Bailed-out Wells Fargo plans Vegas casino junkets

WASHINGTON (AP) - Wells Fargo & Co., which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is planning a series of corporate junkets to Las Vegas casinos this month.

Wells Fargo, once among the nation’s top writers of subprime mortgages, has booked 12 nights at the Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas beginning Friday, said Wynn spokeswoman Michelle Loosbrock. The hotels will host the annual conference for company’s top mortgage officers.

The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous years have included all-expense-paid helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 employees and guests.

“I was amazed with just how lavish it was,” said Debra Rickard, a former Wells Fargo mortgage employee from Colorado who attended the events regularly until she left the company in 2004. “We stayed in top hotels, the entertainment was just unbelievable, and there were awards—you got plaques or trophies.”

While the nation’s recession has led other banks, such as Bank of America, to cancel employee recognition outings, Wells Fargo has not.

Full Story Here:
Bailed-out Wells Fargo plans Vegas casino junkets

Of course Wells Fargo isn’t cancelling anything, they are NOT spending their money, they are spending OUR money, TAX PAYER money! I don’t have one penny of ‘personal‘ money in a Wells Fargo bank, maybe it’s none of MY business how they run their business, but I am of the opinion that anyone that DOES have money in a Wells Fargo bank should immediately withdraw ALL of their funds, checking, savings, whatever they may have.

Is that a radical opinion from me?? Maybe. Is it a call to commence a RUN on Wells Fargo?? Possibly. It is MY opinion, and if others share that opinion, and if others seek to hold Wells Fargo’s feet to the fire, this would be one hell of a great way to get it done.

These guys have taken $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, isn’t a junket to Vegas as unscrupulous an act on their part as was the purchase of a multi-million dollar corporate jet by Citi recently?? Citi having been a just bailed out business concern?

NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N), which has received $45 billion of capital from the U.S. government, is going through with plans to buy a $50 million jet but a U.S. senator called the deal absurd and wants the Obama administration to block it.

Story Here:
Citi going through with $50 mln plane order

Stop these ridiculous bailouts and stimulus packages to companies that only turn around and squander even MORE money, money that is NOT their own. There has got to be some serious accountability is all fiscal affairs of the USA, and if the government of this USA isn’t held accountable, if they insist on placing known TAX CHEATS in positions of power, they are NOT exercising ANY responsibility, fiscal or otherwise. The only thing our government is doing at this point in time is throwing MORE of OUR good money after the bad that has already been squandered, misspent, mismanaged and stolen.

If you are a Citi or Wells Fargo customer, let your conscience be your guide. I hope you make the RIGHT choice!

GOP senators break from White House, oppose auto bailout

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a “dinosaur” whose “day of reckoning” is coming. Their opposition was a bit more stark than the position put forth Monday by the White House, and raised doubts about whether the plan will pass in this week’s postelection session.

Democratic leaders want to use $25 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to help General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler, while the White House stressed Monday that aid should not come from the rescue plan.

Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona also said it would be a mistake to use any of the Wall Street rescue money to prop up the automakers.

“Companies fail every day and others take their place. I think this is a road we should not go down,” said Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Full Story Here:
GOP senators break from White House, oppose auto bailout

America is being turned into the biggest SOCIALIST nation on earth. Good job George Bush, nearly ALL Dems and ALL the RINOs.

Once upon a time bad business just went away, the American consumer didn’t buy the product and a company went bankrupt, and that was a good for ALL business, weeds out the losers and the only one that really got hurt was the guy that couldn’t run his business.

Today, bad management, corrupt business execs and thieving union officials rape a company blind, steal from the company and the consumer, bankrupt the business and cry to the MORON in the White House to “Oh please bail us out oh wise and powerful Moron in Chief, if you don’t, America is going to suffer, Americans will be hurt if WE don’t get our $20 MILLION dollar Christmas, uh, wait, $20 MILLION Winter Festival bonus!”

So, the Moron in Chief goes to all his *little morons* and tells em that they have to bilk the American taxpayer out of nearly 1 TRILLION dollars so all the bad businessmen, corrupt execs and thieving union hacks can be saved, thus saving the average American on the street from a fate worse than death.

I wonder?? Why can’t WE, the AMERICAN people get a bailout?? The average guy on the street kind of bail out?? Mom and Pop neighborhood store bailouts?? The ‘salt of the earth’ Americans?? I am guessing that if Wal-Mart called the Moron in Chief and said “Hey, we need money”, the Moron in Chief would hurt himself making sure that Wal-Mart gets ALL the money it needs.

And for what it’s worth, I can tell you how to trim $10 BILLION a month off of the U.S. expenditure list almost immediately, but that is another story…