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Monday, October 20, 2008

Is "Joe the Plumber" related to the multiple-felon, Keating, from whom McCain accepted trips and contributions during the S-&-L bailout times?


Joe does not like paying taxes. I guess he sings like the Seven Elves, "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." I say that based on his state income tax deficiency docket, above, click to enlarge.

Also, KOS turnover -- What's in a name?

KOS, here, linking over to past news about Keating's son-in-law, now I know you can say "Wurzelbacher" is such a common name, and there can be confusion when the media is given the Worz... spelled version but our plumber guy registered to vote, with the Wurz... spelling. So can we say the other Wurzelbachers in Toledo and environs are related or not?

The past item, NYT - 1993, here, indicates the kinship Joe has with Keating, if any, would not be by blood but by marriage:

Keating Son-in-Law to Serve Prison Term
Published: December 13, 1993

A son-in-law of the former head of Lincoln Savings, Charles H. Keating Jr., must surrender next year to begin a 40-month prison sentence.

United States District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer imposed the sentence last week on the son-in-law, Robert M. Wurzelbacher Jr., who had pleaded guilty to three counts of misapplying $14 million from Lincoln, an Irvine, Calif., savings association.

Mr. Wurzelbacher, 39, was an executive with Lincoln's parent, the American Continental Corporation, which Mr. Keating controlled.

Prosecutors asked for a six-year sentence, saying Mr. Wurzelbacher had volunteered little of use to them after making a plea bargain.

Mr. Wurzelbacher's lawyer, Mark Beck, had asked for probation and community service. He said Mr. Wurzelbacher was likely to serve 26 months before parole.

On Tuesday, Judge Pfaelzer ordered Mr. Wurzelbacher to begin his sentence on Feb. 4. She said she would recommend that he be sent to prison camp at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Mr. Wurzelbacher did not plead guilty to the indictment charging him and others, including Mr. Keating and Mr. Keating's son, with looting Lincoln and swindling investors who lost money buying risky bonds. Instead, he admitted that he helped Lincoln extend loans to a hotel partnership in which he, Mr. Keating and other insiders had interests. He said he knew the loans were unlikely to be repaid.

Lincoln's failure in April 1989 cost taxpayers $3.4 billion, [then] a record.


Somebody had the sandbag on the rope perhaps swing back with a big backswing, the other, unintended way. Perhaps not.

_____UPDATE_____
Same story, here, here, here and here. My favorite, right wing blarney interview, Joe's creed:

JOE WURZELBACHER: Initially, I started off asking him if he believed in the American Dream and he said yes, he does – and then I proceeded to ask him then why he’s penalizing me for trying to fulfill it. He asked, “what do you mean,” and I explained to him that I’m planning on purchasing this company – it’s not something I’m gonna purchase outright, it’s something I’m going to have to make payments on for years – but essentially I’m going to buy this company, and the profits generated by that could possibly put me in that tax bracket he’s talking about and that bothers me. It’s not like I would be rich; I would still just be a working plumber. I work hard for my money, and the fact that he thinks I make a little too much that he just wants to redistribute it to other people. Some of them might need it, but at the same time, it’s not their discretion to do it – it’s mine.

No. See, I believe in working for what I get. I don’t want to say it’s a handout, but essentially that’s what it comes down to. You’re going to tax someone else more that’s been working hard to fulfill the American Dream and you’re gonna give it to other people who – I’m not saying they don’t work as hard, but I’m sure some of them don’t – and I don’t think it’s right just to give it to them or reduce taxes on their part and hike it up on my part like a teeter totter to bring it back even. So no, that wouldn’t – well, let me rephrase that. It would appeal to me because back then I was struggling. That kind of thing appeals to me – anybody wants to cut my taxes, I look at it very seriously, it’s like, it sounds great. But you gotta see what the other hand is doing too.

As soon as he said it, he contradicted himself. He doesn’t want to “punish” me, but – when you use the word “but,” you pretty much negate everything you just said prior to that. So he does want to punish me, he does want to punish me for working harder to – you know, my big thing is the American Dream. I work hard. You know, I was poor; my mom raised me and my brother by herself for a very long time until my dad came along. So I know what it’s like to suffer. It’s not like I was born with a silver spoon. Usually it was a wooden spoon and it was on my butt. It was just a contradiction of terms, what he said: he doesn’t want to punish me but he wants to redistribute my wealth. And what I mean when I say my wealth, I mean the collective. Eventually – I mean, just to sound a little silly here, but you need rich people. I mean, who are you going to work for?

Very much so. You start giving people stuff, and then they start expecting it – and that scares me. A lot of people expect it now. They get upset when their check’s late, they get upset when they don’t get as many benefits as they used to, or when different government agencies are cut or spending is cut here and there for whatever reason – people get upset at that. And that’s because they’re used to getting it and they want more. I mean, everyone’s always gonna want more. People work the system left and right to get more out of welfare, to get more out of state assistance, federal assistance. And if government’s there for them, they’re gonna keep on trying to manipulate it to get more out of it. You got people that come along and say, “Hey, I wanna help you people,” I mean, they’re all ears! They’re like, “Hey, you can help me more, I don’t have to work as hard, I don’t have to do as much, and you’re gonna give me this? Man, that’s great, you’re a good guy.”

So yeah, it goes down the socialist – His healthcare plan scares me. You know, I don’t like people going without healthcare, but it’s not my job to pay for everyone else’s healthcare.

Me personally, my American Dream was to have a house, a dog, a couple rifles, a bass boat. I believe in living life easy and simple. I don’t have grand designs.

There’s a lot of things I wish McCain would say. As far as this, yes, I would like him to speak. Not so much about small businesses, but just people in general that make this money. It’s not up to them to help America, I mean – let me rephrase that. It’s not – they shouldn’t be taxed more because they’ve succeeded. That’s envy and jealousy. Get off your butt and go work.


If you don't think you're being jobbed by that, that Joe's been rehearsed and scripted, well fine, think otherwise.

But, what's your guess of Joe's opinion - reading all that - about Unemployment Insurance?

I envision it as: Hey, you just lost your job - Joe's got a quite GOP talk-show proper single finger salute for you, it's not skin off my butt he might say, why should I pay anything for providing coverage - no skin off your butt either since you're sitting on it there and whining, four children, credit card debt, have to sell the bass boat and all, and all - so what - you must be one of those anti-American sorts that some of the most responsible GOP politicians want to ferret out and publicly brand on the forehead or otherwise identify. It should be simple - you spot them by their envy and jealousy.

I envision Joe not thinking, we're in it together, as much as throwing others off a lifeboat - food and provisions last longer that way. Finally, is he related to that one Keating crony where the creed is, we steal our money by hard work, no easy stealing for our Aryan stock, singing the Horst Wessel song, sweating as we steal? Or am I too overzealous in my imagining things Joe W. left unsaid? For the next post-election interview? They are said to invest hard work in their stealing elections. I don't think any of the complaints are over indifferent attitude while election rigging.