Harry Mason Reid (born December 2, 1939) is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.
Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Nevada's 1st congressional district, and served in Nevada local and state government as city attorney of Henderson, a state legislator, the 25th Lieutenant Governor, and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
As Senate Majority Leader and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Harry Reid has achieved a more senior elected position in the United States government than any Mormon in history.
Reid was born in Searchlight, Nevada, the third of the four sons of Inez Orena (née Jaynes), a laundress, and Harry Vincent Reid, a miner. His paternal grandmother was an English immigrant from Darlston, Staffordshire. Reid's boyhood home had no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone. Searchlight had no high school, so Reid boarded with relatives 40 miles away in Henderson, Nevada to attend Basic High School where he played football, and was an amateur boxer. While at Basic High he met future Nevada governor Mike O'Callaghan, who was a teacher there. Reid attended Southern Utah University and graduated from Utah State University where he double majored in political science and history. Reid also minored in economics from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. He then went to George Washington University Law School earning a J.D. while working for the United States Capitol Police.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( /ˈlɪmbɔː/; born January 12, 1951) is an American radio talk show host and political commentator. Since he was 16 Limbaugh has worked a series of disc jockey jobs. His talk show began in 1984 at Sacramento radio station KFBK, featuring his ongoing format of political commentary and listener calls. In 1988 Limbaugh began broadcasting his show nationally from radio station WABC in New York, New York. He currently lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, from where he broadcasts the The Rush Limbaugh Show, the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United States.
In the 1990s Limbaugh's books The Way Things Ought to Be (1992) and See, I Told You So (1993) made The New York Times Best Seller list. Limbaugh frequently criticizes, in his books and on his show, what he regards as liberal policies and politicians, as well as what he perceives as a pervasive liberal bias in major U.S. media.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the son of Mildred Carolyn "Millie" (née Armstrong) and Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Jr. His father was a lawyer and a U.S. fighter pilot who served in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His mother was a native of Searcy, Arkansas. The name "Rush" was originally chosen for his grandfather to honor the maiden name of family member Edna Rush.
Plot
A close look behind the scenes, between late March and mid-October, 2008: we follow Richard Fuld's benighted attempt to save Lehman Brothers; conversations among Hank Paulson (the Secretary of the Treasury), Ben Bernanke (chair of the Federal Reserve), and Tim Geithner (president of the New York Fed) as they seek a private solution for Lehman's; and, back-channel negotiations among Paulson, Warren Buffet, investment bankers, a British regulator, and members of Congress as almost all work to save the U.S. economy. By the end, with the no-strings bailout arranged, modest confidence restored on Wall Street, and a meltdown averted, Paulson wonders if banks will lend.
Keywords: accountability, aide, aig, bailout, bank-fraud, bank-of-america, banker, bankruptcy, based-on-fact, bear-stearns
Henry Paulson: [TIREDLY] The Fed can lend to non banks under unusual and exigent circumstances, we're thinking of taking over 80% of the company.::Jim Wilkinson: [INSISTENTLY] Hank we can't! This morning we were lecturing the entire country on moral hazard.::Henry Paulson: [INCREASINGLY ANGRILY] AIG has collateral, they have assets, Lehman didn't, we couldn't lend into a hole, its not the same story!::Jim Wilkinson: [PLEADINGLY] Nobody is going to care, its another bailout, with no legislation, the Hill is gonna go crazy, the country is gonna go crazy.::Henry Paulson: [ANGRILY LECTURING] The plane we flew in on this morning leased from AIG, construction downtown AIG, life insurance 81 million policies with a face value of $1.9 trillion. Billions of dollars in teachers' pensions. You want "too big to fail" here it is! You got a better idea -the suggestion box is wide open!
Mack's Assistant: Tim Geithner's calling again.::John Mack: Cover your ears. You tell Tim Geithner to fucking blow me. I'm trying to save my company.
Michele Davis: They almost bring down the US economy as we know but we can't put restrictions on how they spend the $125 billion we're giving them because... they might not take it! [the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs upon hearing that the 9 bank CEOs may refuse to take free money from the federal government if they had to be held accountable for how they spent it]
Richard Fuld: [on the phone with Neel Kashkari] Last February, we were at 66 a share. Lehman Brothers is *not* Bear Stearns. We have a great business. Real estate will come back. I am not *fucking* giving this company away!
Ben Bernanke: I spent my entire academic career studying the Great Depression. The depression may have started because of a stock market crash, but what hit the general economy was a disruption of credit. Average citizens unable to borrow money, to do anything. To buy a home, start a business, stock their shelves. Credit has the ability to build a modern economy, but lack of credit has the ability to destroy it, swiftly and absolutely. If we do not act, boldly and immediately, we will replay the depression of the 1930s, only this time it will be far, far worse. We don't do this now, we won't have an economy on Monday.
Ben Bernanke: I don't really understand why there needs to be so much tension about this. The country is facing the worst economy since the Great Depression. If the financial system collapses, it will take every one of you down.
Michele Davis: I hate to do this right now, but I'm going to have to have a press call first thing, and I don't know what I'm going to tell them.::Jim Wilkinson: Okay, here's how you explain it. Wall Street started bundling home loans together - mortgage-backed securities - and selling slices of those bundles to investors, and they were making big money. So they started pushing the lenders saying, come on, we need more loans.::Henry Paulson: The lenders had already given loans to borrowers with good credit, so they go bottom feeding, they lower their criteria.::Neel Kashkari: Before, you needed a credit score of 620 and a down payment of 20%; now they'll settle for 500, no money down.::Jim Wilkinson: And the buyer, the regular guy on the street assumes that the experts know what they're doing. He's saying to himself, if the bank's willing to loan me money, I must be able to afford it. So he reaches for the American Dream, he buys that house.::Neel Kashkari: The banks knew securities based on shitbag mortgages were risky...::Henry Paulson: - you'll work on 'shitbag'...::Neel Kashkari: - so to control their downside, the banks started buying a kind of insurance. If mortgages default, insurance company pays. Default swap. The banks insure their potential losses to move the risk off their books, so they can invest more, make more money.::Henry Paulson: And while a lot of companies insured their stuff, one was dumb enough to take on an almost unbelievable amount of risk.::Michele Davis: AIG.::Jim Wilkinson: And you'll work on 'dumb.'::Michele Davis: And when they ask me why they did that?::Jim Wilkinson: Fees!::Neel Kashkari: Hundreds of millions in fees.::Henry Paulson: AIG figures the housing market would just keep going up. But then the unexpected happens.::Jim Wilkinson: Housing prices go down.::Neel Kashkari: Poor bastard who bought his dream house? The teaser rate on his mortgage runs out, his payments go up, he defaults.::Henry Paulson: Mortgage-backed securities tank. AIG has to pay off the swaps. All of them. All over the world. At the same time.::Neel Kashkari: AIG can't pay. AIG goes under. Every bank they insure books massive losses on the same day. And then they all go under. It all comes down.::Michele Davis: [horrified] The *whole* financial system? And what do I say when they ask me why it wasn't regulated?::Henry Paulson: No one wanted to. We were making too much money.
Richard Fuld: [on the housing crisis] You know, people act like we're crack dealers. Nobody put a gun to anybody's head and said, "Hey, nimrod, buy a house you can't afford, and you know what? While you're at it, put a line of credit on that baby and buy yourself a boat."::Joe Gregory: [chuckles] You heard anything from Buffett?::Erin Callan: He's asking for preferred shares at 40, with a dividend of nine percent.::Richard Fuld: [annoyed] We were just at 66. What the fuck?::Joe Gregory: Maybe it's just an opening gambit, Dick.::Richard Fuld: Sounds more like a goddamn insult!::Erin Callan: Dick, we're at 36 right now. We haven't been anywhere near 66 in months. The markets like Buffett. His name will push the price up overnight.::Richard Fuld: You know, I don't care who he is. I am not spending $360 million a year for the pleasure of doing business with him. Real estate will come back.::Joe Gregory: Koreans have been sniffing around.::Richard Fuld: There you go. And they won't steal us blind. I've seen this before: CEOs panic and they sell out cheap. Right now, the Street's running around with its hair on fire, but the storm always passes. We stand strong, and on the other side, we'll eat Goldman's lunch.::Erin Callan: So what do we do about Buffett?::Richard Fuld: Screw Warren Buffett.
Ben Bernanke: [Having breakfast with Henry Paulson] Lehman's down another 10%.::Henry Paulson: You are not gonna let me get down a single bite, are you?::Ben Bernanke: This is why I have oatmeal.
Chris Flowers: Make sure Fuld's not keeping any bad news out of the mix.::Rodgin Cohen: It's "open kimono", to quote Dick.::Chris Flowers: There's a revolting image.
Like a morning crow and his unwelcome song
Or a worn-out broken record that keeps skipping along
Mountains of instructions you keep piling on me
Resound like a cacophonous symphony
But I don't wanna hear it anymore
Priests and politicians pretend they're your friend
And police speak to you like you're a child again
Blanket statements cover you like a rug
And thet tell me maybe I'm acting a little too smug
But I don't wanna hear it anymore
Every day we hear the secrets of life
Reduced to cheap jokes, poetry, and friendly advice
They'd rather see us all pusillanimous
Absorbent in their chorus of correctness
Hear it in the mystic voice
Of forces long forgotten of
Lions of thunder renting forth
The power of the given Lor
Hear it in the joyful tales
Of princes and their battle quest
Their armour being truth and goodness
To crush all life's evilness
hear it from the mountain side
Where nature spills its silent eyes
The days of paradise are there
The quietness of the dawning skies
Hear it for the love we share
This firmament of song and verse
For just one second share with me
The feelings of the universe
Dance of heaven, feel the feeling of delight
Dance of heaven, feel the feeling of delight
Feel the feeling of delight
he hör doch uf mit dere gschicht
vergiss es doch
es bringt doch nüt
mir chöi doch süsch chli zäme brichte
mir chöi doch no chli under d lüt
du machs di doch säuber fertig
du trääisch di doch scho lang im kreis
un i chas jitz de glii nümm ghöre
herrgott hör doch uf
i weiss du hättsch es villech mit de viicher
eifach söue la bewände
chum jitz trink doch nid so viu
was hesch de jitz scho wieder chummer
jitz gits ja würklech nümm viu z rette
u när gits ändlech rueh da unge
mach dr doch nid geng die vorwürf
du trääisch di doch scho lang im kreis
un i chas jitz de glii nümm ghöre
herrgott hör doch uf
i weiss du hättsch es villech mit de viicher
eifach söue la bewände
hör doch jitz uf mit dere gschicht
dadrann gits nümm umezschtudiere
du chöntsch doch öppis anders mache
du chasch ja öppis nöis probiere
mach dr doch nid geng die vorwürf
du trääisch di doch scho lang im kreis
un i chas jitz de glii nümm ghöre
herrgott hör doch uf
i weiss du hättsch es villech mit de viicher
eifach söue la bewände
I saw Elvis washing clothes in the launderette by the grove
Washing powder on his nose, down the Harrow Road
He was talkin' bout a song
Had it all but got it wrong
Now he wants to join the band and play along
There's so many stories being told, down Harrow Road
Since you were young until your old, down Harrow Road
Down the Harrow Road
There's this bloke who thinks he's handy
Selling globes and home made brandy
He comes all the way from Bendy down to Harrow Road
You see over the cemetery wall from the bridge, about to fall
Don't let them work in over night
Their men will finish it off
There's so many stories being told, down Harrow Road
Since you were young until your old, down Harrow Road
Down the Harrow Road
Now here comes your brand new sensation
So all you DUBBLE U's get to your battle stations
So nobody try to put I on probation
'Cause this one is coming to all the nation. Do it
So many stories being told, down Harrow Road
Since you were young until your old, down Harrow Road
(Run a combi with a heavy, heavy load)
So many stories being told, down Harrow Road
Since you were young until your old, down Harrow Road
(Come down to Harrow Road, come with me to back in time)
So many stories being told, down Harrow Road
Since you were young until your old, down Harrow Road
Imagine...
Underneath Bethlehem's star,
plagues of depravitz are unleashed -
on the path of obliteration the seed to destroy.
Hatched from the womb of a maggot mouldering hag!
AD PORTAS IBI TEMPUS FUGIT
A fire the birthplace of christian belief,
flames licking up to every source.
Almighty he is called,
He who now receives the crusader's bolt
Right through his pearly gates!
The bolt of destruction impales,
during the brazing downfall's hour,
Their pathetic hope.
In the core suffocates the belief,
In the carrion of his now never forming!