2 Responses to “Be Careful What You Attack For”

1. lester says:

   January 14, 2009 at 7:26 pm

   joe the plumber is being a pretend reporter in palestine and did not get arrested
2. Joe says:

   January 14, 2009 at 8:25 pm

   There is a different standard for different folks (well except if you are Scooter Libby, he got smacked around pretty hard).
3. lester says:

   January 14, 2009 at 8:35 pm

   joe- not really relative to the crime he committed. not at all actually
4. Ahithophel says:

   January 14, 2009 at 8:40 pm

   Lester, you believe that Joe the Plumber should be arrested because he was hired as a correspondent? They can hire whomever they want, and there’s nothing illegal in him taking up the offer.

   I agree with the comment here from J.J. Sefton, but I must say that I enjoy the “unmitigated gaul” typo (instead of “gall”). I don’t usually comment on typos, since we’re all trying to type quickly (we have jobs), but this one is classic. I picture a hulking Gaul warrior standing up against Julius Caesar and declaring the equivalent of: “I will not be mitigated!”
5. Paulo says:

   January 14, 2009 at 8:43 pm

   Guys, don’t worry, Rick Sanchez is gonna take care of that…
6. lester says:

   January 14, 2009 at 9:06 pm

   4. no I meant scooter. joe the plumber should continue to plumb
7. materialist says:

   January 14, 2009 at 10:17 pm

   Ahithophel -

   Good image! Keep the imagination going.
8. tbogg says:

   January 14, 2009 at 10:27 pm

   Joe the Plumber expressed his concern to Barack Obama about taxes, the same taxes that Joe the Plumber wasn’t paying. That’s like John Podhoretz complaining about nepotism.

   As for people “destroying” JtP, Joe manages to do that every time he opens his stupid mouth…
9. elTaosneo says:

   January 14, 2009 at 10:58 pm

   Yet a man who is about to be nominated for the Secretary of the Treasury owes $43,000 and pulls a Steve Martin for his defense (”I forgot…) and the media yawns.

   So, what’s to complain about? This guy is a Democrat, much like Charlie Rangel. These damn tax rules are for the little folks. They can’t possibly apply to those who write the tax rules, oversee the IRS, or are the only ones smart enough to understand the TARP giveaways.

   To paraphrase Leona Helmsley and Marie Antoinette, “you all just eat cake.”
10. Sol says:

    January 15, 2009 at 3:05 am

    Posted with a quiet chuckle and tip of the hat to Mike’s organization:

    Billionaires Burn Israeli Savers on N.Y., U.K. Deals (Update1)

    By Tal Barak Harif

    Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) — Israeli pension funds helped diamond mogul Lev Leviev snap up Manhattan real estate, including the former New York Times building, in 2007. Now they’re sharing in his losses as property prices plunge, dragging down the value of corporate bonds that backed the deals.

    Fellow billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva has the same problem after the foray by his Delek Real Estate Ltd. into British property and roadside restaurants helped force its bonds down 73 percent. Pension funds and individual investors lost about 20 billion shekels ($5.1 billion), or a quarter of what they had invested in corporate bonds, as yields fell in the four months to November.

    Now, under threat of a strike by Israel’s biggest union over pension losses, the government is proposing a bailout to help close the savings gap for people near retirement age. Concern that some companies could be wiped out helped drag the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange TA-25 Index down 44 percent in the past year.

    “These real estate tycoons imported the global financial crisis to Israel,” said Gill Beeri, managing director of Ramat Gan, Israel-based Ayalon Financial Solutions Ltd. Its Smadar fund lost 14.1 percent in the first 11 months of last year. “There’s increased concern that these companies may default.”

    Israel is the latest country to suffer from the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, which led to an economic crisis in Iceland, currency devaluations in Russia and street protests in Greece and Kuwait. There may be more fallout as the economies of the U.S., Japan and the countries of the European Union contract in 2009.

    Five-Year Boom

    Global economic growth will slow to 2.2 percent in 2009 from 3.7 percent last year, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund said Nov. 6. The IMF defines a world recession as expansion of less than 3 percent.

    The slowdown is blunting a five-year boom, during which the Israeli economy grew an average of 5 percent annually. It may expand 1.5 percent in 2009, the slowest pace since 2002, the Bank of Israel estimated Nov. 20, when it abandoned a previous forecast of 2.7 percent. Israel’s economy will probably show no growth this year, Merrill Lynch & Co. said Jan. 11, cutting its estimate from 1 percent.

    Overseas property purchases helped drive up the amount of corporate debt in Israel over the past five years.

    Retirement Savers

    The country’s 15 largest real estate companies have about 140 billion shekels in overall debt, more than three times the amount in 2003, according to Dun & Bradstreet Israel.

    “Pointing a finger at Delek Group Ltd. and Delek Real Estate, as well as Africa Israel, as the central reasons for the situation in the capital and pension market is a radical distortion of the reality,” Delek Group said today in an e- mail. The companies “have always been able to cover their liabilities and will continue to do so in the future.”

    About 50 billion shekels of that debt is in the hands of those saving for retirement in so-called provident funds, long- term investment vehicles similar to U.S. 401(k) accounts that offer tax-free savings for employees.

    Investors are suffering partly because of the billionaires’ property losses and from concern the companies they control won’t be able to pay debts or find refinancing because of the credit crisis.

    Manhattan Property

    Leviev, 52, made his money as owner of the world’s largest cutter and polisher of diamonds and was No. 227 on Forbes’s list of the world’s richest people last year, with a net worth of $4.5 billion. His charitable activities include helping fund Jewish schools in his native Uzbekistan.

    Leviev’s Africa Israel Investments Ltd. bought the former Times headquarters on Times Square for $525 million. It paid $200 million for the 19th-century Clock Tower building on Manhattan’s lower Broadway, saying it would be converted into 55 apartments designed by Italian fashion company Gianni Versace SpA.

    Those overseas deals were backed in part by investors and fund managers who acquired the company’s bonds, rated AA by Standard & Poor’s-Maalot. Leviev, the chairman of Africa Israel, moved to London last year, spending a reported 35 million pounds ($51 million) for a property in the Hampstead neighborhood.

    Tshuva is estimated by Forbes to be worth $3.5 billion. As a contractor, he profited from the construction boom during the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel in the 1990s. The 60-year- old took over Delek, Israel’s No. 2 oil and gas company, in 1998.

    U.K. Holdings

    Delek Real Estate has about 2.8 billion shekels in outstanding bonds, according to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Africa Israel has 7 billion shekels, according to the company.

    Their bonds were snapped up in oversubscribed offerings, and were the most-traded notes on the stock exchange in October, according to Bank Hapoalim Ltd.

    In April 2007, Delek Real Estate bought 47 hotels in the U.K. operated by Marriott International Inc. It also acquired RoadChef Motorway Holdings Ltd., a U.K. operator of highway service stations, for $738 million and owns the building leased to Britain’s Foreign Office.

    Israelis hold about 220 billion shekels in provident funds and employee benefit funds, the Finance Ministry said. Through November, provident funds lost an average 17.8 percent. The long-term investments account for about 30 percent of the 200 billion-shekel corporate bond market.

    Strike Threat

    The losses have investors heading for the exits. About 3.5 billion shekels were redeemed from provident funds in October, according to Meitav Investments & Securities Ltd., which tracks the industry.

    On Dec. 14, the cabinet approved a plan by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to guarantee pensions and long-term savings up to 750,000 shekels, or about $193,000, for people age 57 and older. He said the aim was to provide a monthly income equal to the country’s average wage, which is 8,210 shekels.

    The decision came after the Histadrut labor federation, which represents more than a quarter of Israel’s workforce, threatened a nationwide strike. The government didn’t estimate a cost for the program.

    During the deregulation of the capital markets in 2003, the non-bank credit market expanded as union pension funds were privatized and the banks were forced to sell their asset- management units, creating a new class of institutional investors who had previously invested mainly in government debt.

    Investing Abroad

    At the same time, developers took advantage of financing opportunities to invest abroad. Critics say that these changes in the market led provident and pension funds to buy riskier assets.

    “Institutional investors were fighting to get the best short-term yields for long-term investments — it didn’t make any sense,” said Ami Cohen, head of the union’s pension department.

    Africa Israel said in August that it will sell 49.9 percent of its holding in the Clock Tower and 49 percent of the Times building, along with its entire stake in a Wall Street property, in order to pay back its debt.

    “I don’t see any problems in covering our debt or liabilities,” Izzy Cohen, chief executive officer of Africa Israel, said in an interview.

    Africa Israel’s inflation-linked notes due in 2012, which have dropped 65 percent in the past 12 months, were downgraded to A3 from Aa3 by Midroog Ltd., the Israeli unit of Moody’s Investors Service. Leviev’s net worth plunged by about 13 billion shekels as the company’s shares fell 91 percent in 2008.

    Asset Sales

    Tshuva’s Delek Group Ltd., the parent company of Delek Real Estate, has lost about 8.5 billion shekels in market value and was removed from the TA-25 this month.

    Delek Real Estate said Oct. 29 that it planned to sell assets, including its RoadChef holding, to repay debt.

    That pledge doesn’t comfort politicians who say Israel needs protection from toxic financial imports.

    “There has been a group of businessmen that acted irresponsibly and with great greed,” said Avishay Braverman, chairman of the parliamentary finance committee. “Long-term savings have been thrown out of the window and there is a need for more oversight and regulation.”

    Last Updated: January 14, 2009 12:25 EST
11. J.J. Sefton says:

    January 15, 2009 at 7:45 am

    Attacking Joe the Plumber’s ability, or lack therof, as a reporter is completely irrelevant to my comparison.

    Obama walked up to him at random and the guy asked him a legitimate question – one that the media took as an attack on its favorite son. At that point they set out to absolutely destroy him. He truly was unaware of a $1,000 tax lien, which the media was able to somehow expose with a little help from their friends in the Ohio state IRS. Geithner on the other hand apparantly knew well in advance of the money he owes and has tried to obfuscate or otherwise get away without paying. Plus he is seeking high office. Joe the Plumber was completely anonymous until he was dragged into the spotlight.

    As for my incorrect spelling of “gall,” yes that is embarrassment considering I am a writer by trade and my mother was an English teacher!
12. J.J. Sefton says:

    January 15, 2009 at 7:47 am

    AN embarrassment. I hate this keyboard……
13. K Winterer says:

    January 15, 2009 at 9:12 am

    I hope every single taxpayer of whom penalties are demanded uses this guy as an excuse to to pay! He SIGNED a commitment to pay these taxes when he took the IMF job, he was sent
    reminders every quarter to pay, and he not only ignored all that but he neglected even to pay the employer part of SS for those whom he employed! And this is just a hiccup! How many real people get that break? Even the GOP says, he’s got to have the job because he’s the only guy who understand TARP! Whose fault is that? Is there no honest Democrat smart enough to learn TARP and responsible enough to have paid his taxes?
14. lester says:

    January 15, 2009 at 10:59 am

    10- leg legiev is also a big time supporter of israeli settlements
15. Ahithophel says:

    January 15, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    Nothing to be embarrassed about, it was just a funny slip. It got me wondering what an “unmitigated gaul” would be.

    As for Joe the Plumber, you’re absolutely right. A $1000 lien, of which the individual has not been made aware, is quite different from repeatedly failing to pay taxes one knew one should. Also, we’re not talking about Joe the Plumber for head of Treasury. The higher the office, the higher the standards to which the aspirants should be held accountable.