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Earth to McCain: It’s a Crisis
Gag me with a spoon, as Valley girls used to say. Did you see that McCain-Palin ad promising "tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings, no special interest giveaways"? Just how dumb do they think we are?
Seriously, 20 minutes of Google searches should be sufficient to convince all but the dimwits among us that John McCain has been a master of the special-interest giveaways to Wall Street that enabled this meltdown. He voted for abolishing all of the significant rules put in place at the time of the Great Depression designed to prevent a repeat. The two main bills accomplishing that, bills which McCain enthusiastically supported, were the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Gramm is former Sen. Phil Gramm, who was chair of the Senate Banking Committee when he acted as chief sponsor of both pieces of legislation. The same Gramm that McCain picked to co-chair his presidential campaign.
Gramm proved an embarrassment when he cavalierly insisted there was no real crisis but only the panic of "whiners," but even on Monday as his "Crisis" ad ran, McCain, in person, was still denying that there was one. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong," he told NBC's Matt Lauer, as two more of the nation's most venerable financial institutions crashed and the stock market shed more than 500 points. When a perplexed Lauer asked McCain to square his optimism with his own ad's use of the crisis word, McCain came to his senses and, discovering his inner Karl Marx, insisted he hadn't been speaking of the bankers but rather was saying "that the workers of America are the fundamentals of the economy."
OK, but never heard that from him before, as he consistently carried water for the bankers going back to his supporting role in the savings and loan scandal, a harbinger of the consequences of a severely deregulated financial market that McCain still favors. Nor did he worry then about the workers who lost their savings while McCain's wife made a million in profit from her deal with Charles Keating, the banker for whom McCain lobbied. Even on Tuesday, while McCain suddenly was thundering against the "unbridled corruption and greed that caused the crisis on Wall Street," he still did not urge anything more stringent than convening a national commission.
Barack Obama has been way ahead of McCain in grasping the severity of the problem and back in March offered a scorching criticism of the deregulation mania, in particular the Gramm-Leach-Bliley law, which allowed the stockbrokers, insurance companies and banks to merge for the first time since the 1930s, ushering in this era of irresponsibility. But that was in the primaries, and now he has turned for advice to Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, who both served as treasury secretaries in the Clinton administration and talked the president into signing that wretched legislation.
As recently as Jan. 31, Rubin, by then Citigroup's executive committee chair, was, like McCain until Tuesday, still in denial on the meltdown, insisting it was merely "all part of a cycle of periodic excess leading to periodic disruption." Fortunately, at that time he was an adviser to Hillary Clinton and remained so past March 27, when Obama delivered his main economic speech blaming for the meltdown the Gramm deregulation that Rubin had helped make law. Referring to the repeal of the Depression-era regulations, Obama stated all too correctly: "Unfortunately, instead of establishing a 21st century regulatory framework, we simply dismantled the old one -- aided by a legal but corrupt bargain in which campaign money all too often shaped policy and watered down oversight. In doing so, we encouraged a winner-take-all, anything-goes environment that helped foster devastating dislocations in our economy."
Not devastating for Rubin and Citigroup, where Rubin went to work, and which was a leader in that $300-million lobbying effort and the first huge beneficiary of the new law that permitted a merger with Travelers Insurance that previously had been illegal.
So, yes, there is a world of difference between Obama and McCain on the main issue that now challenges the American way of life, in which people's homes, retirement, kids' college education and all other dreams are threatened by a mindless deregulation led by the Republicans but which too many influential Democrats supported. What Obama needs to do, both to win and to help save the country, is denounce the whole lot of those scoundrels from both parties and rediscover his populist voice.
- Posted in
71 Comments so far
Show All"So, yes, there is a world of difference between Obama and McCain..."
Wait for it...
That's precisely the problem.
Hey Bob - The dimwits among us don't know what Google is. They have never heard of Phil Gramm. They don't read newspapers and they don't know that the economy is in meltdown. They will vote republican because they like Palin's glasses and they think Obama is a Muslim. The real collapse, the one we didn't see, the education meltdown of the past 30 years, has produced a bovine electorate that can be led into any barn by any pickup dragging a bale of hay. Our retarded populace will get interested in government when we are all living on the street, begging quarters from Indonesian tourists.
You are sooo wrong! Our retarded populace will get interested when they are begging for quarters from Chinese tourists, not Indonesian tourists.
Is ther any chance we could not use the word "retarded" for a little while?
Umm, 'for a little while' you ask. That would be nice but after 8 years of Bush whom the people elected, and the financial tsunami we're now caught up in surely you're not seriously thinking that NOW is the right time to stop...?
"may you live in interesting times"
Well, at least they're not blaming China for this one. Wait! Hold on...I might have spoken too soon...
"may you live in interesting times"
Obama has been campaigning way too long. I'm worn out listening to what -two years of it (seems like this presidential campaign has been going on for a century). Imagine having to do all the traveling and talking he's done for all these months or years. Anyone would be repeating whatever their handlers were handing then at this stage of the game.
And listening to McCain's ad here in southern Oregon about how he went to Washington and fixed the government, while Palen took on the Republicans and fixed Alaska sends me over the edge. Say the same thing often enough, no matter how nuts it is, and the idiots will believe.
It does make me wonder why no one has jumped on any of the things coming out of the mouths of these two. Remember how they never let up on that thing about Gore creating or inventing the Internet?
I've lived way too long, I think.
Earth to Obama: the election increasingly hangs on this issue. There's no faking a response to economic crisis. If there's one area in which the American people KNOW they need solutions not lip-service, it's the economy.
For Obama to win, he is going to have to not only censure the Republicans but the Democrats as well. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which partly repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that was set up to regulate banking and commercial lending during the Great Depression, was supported and signed by none other than Bill Clinton himself. The Republicans have spearheaded the deregulation mania ever since the early days of Ronald Reagan, but the Democrats have either supported, tagged along, or passively submitted with rare exceptions.
I have yet to hear Obama stake out a prinicpled position in defiance of his party to guide it in a new direction. He is too cautious, calculating, and ambitious.
While McCain is likely to run the economy into the ground, Obama will likely watch the economy get run into the ground while ineffectually protesting "partisanship" or some other self serving sound bite.
"Just how dumb do they think we are?"
It's not how dumb do they 'think' we are, it's how dumb they KNOW we are - as in, bag of f**king rocks dumb, as in Cheney/Bush two-term dumb, as in "drill baby drill" dumb, as in immunity for massive illegal spying dumb, as in more torture-less habeas corpus dumb, as in The Year of The Bailout With Your Money dumb...
How dumb are we? Henry Paulson: "The president has been a great boss as we work through [this].... He's encouraging me to do the right things." "I think it's a testament to the way the financial industry has come together because they're dealing with an extraordinary set of circumstances in a way WE SHOULD ALL BE PROUD."
My apologies to bags of rocks for the insult...
The rocks might never forgive you.
It's a shame that Rubin is now advising Obama...
Yes.
Rubin, who was asleep at the switch as director and executive committee chair of Citigroup while that was driven into the ground, yawned back in January when the subprime mess was unfolding by saying that it was, "all part of a cycle of periodic excess leading to periodic disruption."
Obama having him as an economic advisor shows very poor judgement on his part.
I once knew a producer for one of the major television news networks who said that there was a sign in the hallway with the reminder: "Never overestimate the intelligence of your audience."
Best post I've read all day. At least rocks have the wisdom of the ages, whereas....
If America can trust anybody to fix this mess, it will be Johnny the De-regulator. He, and fellow maverick Sarah the Vindictive Church Lady, are just what we need to "shake up Washington", and eliminate the greed and corruption on Wall Street as well.
After all Johnny McKeating knows something we don't know. The "fundamentals of the economy are strong". And if you didn't know, that really means the American workers are strong. And that proves the wisdom of Johnny McFinance is beyond our simple comprehension. He'll be the clever fox to watch that Wall Street henhouse.
http://davedubya.com
You got it. And when unemployment hits 30 percent, the poverty rate goes above 40 percent, the uninsured rate goes above 50 percent, Social Security and Medicare are gutted, and the draft has been reinstated and two more wars are up and running, President McPain will simply explain to us that "It is the times, that's all. My adviser Phil Gramm gave me the best advice and I followed it, and if I hadn't, then the country would really be in bad shape." And the corporate media will add "Thank God we have President McPain. He has saved us from catastrophe. Not once did he raise our taxes. God Bless you sir!"
And most of the citizens of the Unsane States of Avarice, whether sheep, pigs in makeup, drug- or alcohol-addled, or just plain ordinary vermin, will cheer enthusiastically, knowing all is right with the world.
Even before the events of the last two days, the outcome of this election will turn upon the quality of lies both sides tell. Political strategists are paid millions of dollars to divine and then concoct these lies. Knowing that the truth no longer has anything to do whatsoever with politics at any level in this country, politics is now like a bad supermarket novel and requires fabulists of ignorance and not rational, logical people, or even simple ideologues. That these lies will eventually destroy this country means nothing to them. They'll simply take their ill gotten wealth and scoot to other corrupt nations where their money will grease their way and they will eventually wind up doing the same thing for whatever group of killers and thieves rules the roost.
Salmon Rushdie said on Bill Maher last Friday that there would be an Obama/Biden landslide considering how we have been screwed over by the Republicans for the last eight years.
Bill reminded him that 61% of Americans believe a historical figure named Noah built a boat which accommodated two of every species including insects for the duration of a flood that covered the entire earth.
I am a very spiritual person. It breaks my heart to know that adult humans consider such literal beliefs essential to their salvation. People just like me are trying to get by on the faith they had at six years old.
It frightens and angers me to know that there is no shortage of vicious, shrewed, scoundrels who take advantage of their simple minded brothers and sisters. And the longer the Republicans stay in power the more of these slime bags seem to appear.
In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna that when righteous becomes weak and faint he makes himself a body to overcome the evil.
Well Krishna, there never was a time we needed you more.
..
Well I'm an atheist and it infuriates me that anyone thinks that there is some omnipotent omniscient daddy in the sky. Imaginary being belief could very well be THE fundamental problem of our country from which all other problems are derived. (Well maybe not all, but it felt good to write that.)
Too bad you don't turn your rightly critical eye on religion on your own unexamined belief in your war mongering "goddess" (obliterate Iran ring a bell?) Hilary Clinton. Oh well 1 for 2 is something I guess...
Ironically, I, also an atheist, have to say "amen" to that. John Lennon had it right, "Imagine no religion..."
You clearly didn't get the memo. It's the morons who are in charge of everything because we can't manage to eliminate the privilege of wealthy parents. Bush and McCain and most of Congress have had parents that could buy there way into positions of power.
Intelligent people keep thinking that evidence and truth will somehow win and it never does. Deciet and chicanry are the way to get things done.
Fighting the forces of rather dim lighting wherever they may be found!!
Everything you need to know about why Obama is doing poorly with the US working class can be found here:
Please, please read it!
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/18836
USAn September 17th, 2008 4:33 pm
"Everything you need to know about why Obama is doing poorly with the US working class can be found here:"
It should be required reading for every Dem apologist that posts on this site. Thanks for the link.
Lobo Gris
Yes, it was excellent - I'd recommend all the political analysis by Paul Street on the Znet site. He calls things the way he sees them...
I read the article as well and if the man portrayed in the piece wants a politician to exactly reflect his interests, then he and his fellows are going to have to do what the Evangelicals and Corporations have done: fund politicians. Instead, they screw themselves (some knowingly) over because the candidate that won the Democratic primary is not exactly to their liking (the same can be written for disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters as well, such as Lady Rothschild). There is a word for this: PIQUE.
Deregulation and a compliant Fed under Reagan and the Bushwhackers has cost this country megabillions in fraud, corruption, financial meltdowns and government bailouts.
Star Wars, Gulf Wars and tax cuts for the rich under Reagan and the Bushwhackers have cost this country $trillions in increased national debt.
What it boils down to is this (repeat after me)....
THE COUNTRY CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT!!!
THE COUNTRY CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT!!!
THE COUNTRY CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT!!!
Than please get Obama to read the article I linked below, OK?
American working men and women are tired of being talked-down to by rich, yuppie, effete, over-educated democrats, who love "the market" as much as Republicans do, and are complicit wit the republicans in the dismantling of pretections for working people. I regret to inform you of this, but working people really have trouble being enthusiastic about "free markets" since, unlike the rich, all it ever serves them is raw deals.
So they drink the Republican cultural Kool Aid instead and are screwed by the party that represents most of their bosses, pathetic!
Which Republican President can we not afford to have? John McCain? Or Barack Obama? Sorry, folks, but they are both Republicans. Is Obama a little bit better than McCain? Yes. Will they both kill people and destroy lives and harm us all? Yes.
This clown is living in a Dream World. Rubin was Bill Clinton's main man on the economy. Any guess when these "yes" men are going to get it: the TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS SOURCE OF ALL OUR PROBLEMS. Neither can fix it, becuase they are in bed with those diminishing our lives. This site is starting to reflect nothing more than the status quo ad nausea.
Well, that was a longer wait than I expected.
What is a matter Robert you don't like your one size fits all questioned?
No, I just thought that the "Dems same as Repubs" would get here sooner. They're breeding like fleas in the other threads.
My McCain voting friends invariably tell me two things:
1. Obama and the Dems will "screw up the economy even more than it is now".
Translation: "I'll have to pay taxes!" or "I won't get to charge you for screwing up your Social Security private account." (So who's a whiner?) It isn't so much ignorance as selfishness.
2. Obama doesn't have the experience in this time of international crisis where we are at war with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, even France...just about anybody but England and Israel. (I didn't know we had invaded everybody! Guess I should watch Fox more often.)
The last time the US was attacked (by an organization ignored by the White House), Dubya went right on reading his kiddie book, and later invaded Iraq under false pretenses. Yes! We need a president like that.
I just smile and keep moving. Does Sarah believe the Rapture will come before GHG caused climate change or a nuclear war finishes us off? James Watt (Reagan admin) had similar thoughts. Great qualifications for our VP.
As for Stacy in the linked article, Obama is still his best choice. Maybe he appears to look down at us, but McCain is a total Washington insider phony. Get Obama elected and then give him hell. McCain won't even listen.
Economic Meltdown + Perpetual War + Global Warming = Opportunity
"To do what?"
"Change the world."
"How?"
"We elect someone president who's going to dismantle Empire-USA, shutdown the CIA plus turning things around here at home."
"Could said person be Barack Obama?"
"Depends."
"Upon what?"
"Who steps to the plate, community organizer Obama or move-towards-the-mythical-center Obama,:
"If its community organizer Obama?"
"We change the world."
"And if it's move-towards-the-mythical-center Obama?"
"Opportunity lost."
The USS Wall Street, USS Rederal Reserve, and USS Treasury Department have collided in deregulatory fog and are sinking fast; and like the Titanic, there aren't enough lifeboats. Furthermore, will any vessel rescue the survivors, or will they be left adrift? And if the survivors become sharkfood, what is it to us little folk who remain solvent?
Well said. Lets hope for the best. Oops I meant the next one above.
The American Dream is failing because the American Dream has become the world's nightmare.
If the world has to deal with John “Dubya II” McCain and his sidekick, Sarah “my god can kick your god’s ass” Palin, we can expect more of the same mindless light on brains, heavy on bombs, forget the economy. Sadly, I don't expect much better from the Democrats.
http://blogoffanddie.wordpress.com
Vote McCain/Palin and build a bomb shelter
Actually the American Dream is just that....a dream...
"may you live in interesting times"
good one
Many of us dream big and hope to change the world, but I think the world is fine as it is and have no complaints. Many of us, enjoy talking about world issues ... deluding that they are addressing things which are bigger than ourselves. However, the irony is, it's an issue simply because we perceive it to be ... and as such, we're merely addressing ourselves using something else as the object / focus. -- And in the process of complaining and adding to our issues, we add stress to our day ... egotistically rejecting instead of accepting. We advocate our beliefs, as if our perception is absolute. When our preferences are truly relative.
So ... it's all a matter of perspective. Which side is right, which side is wrong? Both sides are equally right, and wrong ... at all times, in all matters. It's all about are we willing to see the other side of the story, or do we want to stay within the confines of our identity. -- I try to be understanding of all sides. To see beyond my ego, beyond my own desires for myself and others. To such a degree that I would even do something which is contradictory to my beliefs if ... I care enough about them, and it's what they want (clearly state they want). To do what they desire, instead of telling them to do what I desire ... since I know that my desires may actually hurt them, in a way that they do not want. -- I'm not worried about their desires hurting me, since it's probable that it can't ... and even if it did I'm okay with pain. So I have nothing to worry about. I'd enjoy it either way (not masochistic, but appreciative of the pain we gain in life, as well as the fortune. Hence why I think the world is fine as it is, because I appreciate life as it is).
--
I'm Republican, but if I cared enough to vote I'd go with Obama. Not because I perceive him to change policies. I think ultimately they are all salespeople, and will spin things in a way that will sway the masses. What others who are influenced decide to buy into or reject depends on their stance and the other's delivery / salespitch. I never even had a problem with Bush. The only thoughts about him that came to mind, was sometimes I felt sorry for him because so many ridiculed him. -- Anyway, I'd go with Obama, simply because he's black ...
Even if he merely perpetuated what exists, him being black and in such a position ... that alone will make things more accessible to others (and promote some kind of balance). If Hilary won against him ... I would've voted for her for similar reasons. I was actually more for Hilary than Obama. I think her being in office would've been more impactful, not because of her stance ... but because of her sex. Get a stupid woman in office, and that would just further cement reasons why women shouldn't be in office. However, although I do not know her position on things ... I know is that she would have been adequate representation. Yet, I knew it was more acceptible by people, to have a someone who's black and a man in office ... before they allowed a woman. People aren't that big on significant change, they need smaller steps. Next election it would be more probable that a woman can win. Regardless, I would've voted for her.
However, I do not care enough to actually vote.
For regardless of the outcome, I'd accept what comes ... and adapt just as easilly, without any qualms nor complaints.
Its great you're at peace with the world, but this is not a business as usual election, Its not another Clinton/Bush or Kennedy/Nixon. Its bigger than the first black or woman president. Its bigger than traditional issues like abortion, liberties, taxation, capital punishment...
1. We have to get moving on GHG emissions reduction.
1a. Environmental law in general is being ignored and gutted.
2. The present administation invaded Iraq under false pretenses and continues to threaten other nations while propagandizing its citizens.
3. This administration has recklessly decreased taxes while increasing spending for war and pandering projects.
3a. Deregulation and non-enforcement of financial regulations has created a world-wide financial crisis.
3b. Globalization has been turned into a bonanza for corporate "leaders" to drive wages and regulations to the bottom.
To reward the present party in power with re-election and continue these disastrous courses is inexcusable. Think about our children. They won't be at peace with the world if this continues. Yes, the Dems are complicit in much of this, but only Obama offers both a chance to get elected and a chance for "change", as he likes to say.
Yeah I got mine I'm comfortable why should I stress that my tax dollars are being used to horribly painfully slowly burn children to death inn Iraq? Why should I worry about our horribly destroyed eco-systems, or people dying of easily curable diseases on our own streets in the U.S.?
You are entirely self centered and your bland new age homilies are exactly the sort of uncaring bull shit turning the U.S. into a fascist shit hole and pariah on the world stage.
ANGRY!!??? You bet, no peace without justice, to just leave ecosystems and your fellow humans to suffer because you are comfortable from the hard under compensated labor of others disgusts me and makes me want to vomit just reading your words.
Let me guess do you live off unearned "investment income?" Answer the question I really want to know. I hope your life is shattered by the economic crash and you have to spend some time in the street, perhaps some suffering in your life would give you some humility and human decency towards our fellow suffering sentient beings that you seem to utterly lack now.
Something tells me if you were eating dumpster dived beef stew from a can your "I'd accept what comes ...adapt just as easilly, without any qualms nor complaints" would quite readily melt away. Have you ever even gone a day without a warm bed and three meals other than by choice on a camping trip?
What was so great about the Great Depression?
Now that the Republicans have moved America into Bushrupcy again I guess we will find out.
It was OK if you owned a business vital to the community, say general store, feed mill, dairy farm, didn't owe any money, and had some very conservative investments.
Then you had enough to eat, could hire laborers for a meal, and could get all smug calling the Wall Street types "irresponsible" and unions "commies".
I guess the good ol boys who wrote that Bill got well paid...hey, it's a free country, RIGHT...RIGHT...RIGHT...VERY RIGHT...is there enough jail space for these Clowns when people wake up???