied.

Children were abused on American military dollars. The cables are undoubtedly an embarrassment to the war effort. Whereas previously bacha bazi was used in the media to stress the necessity of the war effort – "these people need to be liberated," so the theory went – the WikiLeaks cables have completely reversed that notion. Americans are clearly not liberators if they are promoting child abuse instead of preventing and prohibiting it.

But the bigger picture remains that bacha bazi was there to be exploited.

It exists, and Pashtuns need to talk about it so they can make the changes from within. Pedophilia is not a phenomenon exclusive to one culture. It tends to thrive in any situation where males and females are segregated, whether that is a religious institution, a culture of segregated boarding schools, or a closed society. Bacha bazi is particularly troubling to many people because it is not only pedophilia but culturally accepted pedophilia – amongst those Pashtuns who accept and practice it openly. The sensitivities are even greater because of this but the fact that they exist suggests that many Pashtuns realize the practice is problematic.

The WikiLeaks cables are just as damning to the war effort as they are to the Pashtuns whose silence allows this practice to continue. Many Pashtuns are speaking up, but clearly, many more still need to.

The Whistleblower
The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice, by Kathryn Bolkovac and Cari Lynn

Divorced mother-of-three Kathryn left her life as a Nebraskan police office to embark on a career with private military contractor DynCorp International. Her first assignment is as a human rights investigator, heading up the gender affairs unit aiding the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

Here Kathryn’s work exposed the hideous truth about officers involved in human trafficking and forced prostitution and their connections to the UN and US State Department. Kathryn risked her life by speaking out and won a lawsuit against DynCorp

This year, the guest speaker will be Kathryn Bolkovac, author of "The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Women's Fight for Justice" an inspiration for the movie "The Whistleblower", which portrays her courageous fight against sex trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The audience will have the opportunity to take part in a free floor discussion following her presentation.

The subject matter of this year's event is particularly fitting given the Tribunal's groundbreaking work on the prosecution and adjudication of sexual violence crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Its contribution to the development of jurisprudence in this area includes the recognition of rape and sexual enslavement as crimes against humanity.

Speaking about the event, Michelle Jarvis, the Tribunal's Focal Point for Women and Focal point for the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, said "Kathryn Bolkovac's story reinforces the devastating link between armed conflict, sexual violence and human trafficking. Her courage in speaking out has shaped new United Nations policies to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and inspires us to increase our commitment to zero tolerance of these crimes. We are pleased to provide ICTY staff and other guests with an opportunity to hear directly from Kathryn and to ask her questions about her experiences working in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

[elfismiles]

Thanks for the reminder about The Whistleblower movie SLAD.
Just added it to my netflix queue.

[smiths]

Cerebrus owns Dyncorp.

I wouldn't normally be so pedantic, but in a thread where spelling seemed so central (potato)

Cerberus is the name, and it is critically important since Cerberus in Greek and Roman mythology was "a bronze multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog, or "hellhound" with a serpent's tail, a mane of snakes, and a lion's claws. It guards the entrance of the underworld to prevent those who entered from ever escaping.

Dan is surely not the idiot he was presented as being

[Searcher08]

Cerebrus owns Dyncorp.

I wouldn't normally be so pedantic, but in a thread where spelling seemed so central (potato)

Cerberus is the name, and it is critically important since Cerberus in Greek and Roman mythology was "a bronze multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog, or "hellhound" with a serpent's tail, a mane of snakes, and a lion's claws. It guards the entrance of the underworld to prevent those who entered from ever escaping.

Dan is surely not the idiot he was presented as being

Ha! thank you for that, well spotted - (actually laughed my ass off, showing up in a thread that features Mr Potatoe)

This from Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus_Capital_Management

Cerberus is named after the mythological three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Feinberg has stated to his employees that while the Cerberus name seemed like a good idea at the time, he later regretted naming the company after the mythological dog.[4] Now, however, the firm’s name has significant brand equity.[citation needed]

Dan Quayle, former Vice President of the United States 1989–1993, who served with former President George H. W. Bush (Senior), joined Cerberus in 1999 and is chairman of the company's Global Investments Division.

[seemslikeadream]

Nama: The great property grab


Nama owns a number of properties around Northern Ireland
BY ADRIAN RUTHERFORD – 05 APRIL 2014

A leading US investment firm has become Northern Ireland's biggest landlord after completing a cut-price deal for properties controlled by the Republic's toxic bank.

It is thought Cerberus Capital Management paid just a fraction of the £4.5bn face value of Nama's Northern Ireland portfolio.

The deal – reported to be worth around £1.3bn – is the largest single transaction undertaken by Nama and gives Cerberus control of about 850 properties.

Among the assets are the Lanyon Plaza and the Soloist buildings in Belfast.

It also includes properties outside of Northern Ireland, including the UK, Republic and Europe, which are owned by Northern Irish debtors.

First Minister Peter Robinson said the deal was excellent news for the economy.

However, last night questions were raised about the sale, with the Irish taxpayer predicted to take a £3bn hit on the original £4.5bn value on the properties.

Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty, the party's finance spokesman in the Republic, said he was concerned Nama had not got the best price for the portfolio.

"While I support Nama's endeavours to dispose of loans effectively, I am concerned that, with six years to go until the agency's wind-up, they may be jumping that bit too soon at interested investors," he said.

Nama – the Republic's National Asset Management Agency – was set up by the Irish government with a 10-year lifespan to free the Republic's banks from the burden of toxic property loans.

Irish banks had lent money to about 55 developers based in Northern Ireland who used the cash to fund some 850 properties.

Around half were in Northern Ireland with the remainder in the UK, the Republic and Germany.

Nama acquired the portfolio – initially worth around £4.5bn – and has now sold it on to Cerberus, a venture capital fund specialising in distressed debt which manages around $25bn in capital.

In a statement, Nama said the terms of the transaction are commercially sensitive and are not being disclosed, but the deal followed an extensive and competitive sales process involving bidders from Europe and the US.

It is understood the portfolio had a minimum reserve price of £1.3bn and it sold for a sum in excess of that figure.

It is possible Nama has made money in terms of what they paid for the loans, but the sale price represents an enormous discount against the original value – and the difference will come at a loss to the Irish taxpayer.

Mr Doherty expressed concerns at the speed of the deal. "This policy of accelerated disposals seems reckless to me," he said.

"A gigantic volume of loans and money has just changed hands and the ball seems to have begun rolling on this only a couple of short months ago.

"Fire sales at the cusp of property prices and economic recovery ring every alarm bell there is."

However, Nama chairman Frank Daly said the transaction represented a significant achievement.

"It is Nama's biggest single transaction to date and we are satisfied that the sales process will deliver the best possible result for the Irish taxpayer," he said.

Nama could not sell assets back to debtors below their par values, but an important feature of the deal is that Cerberus is not bound by this.

Chairman of Cerberus Capital Management, John W Snow, said the deal will be an important foundation for its overall European strategy.

"Cerberus is a patient, long-term investor and has a well-established track record of making significant improvements to the assets that it manages," he said.

First Minister Peter Robinson said the sale was "excellent news for the Northern Ireland economy".

"For some time I have made clear the danger to the local economy of leaving valuable assets undeveloped and the threat that these posed to otherwise profitable businesses. I believe that this deal can be of real benefit to our economy," he said.

Irish finance minister Michael Noonan said the agreement was very good news for the Irish taxpayer, Nama and the Northern Ireland economy.

...and the US company that snapped up the lot

Situated in the heart of New York City, among the towering skyscrapers and high-powered financial institutions which dot Manhattan's skyline, lies the head- quarters of Northern Ireland's newest and – by a margin of several billion dollars – biggest landlord.

Founded in 1992, Cerberus Capital Management is one of the world's leading private investment firms and manages more than $25billion (£15bn) in capital.

Cerberus's senior executive leadership team is filled with one-time political figures including former US Vice President Dan Quayle and John W Snow, who served as the 73rd US Secretary of the Treasury.

It is this group of influential business magnates which now ultimately controls hundreds of sites across Northern Ireland, ranging from a landmark building in central Belfast to a piece of land in rural Tyrone.

Certainly the diverse portfolio acquired from Nama, with its fields and farmland, will be quite a contrast to Cerberus's recent purchases.

Last month it led a consortium which agreed a $9bn deal for US supermarket firm Safeway.

In January it announced a deal to acquire five grocery store chains from US company Supervalu in exchange for $100m in cash and $3.2bn in debt reduction.

Cerberus is also said to be interested in acquiring the bad debt section of Banco Popolare, Italy's fourth biggest bank.

Headquartered in New York City's Third Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan, Cerebus has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia, and describes itself as "a truly global investor with a long-term investment horizon and focus on value creation".

On its website, the firm states its investment philosophy "is centered on integrity, patience and a unique business model that applies significant financial and operational resources across the firm's investment strategies".

"On the financial side, Cerberus focuses on opportunities that offer risk-adjusted returns, disciplined due diligence, strict compliance, a team approach with investment and operations partners and the use of efficient, creative and customized solutions," it adds.

Cerberus was co-founded by Steve Feinberg, currently its CEO, and William L Richter, a Harvard graduate who is senior managing director.

Its unusual name comes from the mythological three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Feinberg reportedly told employees that while it seemed a good idea at the time, he later regretted the name.

It is chaired by John W Snow, who served as US Secretary of the Treasury during George W Bush's presidency.

Dan Quayle, the 44th Vice President of the United States, who served alongside George Bush senior between 1989 and 1993, is chairman of the company's global investments division.

It is this collection of multi-billionaires and high-powered business brains driving the company now owning Nama's Northern Ireland portfolio.

Their acquisition is thought to total almost 1,000 properties and includes some owned by Northern Irish debtors but located outside the region.

Nama has never disclosed its full list of assets, but they are known to include Lanyon Plaza and the Soloist buildings in Belfast, developed by William Ewart properties.

A smaller list of around 160 Nama properties placed into receivership is published on its website. The majority are located in counties Antrim and Down, although others are dotted right across Northern Ireland.

It includes greenfield sites in rural areas bought before the credit crunch for millions of pounds as development land, but now only fetch the going price of farmland.

What the powerbrokers behind Cerberus make of their new acquisition remains uncertain, as does their long-term strategy.

In a statement John W Snow said Cerberus Capital Management was "excited and gratified" to reach agreement on the Nama deal, which he described as mutually beneficial.

"This investment, and the underlying assets in Ireland and other European markets, will be an important foundation for our overall European strategy," he said.

"Cerberus is a patient, long-term investor and has a well-established track record of making significant improvements to the assets that it manages.

"We believe Cerberus has the ideal base of expertise and experience to manage the Eagle portfolio and will be a strong partner for Nama, for Northern Ireland and for all the stakeholders associated with this transaction."

The main interest will focus on how much capital gain they make

By John Simpson

For property developments in Northern Ireland the impact of Nama in the property market has been generally passive and benign.

Without the creation of Nama, the crisis affecting Irish-registered banks might have translated into large risks of bank failure and threats to normal banking.

However, property owners and developers have taken serious knocks.

Nama has been a unique answer to a property market crisis of unpredicted and unprecedented proportions.

Whilst this unique answer has propped up Irish banks, arguably, for property developers it has done very little to avoid the unwelcome arrival of administrators, receivers or liquidators.

Many apparently successful property developments have been reassessed and owners have seen 'paper' gains wiped out and losses on assets charged to their annual accounts.

As the economies, north and south, begin to recover Nama has an important role to play in allowing the property market to function normally, or as near to normal as it can be with the large overhang of property assets it controls.

The sale of this portfolio to an American private investment company will help to unfreeze the local property market.

The transfer of the very large property portfolio from Nama to an organisation with an appreciation of how investment values can be enhanced is a welcome sign of returning confidence.

The significant area of interest in the months ahead will be the degree to which the new owners earn a significant capital gain on the property values.

Nama will try to sell its assets to offset the original costs.

The uncertain feature in 2014 is whether Nama will earn a premium on its original transactions and whether this will also allow new investors to trade profitably.

[Wombaticus Rex]

"If anyone at Cerberus has his picture in the paper and a picture of his apartment, we will do more than fire that person. We will kill him. The jail sentence will be worth it."

--Steve Feinberg

Quayle is my favorite politician -- a hollow shell of pure reflex. He's got the face, the cadence, the tone, the money, and not a single fucking thought in his head.

If I was running a weaponized hedge fund, I'd hire him, too: he shakes hands well, loves to travel and is already networked deep into the .001%

[seemslikeadream]

he's just a shy guy

A shy wunderkind, Stephen Feinberg
By Eytan Avriel | Nov. 16, 2005 | 12:00 AM

Stephen Feinberg, 45, the CEO of Cerberus, which submitted the winning bid for Bank Leumi, is a New York Jew with a golden touch who turned a $10 million fund into a holding company whose properties sell more than $30 billion annually.

How come most of us haven't heard about the financial wunderkind? It's not by chance. Like most hedge-fund managers, according to Business Week at least, Feinberg keeps a low profile. He makes himself scarce around photographers, and sends underlings like Cerberus chair Dan Quayle to sign his deals.

According to a former college roommate who, unlike Feinberg, agreed to be interviewed by Business Week, Feinberg prefers Budweiser to Beaujolais and drives a Ford truck rather than the Ferrari that his $50 million take-home pay would more than cover.

However, players on the American market are familiar with Feinberg.

According to a Business Week profile from October, "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was an investor in 2001, according to government ethics disclosures. Hedge-fund legend Michael Steinhardt is a shareholder and director in Cerberus' lending arm, Ableco LLC. Michael Dell's private-investment firm has joined with Cerberus and home-builder Lennar Corp. to develop upscale residential communities on the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, Calif. His roster of investors also includes public pension funds such as TIAA-CREF and the California State Teachers' Retirement System."

After paying so much for Leumi - 16 percent more than the bank's share price yesterday and 54 percent above its shareholders equity - Feinberg and his partners at Gabriel will be hard-pressed to squeeze profits sufficient to justify additional increases in the share price. If he does manage to do so, the rest of the country's banks will have their work - introducing efficiency and reaping profits - cut out for them.

[seemslikeadream]

APRIL 03, 2014
The Disconnect Between Media and Reality
Ireland Under Austerity
by JULIEN MERCILLE
Dublin.

There have now been nine austerity budgets in Ireland since 2008. According to a string of recently released reports, the human consequences have been devastating. Nevertheless, in a parallel universe, the Irish media continue to praise the IMF and Prime Minister Enda Kenny in articles worthy of consideration for the prize of ‘propaganda piece of the year’.

A major OECD report looking at the impacts of the economic crisis and austerity notes that there are now 48 million people unemployed in OECD countries, an increase of 15 million since 2007, and over one-third of those have been without a job for more than a year. Three Eurozone countries—Ireland, Greece and Spain—have seen a doubling of the number of people living in households with no income from work. Who has been hit the hardest by the economic crisis and austerity? It is low-income groups, young people, and families with children. The report concludes that austerity ‘hampers progress in reducing inequality and poverty’ and that the economic losses resulting from austerity ‘are not shared equally. Labour incomes appear to fall substantially more strongly than profits or rents, and losses suffered by workers also persist for longer’.

This is corroborated by the European Trade Union Institute that also remarks that as bad as European unemployment rates may be, the situation is in fact worse because many of the jobs that have been created are part-time. Income inequality in Europe has risen since 2008, but more drastically since 2010, when the general shift towards austerity took place (Ireland, always unique, started in 2008). The report concludes that there is now a ‘full-blown exercise in the deconstruction of labour law with complete and utter disregard for existing labour standards enshrined in international, European and national law’.

Social Justice Ireland investigated how seven EU countries have been affected by austerity. It found ‘disturbing levels of poverty and deprivation’ in Ireland, Cyprus,
Cruel-Harvest-US-Intervention-in-the-Afghan-Drug-Trade-1Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Nearly a quarter of young people in Europe are unemployed and Ireland has one of the highest rates of youth not in employment, education or training. The ‘at risk of poverty rate’ of young Irish adults between 18 and 24 years of age nearly doubled since 2008, now standing at almost 27%. The overall unemployment rate in Ireland is about 12%, but if emigration is factored in, it would be around 20%, and if discouraged and involuntary part-time workers are included, it would be above 24%. Another report about the social situation of young people in Europe reveals similar trends. It finds that in Ireland, nearly one in five young people have experienced serious deprivation, which is twice as many as in 2007, while a stunning 51% of young people have difficulty accessing health care because it is too expensive.

Community Platform—a network of 30 Irish groups in the community and voluntary sector—asked people a simple question: ‘how is the recession, and government policy, affecting your life?’ Based on the answers, it concluded that austerity has been ‘devastating for people who are on low incomes, unemployed, marginalised or dependent on welfare’—in short, those most vulnerable and who had nothing to do with the crisis in the first place. It warns that ‘the dual attack of unemployment and relentless cuts at national and local level has pushed individuals, families and communities into poverty’ and documents ‘parents going hungry to feed their children, people unable to heat their homes and a young generation at serious risk of being lost to unemployment, drugs and crime’. Thus, ‘fundamentally, the pictures emerging here are of people who are reaching breaking point as they bear the brunt of the crisis which was not of their making’.

Finally, Peter McVerry recently wrote about the problem of homelessness in Ireland, which is ‘out of control’ and ‘getting worse every week and no one appears to be doing anything about it’. In Dublin alone, six people become homeless every day. Just to keep pace with the problem would require opening a new hostel with 28 beds every week. It’s hard for homeless people to start renting because in Dublin, there are 2,500 people chasing 1,500 accommodation units and rents have increased by 18% since 2011 while the rent allowance payable by the Department of Social Protection has fallen by almost 30% since 2011. In theory, there is also social housing, but there is a waiting list of nearly 90,000. The government said it would build some new homes over the next two years, but that would only reduce the waiting list by 2%.

Such comprehensive reports from sources as varied as the OECD and Social Justice Ireland confirm that austerity was and still is the wrong solution to revive the economy.

Nevertheless, the Irish Times is pursuing the campaign it called for in 2008 to ‘educate’ the public about the alleged virtues of austerity. There are many examples, but two recent ones stand out as deeply revealing of the state of the mainstream Irish media. They illustrate a systematic pattern since the beginning of the crisis in conveying the government’s and the troika’s pro-austerity views uncritically.

First, Stephen Collins, the political editor of the Irish Times, surpasses himself in praising Enda Kenny, because—wait for it—Kenny enjoys his job. The praise is supposedly well deserved because his ‘obvious enjoyment of his job is a key aspect of creating confidence’ and a ‘key element of Kenny’s success has been his infectious optimism’. There’s a big picture next to the article showing Kenny with a big smile. Some readers may well conclude that it was simply impossible to find a single positive real achievement other than Kenny’s smile.

Second, there is a glowing Irish Times profile of Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief since 2011, written by Peter Wilson and entitled ‘Christine Lagarde: Ready To Take on Europe’. In it, we learn a series of key pieces of information about Lagarde, which only a journalist steeped in the most rigorous investigative techniques could have unearthed. She is a ‘charismatic’ and ‘tall, silver-haired woman in a grey Chanel outfit who attracts the TV cameras’, and is ‘the only person to have been on the cover of Forbes at the same time as being featured in Vogue’, and there is a ‘real excitement about’ her. She also ‘oversees a trillion euros of loan capacity’ in Europe and ‘one of her key strengths… is her durability and stamina’. This is not all: she is a former synchronised swimming champion and she does ‘20 minutes of yoga each morning’ and ‘swims when she can’, but she only ‘needs six hours of sleep’ per night. In short, ‘beneath her charm is the competitive streak of an athlete’. Finally, we learn that she makes a tax-free salary of more than $480,000 a year, quite insulated from austerity.

The disconnect between media coverage and the reality may have reached new heights. As it becomes increasingly difficult to hide the fact that austerity has not worked, are the media making a last-ditch effort to ‘educate’ the public?

[smiths]

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery: Capitalism as Democracy

http://hiredknaves.wordpress.com/2014/0 ... democracy/

I left this comment on Fintan O’Toole’s article in today’s Irish Times, which is titled Three sorrowful mysteries of the Garda taping saga and deals with the unreliable official account of events in relation to Garda taping of phone calls.

Is there not a fourth sorrowful mystery underpinning the other three here? I am referring here to the mystery that binds us to believe that ‘the Cabinet, the Dáil, the Civil Service, the courts and the Garda’ are all components of a supreme entity that Fintan O’Toole names as ‘our democracy’.

It would appear, by Fintan O’Toole’s lights, that for ‘our democracy’ to exist, these components need only tell the truth.

But it looks to me as if all these things, since their inception, have operated primarily on behalf of the moneyed class in Irish society, whilst claiming to operate on behalf of society as a whole. And so: economic policy decisions are concentrated in the hands of a few men, the Dáil offers up a grotesque spectacle of parliamentary back-and-forth whilst never endangering the absolute primacy of individual property rights, the Civil Service does sterling work in making sure private interests hold sway over health, education, finance and natural resources, and the courts and the Garda give the disciplinary backbone to the whole operation.

The mystery, to my eyes at least, is why Fintan O’Toole refers to this thing as ‘our democracy’ when, in the cold light of day, it looks rather more like ‘their capitalism’. Hence I am wondering what kind of truth he expects from these august bodies.

[Searcher08]

Can a whole society have binge greed? Can it end up believing it's own bullshit?

I looked at Martin McGuinness and The Queen together and thought that they are so... similar.
I look at Gerry Adams and see an arrogant violent twat. I look at the Peter Robinson, first minister of Northern Ireland, and see a hard working, extremely ruthless and very very fucked-up, troubled soul.

Inspiration? Nah. Vision? Meh. Dreaming? Phtt.

There is a reality TV / contestant series called The Voice. I got to see both the UK version and the Irish version. The former was fundamentally positive and pretty snark free.

The latter was a spectacle that captured perfectly a big strand of present day Irish media and the society it is embedded in.
It was vacuous, brain-dead, snarky, utterly superficial, intolerant of difference outside certain unthought-through norms, tawdry, relentlessly filled with it's own self-importance, cheap, uninspired, subservient and cowardly.

I needed a psychic bath.

[82_28]

Quayle was an actor meant to play the part for the occult/technocratic long-game. Wingers only give off the inkling that they are stupid. They groom and hire actors in order to play roles scripted by central casting. Can't say I don't think the same of the Democrats. But seeing Jimmy Carter doing the rounds for his new book and foundation, we can be rest assured he was the last "real person" to inhabit the WH which is why they destroyed him, but only used the velvet glove as we can see from history -- he's still alive.

Quayle ain't a total dumbfuck. It's all in the act. And if they're acting there certainly must be a script laying around somewhere. Fuck, there could even be a reason dubya was made to read the pet goat for the moment 9/11 went down.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet

They're fucking with us. Their power is in that they know we know we're being fucked with. Ah yes, what's that old term again?

The double bind.

They are completely immune and are toying with us. Not for a purpose necessarily, but because they can and it is entertaining. They enjoy seeing the populace get confused. I think they are more amused with knowing we know.

LONG GAME.

I am certain to get shit, but I firmly believe the WTC was built in order to be destroyed. Its sole purpose was to be destroyed at a date already pre-ordained. You can't have two bushes and a quayle all within a generation. Look at this "family".



Add a quayle and a hinkley and you're all good.

[seemslikeadream]

And in August… the barley grew up out of our grave




Requiem for the Croppies

The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley…
No kitchens on the run, no striking camp…
We moved quick and sudden in our own country.
The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp.
A people hardly marching… on the hike…
We found new tactics happening each day:
We’d cut through reins and rider with the pike
And stampede cattle into infantry,
Then retreat through hedges where cavalry must be thrown.
Until… on Vinegar Hill… the final conclave.
Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.
The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave.
They buried us without shroud or coffin
And in August… the barley grew up out of our grave

Seamus Heaney