It's like no one who is left of center knows how to think for themselves......it's scary. The party leaders speak and they believe it as fact every time.
The free market phonies and Wall Street types always used to tell us endlessly about how bad and evil the government was. Until they needed everyone else to bail them out. "Just leave us alone and let business be business" is what we would had to listen to over and over. Right. So where are they now? Cowards and hypocrites. Each and every one of them.
Nouriel Roubini really lowered the boom on Wall Street and the Republican system of ignoring basic regulatory obligations. I wish CNBC would allow video to be embedded, but watch the video in this link. Roubini had been predicting this financial failure for a few years so what he has to say is always interesting. Before this implosion, the GOP economists dismissed what he had to say though today, they've all gone quiet. Best and most truthful quote: "Profits have been privatized and losses socialized"
What we are witnessing may be the greatest destruction of financial wealth that the world has ever seen -- paper losses measured in the trillions of dollars. Corporate wealth. Oil wealth. Real estate wealth. Bank wealth. Private-equity wealth. Hedge fund wealth. Pension wealth. It's a painful reminder that, when you strip away all the complexity and trappings from the magnificent new global infrastructure, finance is still a confidence game -- and once the confidence goes, there's no telling when the selling will stop.
John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic -- Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission....
Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential....
In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution.
They failed to mention that 'mr. prepeared to be President'; John McCain doesn't even understand that Bush can't fire the chairman of the SEC. He doesn't serve at his pleasure.
They failed to mention that 'mr. prepeared to be President'; John McCain doesn't even understand that Bush can't fire the chairman of the SEC. He doesn't serve at his pleasure.
In the wake of the Enron scandal in October 2002, Democratic congressional leaders Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., wrote a letter to President Bush and held a press conference, demanding that then-SEC commissioner Harvey Pitt resign.
"The Democratic leaders of the Senate and House urged President Bush in a letter to oust Mr. Pitt," wrote the New York Times.
Within a month, Pitt was gone.
Daschle is a key adviser to Obama.
"Not only is there historical precedent for SEC chairs to be removed," said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds, "the president of the United States always reserves the right to request the resignation of an appointee and maintain the customary expectation that it will be delivered.”
So, can a president "fire" an SEC chairman? Not literally, no.
But colloquially, yes.
In the world of politics, pressure can be brought to bear and "resignations" can occur, as Obama's top adviser Mr. Daschle knows well.
Originally Posted By: whomod
and from the partisan (that's right wing partisan) Wall Street Journal: :"John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. ....
The fact they said "any better than Barack Obama" should have tipped you off what there point was. They were criticizing McCain for supporting increased regulation of Wall Street, which is exactly the sort of thing you and Obama want.
In other words, you're attacking McCain for departing from the typical Republican viewpoint.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain sparked a furious exchange of campaign attacks Thursday night with the release of a television ad linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to a former Fannie Mae chief who was forced out by an accounting scandal.
The ad accuses Obama of using Franklin Raines as an adviser, a claim based on a July Washington Post profile of Raines that reported he had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."
The Obama campaign disputes that Raines ever advised Obama or the campaign.
Raines, who served as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton, left Fannie Mae in late December 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities, saying he was holding himself accountable by taking an early retirement. Fannie Mae agreed to pay $400 million in fines in the wake of the scandal.
Earlier this year, Raines settled with federal regulators who had been after him to try to recover hundreds of millions of dollars that he and other executives made while Fannie was misstating its earnings. None of the $25 million he agreed to pay came out of his pocket, according to the Post.
In addition to the accounting scandal, McCain's ad ties Raines to the recent crisis facing the giant of the secondary-mortgage giant, which was taken over by the federal government earlier this month.
"Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers stuck with the bill," the announcer in the ad says.
While Fannie Mae was certainly weakened by the accounting scandal earlier this decade, it is highly questionable whether that had any bearing on its inability to survive the national home foreclosure tide on its own.
But the potential political fallout of Obama's ties to the company is clear.
Despite his short tenure on the national stage, Obama is the second-leading recipient of campaign contributions from the political action committees and employees of Fannie Mae and sister government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac since 1989 -- $165,400 in all -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the financing of congressional and presidential campaigns.
McCain's total is $21,550, according to CRP.
Obama has an even stronger link to the former leadership of Fannie Mae: He tapped another former Fannie CEO, Jim Johnson, to head his vice presidential selection committee. But Johnson was forced aside when it was revealed that he had been the beneficiary of a low-interest loan from Countrywide Financial Corp.
i hope whomod doesn't smack his wife again for this!
Republican presidential nominee John McCain sparked a furious exchange of campaign attacks Thursday night with the release of a television ad linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to a former Fannie Mae chief who was forced out by an accounting scandal.
The ad accuses Obama of using Franklin Raines as an adviser, a claim based on a July Washington Post profile of Raines that reported he had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."
The Obama campaign disputes that Raines ever advised Obama or the campaign.
Raines, who served as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton, left Fannie Mae in late December 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities, saying he was holding himself accountable by taking an early retirement. Fannie Mae agreed to pay $400 million in fines in the wake of the scandal.
Earlier this year, Raines settled with federal regulators who had been after him to try to recover hundreds of millions of dollars that he and other executives made while Fannie was misstating its earnings. None of the $25 million he agreed to pay came out of his pocket, according to the Post.
In addition to the accounting scandal, McCain's ad ties Raines to the recent crisis facing the giant of the secondary-mortgage giant, which was taken over by the federal government earlier this month.
"Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers stuck with the bill," the announcer in the ad says.
While Fannie Mae was certainly weakened by the accounting scandal earlier this decade, it is highly questionable whether that had any bearing on its inability to survive the national home foreclosure tide on its own.
But the potential political fallout of Obama's ties to the company is clear.
Despite his short tenure on the national stage, Obama is the second-leading recipient of campaign contributions from the political action committees and employees of Fannie Mae and sister government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac since 1989 -- $165,400 in all -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the financing of congressional and presidential campaigns.
McCain's total is $21,550, according to CRP.
Obama has an even stronger link to the former leadership of Fannie Mae: He tapped another former Fannie CEO, Jim Johnson, to head his vice presidential selection committee. But Johnson was forced aside when it was revealed that he had been the beneficiary of a low-interest loan from Countrywide Financial Corp.
i hope whomod doesn't smack his wife again for this!
Again you fall for a dishonest McCain attack ad. Both Raines and the Obama campaign as well as a number of newspapers and journalists have already disproven this. Man, you really are McCain's bitch.
The campaign puts out a statement from former Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines, disowning ties to Obama, after a McCain ad attacked him for the ties.
The Washington Post reported -- with the kind of blind sourcing that suggests the source was Raines -- that Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."
Raines said in the statement through the campaign, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton added an attack:
This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything -- ever. And by the way, someone whose campaign manager and top advisor worked and lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shouldn't be throwing stones from his seven glass houses.
UPDATE: McCain spokesman Brian Rogers notes that Obama didn't contradict the claim when it first appeared in the Post.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain sparked a furious exchange of campaign attacks Thursday night with the release of a television ad linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to a former Fannie Mae chief who was forced out by an accounting scandal.
The ad accuses Obama of using Franklin Raines as an adviser, a claim based on a July Washington Post profile of Raines that reported he had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."
The Obama campaign disputes that Raines ever advised Obama or the campaign.
Raines, who served as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton, left Fannie Mae in late December 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities, saying he was holding himself accountable by taking an early retirement. Fannie Mae agreed to pay $400 million in fines in the wake of the scandal.
Earlier this year, Raines settled with federal regulators who had been after him to try to recover hundreds of millions of dollars that he and other executives made while Fannie was misstating its earnings. None of the $25 million he agreed to pay came out of his pocket, according to the Post.
In addition to the accounting scandal, McCain's ad ties Raines to the recent crisis facing the giant of the secondary-mortgage giant, which was taken over by the federal government earlier this month.
"Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers stuck with the bill," the announcer in the ad says.
While Fannie Mae was certainly weakened by the accounting scandal earlier this decade, it is highly questionable whether that had any bearing on its inability to survive the national home foreclosure tide on its own.
But the potential political fallout of Obama's ties to the company is clear.
Despite his short tenure on the national stage, Obama is the second-leading recipient of campaign contributions from the political action committees and employees of Fannie Mae and sister government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac since 1989 -- $165,400 in all -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the financing of congressional and presidential campaigns.
McCain's total is $21,550, according to CRP.
Obama has an even stronger link to the former leadership of Fannie Mae: He tapped another former Fannie CEO, Jim Johnson, to head his vice presidential selection committee. But Johnson was forced aside when it was revealed that he had been the beneficiary of a low-interest loan from Countrywide Financial Corp.
i hope whomod doesn't smack his wife again for this!
Republican presidential nominee John McCain sparked a furious exchange of campaign attacks Thursday night with the release of a television ad linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to a former Fannie Mae chief who was forced out by an accounting scandal.
The ad accuses Obama of using Franklin Raines as an adviser, a claim based on a July Washington Post profile of Raines that reported he had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."
The Obama campaign disputes that Raines ever advised Obama or the campaign.
Raines, who served as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton, left Fannie Mae in late December 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities, saying he was holding himself accountable by taking an early retirement. Fannie Mae agreed to pay $400 million in fines in the wake of the scandal.
Earlier this year, Raines settled with federal regulators who had been after him to try to recover hundreds of millions of dollars that he and other executives made while Fannie was misstating its earnings. None of the $25 million he agreed to pay came out of his pocket, according to the Post.
In addition to the accounting scandal, McCain's ad ties Raines to the recent crisis facing the giant of the secondary-mortgage giant, which was taken over by the federal government earlier this month.
"Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers stuck with the bill," the announcer in the ad says.
While Fannie Mae was certainly weakened by the accounting scandal earlier this decade, it is highly questionable whether that had any bearing on its inability to survive the national home foreclosure tide on its own.
But the potential political fallout of Obama's ties to the company is clear.
Despite his short tenure on the national stage, Obama is the second-leading recipient of campaign contributions from the political action committees and employees of Fannie Mae and sister government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac since 1989 -- $165,400 in all -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the financing of congressional and presidential campaigns.
McCain's total is $21,550, according to CRP.
Obama has an even stronger link to the former leadership of Fannie Mae: He tapped another former Fannie CEO, Jim Johnson, to head his vice presidential selection committee. But Johnson was forced aside when it was revealed that he had been the beneficiary of a low-interest loan from Countrywide Financial Corp.
i hope whomod doesn't smack his wife again for this!
If I were McCain I'd really reconsider trying to blame Obama for the financial crisis. Being a Republican and all first of all, second having 83 Wall Street lobbyists on his payroll, and third *ahem* it's been revealed that McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis paid several hundred thousand dollars to lobby for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against federal regulation
Yesterday, Senator John McCain released a television commercial attacking Barack Obama for allegedly receiving advice on the economy from former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines. From the stump, he has recently tried tying Senator Obama to Fannie Mae, as if there is some guilt in the association with Fannie Mae's former executives.
It is an interesting card for Senator McCain to play, given that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several hundred thousand dollars early in this decade to head up an organization to lobby in their behalf called The Homeownership Alliance. ...
I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me. Senator McCain's attack on Senator Obama is a cheap shot, and hypocritical.
Sincerely,
William Maloni Fannie Mae Senior Vice President for Government and Industry Relations (1983-2004)
What did Rick Davis know and when did he know it? Actually, we already know. I just found this little bombshell from earlier this year. Wasn't so relevant in February when it was written. It is now. McCain's campaign manager's previous job was ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn't get regulated by the feds:
Quote:
Davis, was president of the Homeownership Alliance, a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-led advocacy group which has tried to fend off regulation sought by large private banks and mortgage lenders.
*doh*
Man, i sure hope you guys can PROVE that Obama was getting financial advice from Raines, especially since Raines and Obama BOTH deny it. As for Rick Davis.... heh.
I think it is extremely telling to listen to Obama's remarks (and, notably, answers to questions) in Florida today and then to hear McCain's in Wisconsin. For one thing, as Obama said elsewhere on the stump, McCain can only propose attacking Obama as a solution to our problems. For another, McCain's all over the map with a hodge-podge and rehash of previous and loopy proposals, most of which are bandaids and doctor's office lollipops on a seriously bleeding artery.
Senator John McCain gave a few new details of his economic proposals at a speech here Friday morning, but the address seemed as much a political shot at Senator Barack Obama as a policy prescription.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain offered few new details this morning on how he would respond to the crisis in the nation's financial markets, instead renewing his criticism of Democratic rival Barack Obama's ties to former heads of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
The campaign yesterday had promised more information about McCain's economic plan. But McCain, in a speech to a hastily assembled meeting of the local chamber of commerce, mostly repeated his call for a new government trust that would identify and help rescue failing financial institutions and a set of principles to guide future regulation and legislation.
Having watched both speeches myself, there really was a sharp contrast between the angry accusatory tone of McCain and the steady, measured message from Obama. Several political reporters picked up on the fact that McCain's economic plan was basically an attack on Obama.
One the one hand, in Barack Obama we've got a statesman who wants to work together to get things done for all Americans. On the other hand, in John McCain we've got a yipping little dog (apologies to canine lovers everywhere) who will tear anything down to get ahead.
It's striking that not only was Obama sober and nonpartisan today but so was Bush and every Senator I saw on TV. The briefing on Capitol hill last night was some scary sobering shit apparently and the only one who thinks this is some political game still, is John McCain. Both Obama and Bush made the argument and set the tone that we need a bipartisan solution to this very real and very dire financial crisis and then in contrast, we had John McCain blaming Obama for the economic mess, the same guy he derides as barely having been in Washington to affect anything.
Obama is acting Presidential while McCain is flailing about trying to make everyone forget about his out of touch 'sound economy' comments on Monday.
As noted before, Obama took lobbying money, $105,849, from Fannie & FreddieMac, placing him third behind only Sens. Dodd and Kerry over the last decade (fast work since he's only been in the Senate for 3 years).
Will Black Carter be returning that money to the taxpayers who are being asked to pick up this tab?
Furthemore, let's consider Barack's "vast" experience as a "community organizer." Do you know what 'community organizers' traditionally do? Among other things, advocating for affordable housing and easy credit for the poor, even if they are bad loan risks because otherwise it would be 'racist.' In part, the work of such "community organizaers" led to the banking rules of the 1990s that expanded credit and led to the rise of the subprime loan.
Pariah nerdy Moderator Triteness kicks us in the nads. 15000+ posts Fri Sep 19 2008 11:32 PM Reading a post Forum: Politics and Current Events Thread: The Great Crash of 2008
As it turns out, greed is not good 9 commentsSept. 20, 2008 12:00 AM
There is no doubt in my mind that unfettered, free-market capitalism is the best economic system on this planet. It encourages and rewards entrepreneurship, vision and innovation.
And if only this Eden-like society truly existed, we would all be in paradise. The only problem is that there are too many lying, cheating, greedy crooks in business who are aided and abetted by selfish elected officials.
The Gar-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 deregulated the savings and loan industry. Given a free rein, the S&L industry proceeded to destroy itself at taxpayers' expense. In December 2000, Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It was touted as "protecting the financial institutions from overregulation." It certainly succeeded.
The act even contained a provision totally exempting energy trading from regulation. Remember Enron?
The act allowed "credit default swaps."
These are basically insurance policies covering losses on securities in event of default. The practice was utterly unregulated with no one to determine whether banks or hedge funds had assets to cover the losses they guaranteed.
Shaky mortgages were packaged as securities and sold with default guarantees.
Remember Bear Stearns? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? And now Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and American International Group? Eleven closed banks so far, and more than 100 on the Fed's watch list.
In both instances, the deregulation legislation was initiated and passed by Congress during Republican administrations . . . but not without some Democratic help.
Until we have business executives, professionals and elected officials who are honest, trustworthy and satisfied to earn a decent living without engaging in fraud and greedy excesses, we must have laws, regulations and diligent oversight to protect us from ourselves.
What party and which candidates will bring us this protection in November? - Bill Hogan,
McCain wants our health care system to be like our banking system. Yes, you read that correctly. There are so many reasons John McCain shouldn't be president. Put this one near the top of the list. Via Paul Krugman:
Quote:
OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American [It's a pdf] in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.
Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform
Quote:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
Okay. Our financial system was on the verge of collapse because there was not enough oversight and regulation. That's the kind of health care system John McCain wants for you.
John McCain doesn't understand how the nation's private health insurance system -- or doesn't understand how it works for most of us. He gets government run health care, which serves him well. Richard Kirsch, from Health Care for America Now (HCA), issued this statement about McCain's health care plan yesterday -- shortly before we knew McCain wanted the system to be run like the banking system. But, even before that, we knew that McCain was just plain wrong about health care:
Quote:
McCain’s health care plan is a sham. But he wouldn't understand that because he doesn’t have to navigate the independent, unregulated, bureaucratic insurance market.
See, Senator McCain enjoys the government health care he keeps attacking. He has coverage through the Veterans Administration, which is government run, socialized medicine. He’s covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefit System, which is government paid for, regulated private insurance. And as a senior citizen, Senator McCain is eligible for Medicare which is government health insurance. All these allow McCain to “see [his] doctor fairly frequently” as he told reporters in March.
And yet he believes none of these solutions are right for the rest of America, many of whom can’t afford to see their doctor at all.
If McCain wants the health insurance system to be like the banking system, he wants a government takeover.
The Democratic presidential nominee used McCain's own words to attack him as an opponent of federal regulation of the banking industry, said his rival's support for partial privatization of Social Security could jeopardize retirement security for many Americans and fought back on the question of which candidate has closer ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Speaking at Bethune-Cookman University at an event highlighting his campaign's efforts to appeal to women voters, Obama invoked the current financial crisis by taking aim at an article carrying McCain's name in the current issue of Contingencies magazine, published by the American Academy of Actuaries.
In it, McCain wrote, "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
"So let me get this straight -- he wants to run health care like they've been running Wall Street," Obama told the audience. "Well, Senator, I know some folks on Main Street who aren't going to think that's such a good idea."
McCain has attacked Obama this past week for ties to former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including in two television ads. But he said it's McCain whose campaign is replete with current or former lobbyists for the mortgage giants. He cited comments by the former head of Fannie Mae's government relations office, who was quoted in Politico as saying, "When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me."
"Folks," Obama said, "you can't make this stuff up."
On Social Security, Obama said, McCain's support for privatization would leave senior citizens at risk at a time when the stock market has plummeted. "I know Senator McCain is talking about a 'casino culture' on Wall Street -- but the fact is, he's the one who wants to gamble with your life savings and that is not going to happen when I'm president of the United States."
He said that if McCain had his way, "the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week," although McCain has not called for full privatization of the system.
McCain is a notorious gambler, as in gambles with real money. So this is a cute jab that.
The Democratic presidential nominee used McCain's own words to attack him as an opponent of federal regulation of the banking industry, said his rival's support for partial privatization of Social Security could jeopardize retirement security for many Americans and fought back on the question of which candidate has closer ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Speaking at Bethune-Cookman University at an event highlighting his campaign's efforts to appeal to women voters, Obama invoked the current financial crisis by taking aim at an article carrying McCain's name in the current issue of Contingencies magazine, published by the American Academy of Actuaries.
In it, McCain wrote, "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
"So let me get this straight -- he wants to run health care like they've been running Wall Street," Obama told the audience. "Well, Senator, I know some folks on Main Street who aren't going to think that's such a good idea."
McCain has attacked Obama this past week for ties to former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including in two television ads. But he said it's McCain whose campaign is replete with current or former lobbyists for the mortgage giants. He cited comments by the former head of Fannie Mae's government relations office, who was quoted in Politico as saying, "When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me."
"Folks," Obama said, "you can't make this stuff up."
On Social Security, Obama said, McCain's support for privatization would leave senior citizens at risk at a time when the stock market has plummeted. "I know Senator McCain is talking about a 'casino culture' on Wall Street -- but the fact is, he's the one who wants to gamble with your life savings and that is not going to happen when I'm president of the United States."
He said that if McCain had his way, "the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week," although McCain has not called for full privatization of the system.
McCain is a notorious gambler, as in gambles with real money. So this is a cute jab that.
Obama really was on fire today. I posted the above excerpts of the Obama speech earlier today. Watching the video is even better. Obama looks like he's having fun:
Our candidate is on a roll. The first line of the Washington Post article captures it perfectly:
Obama really unloaded on John McCain this morning at a rally in Daytona Beach.
And, I love the way Obama is using McCain's own words to eviscerate McCain.
Matter-eater Man argumentative User Fair Play! 5000+ posts Sun Sep 21 2008 08:43 PM Reading a post Forum: Politics and Current Events Thread: The Great Crash of 2008
Okay, MEM, what regulations do you propose and how will they fix the problem?
That's a question that's over my head but it should be evident at this point that when something gets too deregulated we the tax payers pay for the bail out. The trick to it is to strike some type of balance with regulating.
Oh my God. They admit outright that earlier this decade they paid $2m to the man who is now John McCain's campaign manager in order to buy influence with John McCain as Senator and as possible president (they also paid him to derail legislation that would have increased federal regulation of the banking industry). There should be a campaign to demand that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, give ever penny back to the American people. There had better be an ad about this out by COB Monday, and calls for Davis' resignation.
Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say....
Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.
“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, who said that while he worked there from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis’s firm $35,000 a month. Mr. Davis “didn’t really do anything,” Mr. McCarson, a Democrat, said.
Ultimately, this is all damaging to one person and one party. John McCain and the Republicans. Oh, sure they've been trying to pretend tey're not the ones who aggressively advocate and believe in deregulation as a core philosophy (what was that one famous Reagan line that you all parrot religiously like if it was brought down by Moses on a stone tablet? hmm?), but now they don't even use their party name much or even mention the guy who still leads their party and is their President.
And sure they flail about trying to find links to pin this on Democrats. But all that ends up surfacing is more incriminating links to THEM. And specifically to McCain's staff, the guy himself and his economic advisor Phil Gramm.
All one has to do is look at the Republican Presidential administrations since the 1920s. Calvin Coolidge oversaw on his watch failed prohibition and gangsters literally hijacking the country. His Republican Counter part was elected, Herbert Hoover and we saw the absolute worst Depression in American History. America was virtually destitute. It took a Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, to get America out of the economic mess it was in. That makes two failed Republican administrations, prior to Roosevelt. If you count Warren G. Harding, it is three.
After that, you have a history that includes Black Monday,The S&L crisis and now this meltdown, I'd stop believing GOP lies about them being better stewards of the economy. Fact is Politicians Lie, Numbers Don't
Quote:
If you're wondering why a formerly honorable man like John McCain would build his presidential campaign around issues that are simultaneously beside-the-point, trivial, and dishonest (sex education for kindergartners, lipstick on pigs), the numbers presented here may help to solve that mystery. Since the conventions ended, McCain has mired the presidential race in dishonest trivia because he doesn't want it to focus on what voters say is the most important issue this year: the economy.
There is no secret about any of this. The figures below are all from the annual Economic Report of the President, and the analysis is primitive. Nevertheless, what these numbers show almost beyond doubt is that Democrats are better at virtually every economic task that is important to Republicans.
In other words, there are no figures here about income inequality, or percentage of the population with health insurance, or anything like that. This exercise implicitly assumes that lower taxes are always good and higher government spending is always bad. There is nothing here about how clean the air is or how many children are growing up in poverty. The only point is that if you find the Republican mantra of lower taxes and smaller government appealing, and if you care only about how fast the economy is growing, not how that growth is shared, you should vote Democratic. Of course, if you do care about things like economic inequality and children's health, you should vote Democratic as well.
But ultinmately the public really doesn't need any of these proofs. They've been hearing GOP rhetoric for decades now and aern't suddenly going to forget that the GOP is the party of deregulation just because McCain accuses Obama of having an advisor tied to Fannie Mae.
THIS is what you guys are starting to sound like. Like this dipshit Cantor. Tweety let him have it when he was trying to pretend he wasn't a Republican and his party wasn't about deregulating markets and eliminating oversight.. All with a coy "who me?" grin. No one is going to let you lying sack of shit Republicans wash your hands of your mess.
Whomod, no offense but you have serious issues. You need to learn how to relax. You need to learn that its ok for other people to have different opinions. You need to realize that just because someone doesn't agree with you they are not far right wing nut jobs.
November 6th, 2012: Americas new Independence Day.
....they paid $2m to the man who is now John McCain's campaign manager in order to buy influence with John McCain as Senator and as possible president (they also paid him to derail legislation that would have increased federal regulation of the banking industry). There should be a campaign to demand that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, give ever penny back to the American people. ...
Yeah, the Obamainstream Media tried to make an issue of Davis doing lobbying for a group called the HomeOwnership Alliance from 2000 to 2005. The HomeOwnership Alliance was a group of 20 organizations that included Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Of course, McCain introduced a bill to reduce the risk Fannie and Freddie posed to taxpayers... back in 2005
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay. I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole. I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.
So one of McCain's current staffers was a lobbyist for a group that included FM/FM, and yet during that time, McCain introduced legislation those groups opposed.
That would seem to discredit the idea that McCain was somehow in bed with these people, wouldn't it?
BTW, just wondering, has Obama ever proposed a law that his donors would object to?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More Americans think Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama would do a better job handling an economic crisis than his Republican opponent John McCain, according to a CNN public opinion poll released on Monday.
Forty-nine percent of those questioned said Obama, and Illinois senator, would display good judgment in an economic crisis, six points higher than McCain, an Arizona senator.
* Story Highlights * Nearly half of those polled blame Republicans for current financial crisis * Obama leading McCain 51-46 percent, according to CNN poll out Monday * Majority of respondents view Obama as better on economic issues
By Paul Steinhauser CNN Deputy Political Director Decrease font Decrease font Enlarge font Enlarge font
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By a 2-to-1 ratio, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks, a new national poll suggests.
That may be contributing to better poll numbers for Sen. Barack Obama against Sen. John McCain in the race for the White House.
In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey out Monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned said Republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market; only 24 percent said Democrats are more responsible.
Twenty percent blame both parties equally and 8 percent say neither party is to blame.
The poll also indicates more Americans think Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Video Watch Obama blast McCain on the economy »
Forty-nine percent of those questioned said Obama, D-Illinois, would display good judgment in an economic crisis, six points higher than McCain, R-Arizona.
And Obama has a 10-point lead over McCain when it comes to who respondents think would better handle the economy overall.
These numbers seem to be affecting the battle for the presidency. Fifty-one percent of registered voters now say they will back Obama, five points ahead of McCain, at 46 percent.
McCain and Obama were tied at 48 percent apiece in the previous CNN/Opinion Research survey conducted September 5-7.
Obama's advantage, while growing, is still within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Where did Obama make his gains?
"In two core McCain constituencies: men, who now narrowly favor Obama, and seniors, who have also flipped from McCain to Obama," said Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst.
When including people most likely to vote, the results are pretty much the same. Among likely voters, Obama has a four-point lead, 51 percent to 47 percent. Video Watch McCain blast Obama for not having a plan »
A CNN Poll of Polls calculated Monday also shows Obama leading McCain -- 49 percent to 44 percent.
"The economy has always been considered John McCain's Achilles' heel, and the CNN Poll of Polls started to show an Obama edge in the middle of last week -- just as the financial crisis began to hit home for many Americans," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.
The poll also expands to include third-party candidates. When included in the results, independent Ralph Nader has the support of 4 percent of those polled, with Libertarian candidate Bob Barr and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney each at 1 percent. Also, Obama has the backing of 48 percent of likely voters, three points ahead of McCain's 45 percent.
A couple of other factors in the survey appear to contribute to Obama's slight rise and McCain's slight drop in the polls. Fifty-three percent of those questioned say McCain, if elected, will mostly carry out the policies of President Bush, who remains extremely unpopular with most Americans. Bush's disapproval rating is up three points from the previous CNN/Opinion Research poll. Video Watch Obama's ad tying McCain to Bush »
The survey also indicates Obama has recaptured the "change" factor. Just after the Republican convention, Obama's lead had shrunk to eight points when voters were asked which candidate would be more likely to bring change. His lead is up to 14 points in the new poll.
The margin of error on that question is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Another factor could be McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Thirty-five percent of those questioned have an unfavorable opinion of her, up 8 points from a previous survey. And two-thirds believe she and her husband should testify in the Alaska investigation into the firing of a state official.
"Change has always been Obama's strong suit, but McCain and Palin clearly made inroads into that issue during the GOP convention," Holland said. "Palin, in particular, was seen as an agent of change when she made her first appearance on the national stage. That may be changing now."
The poll also sheds more light on how Americans feel about the financial crisis. Twenty-two percent said they are "frightened" by the crisis, while two-thirds said they are "concerned." Eleven percent said they are "not worried."
Most Americans think the programs to deal with the financial crisis currently being worked on by Congress and the Bush administration will be unfair to U.S. taxpayers, but they think those programs will help the economy.
Six in 10 think the federal government should step in and address the financial crisis, and 37 percent say the government should stay out. But when it comes to last week's bailouts, support slips to 55 percent. Given concerns about how future programs will affect taxpayers, it's conceivable that public support for the new government plans could be even lower.
The survey comes out just four days before McCain and Obama face off in the first of three presidential debates. Will the debates make a difference? Probably, since the poll finds that 14 percent of Americans say they haven't made up their minds yet.
The first debate, scheduled for Friday in Oxford, Mississippi, will focus on foreign policy, a topic that may play into what some registered voters see as a strength for McCain. The poll finds 54 percent of them believe McCain would display better judgment in an international crisis; 42 percent believe Obama would.
The margin of error on that question is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Conducted Friday through Sunday, the CNN/Opinion Research poll questioned 1020 Americans including 909 registered voters and 697
In fact, the lobbyist leading McCain's tranistion team has been lobbying for Freddie Mac
Yesterday, we learned the blockbuster news that John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, made millions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sarah Palin and John McCain have been railing about those companies out on the campaign trail. You'd think McCain would fire Davis.
There's more.
William Timmons, who is leading John McCain transition efforts (which will hopefully never come to be), is a "prominent Washington lobbyist" according to Time Magazine. That's bad enough. It gets worse in light of McCain's feigned outrage at Fannie and Freddie. McCain's transition leader had been lobbying for Freddie Mac "through this month" -- until Freddie had to stop lobbying :
Quote:
The lobbying firm of the man Republicans say John McCain has chosen to begin planning a presidential transition earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac, one of the companies McCain blames for the nation's financial crisis.
Timmons & Co., whose founder and chairman emeritus is William Timmons Sr., was registered to lobby for Freddie Mac from 2000 through this month, when the federal government took over both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Newly available congressional records show Timmons's firm received $260,000 this year before its lobbying activities were barred under terms of the government rescue of the failed mortgage giant. Timmons, 77, is listed as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac on the company's midyear financial-disclosure form.
While Republicans say Timmons is making plans for the transition if McCain wins in November, the campaign wouldn't confirm his role. Timmons didn't return a phone call seeking comment.
McCain has labeled Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as prime culprits in creating the financial storm that has roiled Wall Street and Washington.
This is just another example of McCain's blatant hypocrisy. McCain has been making stuff up about Obama's ties to Freddie and Fannie via Raines. Meanwhile, McCain's top guys have hauled in tons of dough from them.
