Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

On May 6, 1999, on the Senate floor, Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan-ND said in reference to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, “This bill will, in my judgment, raise the likelihood of future massive taxpayer bailouts”.

Later he said, “I think we will look back in 10 years [2009] time and say we should not have done this….”

See what Rachel Maddow has to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_hbezbsJ8s

How Did We Get Into This Mess

Seems like no one in the so-called “liberal” media wants to talk about how we got into this economic mess.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was enacted Nov, 1999, written by Phil Gramm (repub) repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act. This republican sponsored bill allowed commercial banks to get into the investment services game (read gambling). The bill passed in the republican controlled Congress and after considerable pressure from Congress, was signed by the president.

Then in 2000 the republican controlled Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. This bill repealed the Shad-Johnson jurisdictional accord, which had banned single-stock futures in 1982. The legislation also provided certainty that products offered by banking institutions would not be regulated as futures contracts.

These two laws unregulated the banking industry allowing the banks and insurance companies to literally gamble with the money they were, up until then, supposed to keep for emergencies. These unregulated banks and insurance companies literally gambled away all the money they had plus money they borrowed. Now they want us to repay their gambling debts.

This is explained a lot better at Democratic Underground:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8278459 and

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8278475

The Party of Lies

The mouth pieces for the republiCon party, like Glen Beck, Hannity, Rush, etc. are favoring bankruptcy for auto makers but not banks. Why? Because bankruptcy for auto makers will help the wealthy execs and harm the blue collar employees. But for banks bankruptcy would hurt only the wealthy execs. The republiCon party is all for the wealthy.

The republiCon talking point for justifying reducing the pay for the auto maker workers is that they supposedly get paid $70 per hour. This is a republiCon lie aimed at harming the workers. No worker gets paid $70 per hour.

According to Johnathan Cohn at: http://www.uaw.org/auto/11_25_08auto2.cfm

Here is how the $70 per hour breaks down:
$28 actual wages approx
$10 approx benefits bring it up to about $38 per hour
The remaining $32 per hour is money that the current employees DO NOT GET. It is money that is being distributed to retirees. Money that the automakers ALREADY PAID to employees but kept it “safe-keeping” for their for retirement. republiCons want to steal the employees retirement money and give it to the execs.

In any case the republiCon talking point is to lie and state that current workers are paid $70 per hour. I believe the pay for the non-workers (execs) is approx. $5000 per hour.

Why Did the John Adams Mini-Series Get So Much Hype?

Why not Tom Jefferson, Ben Franklin, George Washington or Tom Paine?

Although Adams did fight hard for the independence of the United States from Britain, after he became president he supported a strong executive branch.

He badly wanted religion to play a larger role in government. I believe he fought with Tom Jefferson about this as well as many other issues. EDIT. After reading "Moral Minority", I retract this sentence. In later years Adams concluded that religion should be separate from government. He became a Unitarian.
He had his own version of the Patriot Act which was actually four acts:
The Naturalization Act, The Alien Act, The Alien Enemies Act, and the Sedition Act. Under the pretense that these acts would make America safer, they were actually brought about to suppress political opposition of the Democratic-Republicans.
He did not support the Bill of Rights (I need to check this).
And he was famous for trying to appoint 250 of his Federalist friends as judges and other government officers, between the time Tom Jefferson (voted to succeed him) was elected and inaugurated. This was know as the "Midnight Judges".

The above facts are as I remembered them from history class. Corrections are welcome.

Update: I have received some good input and am off to research further. Thanks.

I would love to see a mini series about Thomas Paine, arguably the father of the American Revolution.

Are the republicans political geniuses or cutting their own throats?

Tell me if I got this right:

Within 6 months of the election, both Georgie bush and Sen McStrangelove said the economy was in good condition.

Within 1 month of the inauguration, bush’s stogie, Paulson, tells us the economy is in crisis and if we don’t give him 700 billion within days the country will collapse.

The republicans in Congress break their necks to give Paulson at least 350 of the 700 billion with absolutely no strings attached.

Paulson says the money will go to banks to “free up” credit.

In fact the money is used by the banks for various things like CEO salaries, acquiring other banks, and having elaborate parties, but NOT freeing up credit. Thanks to the republicans this money doesn’t have any effect on solving the economic crisis.

Then President Obama takes office and wants to build a true economic recovery package. The republicans obstruct at each and every turn. They say the Democrats plan won’t work, like they would know what would or wouldn’t work. They say they want to continue the tax breaks for the rich program that got us were we are today. It is their only song and they continue to sing it.

President Obama makes every effort to appease the republicans, reaching across the aisle, and apparently making a compromise.

Compromise or not, each and every republican in Congress but three, vote against the plan. They were careful not to stop the bill but now can say they opposed it. Shear political genius. The country may collapse but they look good.

We need use the strength we demonstrated in election President Barack Hussein Obama, and go after all of the republican Senators at their next elections.

Republicans Shoot Them Selves in the Head Again

I think that a true liberal will tell you we need two strong parties to make our government work. When one party dominates it leads to corruption as we have seen in the last eight years. The republican party was once an honorable party, the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower. The party of my grandfather, my father and me, until Nixon. Now they are the party of corruption, greed and hypocrisy. In the elections of 2006 and 2008, the Democrats kicked their asses. One might hope they would have learned a lesson. Not so. The temptations of corruption, greed and hypocrisy are too much for them as proven by their choice for head of the republican National Committee. Michael Steele represents everything corrupt about the republicans. I guess they need their asses kicked some more.

Also posted at democraticunderground.com

George Bush, the Poster Child for Inheritance Tax Reform

George Bush, arguably (with a few anyway) the worst president ever, got to that position from his family wealth and power. He certainly didn’t do anything in his life that qualified him for the job. He barely got through college and was known for his drinking and drugging during that period. When it came time to support his country and fight in Vietnam, his influential poppy got him a cushy assignment in the Air National Guard. And he didn’t excel there, but actually when AWOL before his time was up. From there he had numerous attempts at starting oil company on money Saudi Arabia gave him because they liked his poppy and his daddy’s influence. He went from job to job but had no affinity to even work. He was accused of insider trading where he made millions but was cleared by the SEC which some feel were influenced by friends of his poppy. He made a cool $14 million on his investment in the Texas Rangers. Not through anything he did mind you, but because a friend of his poppy wanted to be very generous to the son of the president of the country. George W. Bush became the president of the United States, not because he was qualified, but because he had the wealth and influence of his family behind him.

The founding fathers of this country fought against the tyranny of power wielded by the wealthy. They were against rule by heredity because they saw the tyranny it could bring. This is why they supported heavy taxes on inherited wealth. Inherited wealth, not taxed, will accumulate over generations and thus build family dynasties and the tyranny that can come with it.

Thomas Paine said in his pamphlet “Common Sense”: “One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of (the) hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.” This means that in nature the strongest prevail, the strongest earn their power, however, heredity can give man an “ass” for a leader. If you didn’t get it, George W. Bush is the ass Tom Paine was talking about.

The rich republicans what to get rid of the inheritance tax so that they can build the tyrannical dynasties that our founding fathers fought so hard against.