The presidential election is well under way but as President Barack Obama tries to position himself as the defender of the middle-class who will protect the 99% against corporate malfeasance and too big to fail banks, he may find himself in a precarious position. His record does not necessarily reflect his rhetoric and at the same time Wall Street donors have padded his campaign coffers.

Wall Street fell in love with the promise of change and Obama’s intellectual approach to governing the country during the 2008 presidential election. Obama raised nearly $16 million from Wall Street, nearly double the amount of his Republican rival John McCain, and eventually won the election on a promise to break the” business per usual” mindset in Washington.

Over the course of Obama’s three plus years in office, his tone toward Wall Street has shifted dramatically from the days of the campaign trail. He has routinely spoken out against the big banks and their role in what led to the worst financial crisis since 1929. He has chided the “fat cats” on Wall Street, much to their chagrin, for excessive compensation packages during a time when real wages have fallen to levels not seen since the 1970s.

But as it turns out, Obama’s bark has been much worse than his bite on the issue of the big banks.

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What really infuriates me about this is that I remember last summer, when the debt limit was being argued over, and every Democrat was insistent that the US Postal Service was off limits because their budget was, I quote, “separate from the US budget.”

How separate are they now?

The U.S. Postal Service is often the butt of jokes, but there’s nothing funny about the agency’s bottom line.

The USPS is losing up to $25 million dollars a day. Until now, taxpayers have not been on the hook for its mounting losses, but that could be about to change. A bailout recently approved by the Senate would appropriate $34 billion in federal money.

“If the post office was a business, it would be in bankruptcy,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla. “It’s insolvent.”

Ironically, however, Congress shares much of the blame. For years, the Postal Service begged Washington for the freedom to cut its own budget by closing post offices and cutting employees. But Congress, under pressure from rural constituents and labor unions, prevented the cuts, and the service continued to bleed red ink.

In December, the USPS said it wanted to close more than half of its mail processing centers, eliminate 28,000 jobs, end overnight delivery of first-class mail, close 3,700 local post offices and end Saturday delivery.

The Senate said no, prohibiting the Postmaster General from taking those actions altogether, or delaying them for two to three years.

For the time being, the Postal Service has a moratorium on office closings — but that moratorium expires on May 15, absent an elusive compromise between the House and Senate.

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Athens, Greece (CNN) — Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday laid out the radical agenda he hopes to pursue if he becomes prime minister, including the cancellation of severe budget-cutting measures forced on the country by international lenders.

Laws which cut pensions and salaries and those which “cancel basic workers’ rights” must be annulled, Tsipras said as he started efforts to form a governing coalition in the wake of parliamentary elections on Sunday.

He also called for state control of the banks, which “remain in the hands of the managers who bankrupted the system,” he said.

The Greek people voted clearly to reject the austerity demanded by international lenders, Syriza Party leader Tsipras said.

The two parties that made the agreement with international lenders “don’t have a majority any more to vote for the plundering of the Greek people,” Tsipras told lawmakers.

Tsipras met Greek President Karolos Papoulias earlier on Tuesday to get instructions to try to cobble together a government in the wake of elections that left the country’s political system in chaos.

Syriza will have three days to form a government.

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZsfKJc4Tgg 450 300]

At a press conference in parliament, Alexis Tsipras has said that the country’s commitment to an EU/IMF rescue deal has become null after voters rejected pro-bailout parties in Sunday’s election. “The popular verdict clearly renders the bailout deal null.”

He said said that Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos must take back their written support for the memorandum – by writing a letter to Brussels informing them of this. He presented his policy platform which he said was based on 5 pillars:

1. Immediate begation of the memorandum
2. Negation of all coming measures that will affect all aspects of employment law
3. Immediate changes to election legislation and negation of the ministerial culpability law
4. State control of banks
5. The creation of an international auditing body, with the purpose of finding a serious and logical solution to Greece’s debt repayment.

He once again extended his hand to all powers of the left, praising KKE’s position on protecting the unemployed and said that he still aimed at forming a government with all parties supporting leftist and eco-friendly ideology.

He noted that the formation of a coalition government with New Democracy and Pasok, was not possible for they were not looking at saving the nation, but saving the memorandum.

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All moves made in government will be for the benefit of upcoming elections as opposed to what should be done.

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Despite his populist posturing, the president has failed to pin a single top finance exec on criminal charges since the economic collapse. Are the banks too big to jail—or is Washington’s revolving door at to blame? Peter J. Boyer and Peter Schweizer investigate:

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Financial executives are worried about tougher regulations should Socialist leader Francois Hollande win the French presidential election. They should be.

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“Euro leadership, especially Ms. Merkel, need to understand that austerity policies are over”. “The parties that signed the memorandum of agreement are a minority. Their signatures are not legitimate” .

-Alexis Tsipras (this guy just won the fucking election)

Say hello to the socialist, Hollande.

NOTE: French turnout was over 80%. Can you say referendum?

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Perhaps a bit early to mention anything here as polls do not close until 7pm Greece time or 12 pm EST. The outcome of this election is also very important for the EU.

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Tracking or exit polls show Sarkozy has not much of a lead. So far he is up 4 percentage points. Stay tuned as this will have a dramatic effect on world markets.

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In mid-October 2008, as the Treasury was discussing which banks would be bailed out in the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP), Kerry bought up to $550,000 worth of Citigroup stock and up to $350,000 worth of Bank of America shares. Days later, the American public learned that Citigroup would receive $50 billion from the TARP fund and up to $277 billion in additional loan guarantees. Bank of America also received $50 billion from TARP.

During the contentious healthcare debate in 2009, Schweizer noted, Kerry loaded up on pharmaceutical stocks, purchasing close to $750,000 worth of shares in one company—Teva Pharmaceuticals—in the month of November alone.

Drug companies were viewed to be among the major beneficiaries of the Democratic healthcare legislation. Pharmaceuticals “kicked in $80 billion to help make the bill work, but stand to make 10 times that amount in revenues from added government and government-subsidized business,” liberal columnist Howard Fineman wrote inNewsweek.

Teva stock was trading at about $50 a share when Kerry started buying, but jumped to $62 a share after the healthcare bill was passed, an increase of nearly 25 percent. After Obama signed the bill into law, Kerry sold his Teva shares, realizing tens of thousands in capital gains.

Kerry also bought shares of ResMed, a company that makes medical devices, which surged more than 70 percent after the healthcare bill’s passage. Throughout the healthcare negotiations, Kerry consistently opposed efforts to increase taxes on companies like ResMed.

He also purchased stock in Thermo Fisher Scientific, a firm providing products and services to hospitals, at $35 a share. After passage, they were trading at $50 a share, an increase of more than 40 percent.

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has circulated a lengthy pair of documents making the case for holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his “refusal” to cooperate in an investigation of the ill-fated Fast and Furious operation.

Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Thursday sent to every member of his committee a 64-page draft contempt order against Holder, as well as a 17-page memo outlining the history of the scandal.

“Operation Fast and Furious’ outrageous tactics, the Justice Department’s refusal to fully cooperate with the investigation and efforts to smear and retaliate against whistleblowers have tainted the institutional integrity of the Justice Department,” Issa wrote.

The committee is not citing Holder or holding the attorney general in contempt at this point. However, the documents lay out the case for contempt should members be called to vote.

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The shipping market may not be able to meet sanctions given oil is blended with the sweet crude Iran has on hand.

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