It's classix Socialism for the Rich and Capitalism for the Poor. TBTF Corps. are nothing more then unregulated State Enterprises.

Socialism saves capitalism...again!

It's a dog chasing its tail thing because congress and the attorney generals office is who should be doing the oversight and investigations into the biggest theft of taxpayer's money but because these criminal lobbyists get their hands on it from those financial houses they turn around and reward those congressionals for keeping any thing of the sort from happening in congress and as helpless or useless as obama is there is NOT A JOT of help or relief anywhere close for the biggest heist of grand larceny of OUR money and the longer it is allowed to remain so, the more it just seems a way of 'doing business'.(and the same thing is going on in the health fiasco, orchestrated by the 'health lobbyists)

The rest of the world just has to be laughing their collective asses off at the ineptness of the american government and criminality of those 'benefitted corporations' so if anything happens it will probably have to be the people who instigate investigations maybe lawsuits and other civil actions to not just stop this rape but reclaim as much of the booty as possible or all of it, but then I think we will all see how deep the judiciary is in the lobbyist's pocket.

I think it is stretch to praise Obama for criticizing the pay of executives at banks which he helped bail out. If he didn't bail them out in the first place it wouldn't be an issue. Here's an article from the NYT from 1913 about the new Federal Reserve. It explains how the banks had been fighting for one for years, and finally got what they wanted by "remaining discreetly in the background." This was of course so that the PR pitch could be used that the Federal Reserve was actually for the people's benefit, to protect their money. What it really did was create a relationship between the government and the banks, that socializes their losses and destroys competition from smaller banks. They've used that line about saving the economy and the people's money over and over for hundred years and it is a lie. There is no good reason to not just let bad banks fail so that only good banks are left. Now we are experiencing the greatest, breathtakingly huge theft by means of this system and TBTF banks ever in history. And I do not think Obama's role or any aspect of his role is worthy of praise.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=2&res=9407E3DB173DE633A25757C2A9649D946296D6CF

"Claire McCaskill tried to cap compensation for employees of bailed-out firms so that it wouldn't exceed that of the President of the US, $400,000. The amendment was passed but then stripped in conference committee."

And then what? She'll just vote for another stupid bailout. What a fine example of pretending to be for the people ! I'm sorry that my state ends up putting such silly dillies in Washington. At least Bernard Sanders wouldn't end up voting for the bailout unless I am mistaken.

"Big Bucks for Bailout Barons"
Who would have expected anything else?
Now, even banksters and their corrupt henchmen don't take a bath like Uncle Scrooge in the money created out of thin air. But what do they do with all the digitized zeros in cyber vaults???
How do you place real value on millions, billions and trillions of trash dollars?

Surely you have played Monopoly and wished you could spend the paper money to buy lollies at the corner shop.
Well, the banksters have found exactly the way to do just that.
They are buying whatever is left to buy. That includes production facilities (including the serfs working in them), real estate, precious metals, property.
And LAND.
It is the biggest imperialistic push, the grandest scam, a junk dollar land grab, the biggest 'money' laundering sting EVER.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED VIEWING>>> http://vodpod.com/watch/1886018-michael-hudson-trash-for-cash-swaps-and-debt-peonage

And Katrina....go and get new dentures with bite.

Oh Katrina, isn't this issue easy? Just hold Obama's "feet to the fire" and tell him what to do. I'm sure he'll listen.

FDR once told progressive activists in his own party, "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

Remember CD's fund raising letter that stated, "As progressives this is our moment"?

Anyone want to read something sad and pathetic?

Check this out:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080818/open_letter

It's the Nation's open letter to Obama describing their "hopes" for his administration. It includes a fascinating "wish list" of policies they thought Obama embraced, but that (even at the time) he actually opposed. His clearly stated policies, in fact, are usually polar opposites to their requests. For example, "An end to the... abuse of civil liberties and unchecked executive power that has flourished in the Bush era." Did anyone at the Nation bother to notice his vote on telecom immunity?

Notice the signatories, it's a veritable who's who of "progressives" who assured us that Obama would be a huge difference from either Bush or McCain, while many simultaneously demonized third party support for Nader or McKinney.

The end of the letter mentions that Obama's policies are not always progressive, and lists the areas of perceived disagreement (the use of residual forces and mercenary troops in Iraq, the escalation of the US military presence in Afghanistan, the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the death penalty).

Yet, for some reason they separate their "wish list" from the areas of disagreement, instead calling them "stands that have been the signature of your campaign".

Never mind that he never campaigned on things like "withdrawal from Iraq on a fixed timetable" ("fixed"?!? He specifically argued against that!) or committed to "a response to the current economic crisis that reduces the gap between the rich and the rest of us through a more progressive financial and welfare system" (his rhetoric on the subject never matched his policies - obviously) etc... They insisted on imagining a faux agreement with him on ever issue (his use of rhetorical buzzwords like "universal healthcare" not withstanding, because the policies were clear), just go down the list.

What is also striking, is that EVERY SINGLE issue on their wish list WAS SUPPORTED by Nader and McKinney. By why would the Nation help them build support? They're just fringe candidates. No one supports them, the Nation is sure of that, and makes sure of that.

"Public officials in Congress and the White House hold the pin..."

And, frankly, the banksters own the place - and also the pin the 'public' officials and the White House is holding.

Which is why they're still just holding it and not popping balloons left and right.

Can you imagine the owners of the place demanding the guy they hired to run the place cap their salaries?

"Please, Mr. President, I have way too much money already. Can't you do something to get me to stop paying myself $32 million bucks a year? Please - help me help me!!!"

Obama took more money from wall street then anyone that ran for president in 08

Don't depend on the Nation, Obama, The NYTimes, or even Ted Kennedy..

Sadly, the rich have doomed us.

Our only hope: Wall Street collapses from its inability to keep its penis in its pants; the Pentagon dies from imperial overreach and a bad case of full-spectrum dominance blues, and the vampiric Health Care industry chokes on the blood from its last few living subscribers.

Obama is sure no FDR.

From FDR's Speech in Oct 1936: Speech at Madison Square Garden (October 31, 1936)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.

FDR was a TRUE democrat. Obama either has NO courage or is the Manchurian Candidate for the REPUBLICANS!

The emperor has no clothes yet Katrina vanden Heuvel can only muster an article about the zit on the emperor's nose.

Executive compensation does illuminate the core value of those running the joint: greed beyond perversion. But the true culprit in the casino economy is the lack of regulation. Nothing, nada, zip has been done to restore the Glass-Steagall Act (1933). A repeal of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 which brought the cards tumbling isn't even muttered in the halls of our bought-off congress.

.

I'm with RichM on this one. The Nation magazine over the decades has deteriorated badly. Katrina has a desire to be part of the NY elite, respected liberal.

I remember when, back in the early 60s, The Nation was cobbled together at a threadbare lower Manhattan printing facility on cheap newsprint by people who were really dedicated. The staff at The Nation was then a tiny fraction of the size it is today but the intellectual output was far greater. Entropy!

Like Dubya, it is becoming clear that Obama's true constituency is "the haves and have mores." Obama just talks better.

-30-

During the 2008 campaign, up to the time he took office in January, 2009, Obama parried many probing questions about his opinions and plans by coyly explaining that it wasn't proper for him to put in his 2¢ yet-- Bush was still President.

However, Obama didn't scruple to jump in with both feet to lobby FOR the bankster bailouts.

Then, as I've been writing ever since, Obama promptly outsourced the US Treasury to Goldman-Sachs by importing a cadre of executives from that notoriously venal gang of thieves into his new maladministration.

Oh, Obama made a few half-assed noises about reining in obscene profits and payouts to placate increasingly stunned and outraged citizens.

But his supposed golden rhetorical skills didn't seem to fool anyone-- except of course the editors of "The Nation", who reverently back in to the Democratic Peanut Gallery with "Kick Me Again!" signs taped to their rear ends.

Obama is in no way or shape a genuine "reformer"-- certainly not a populist reformer. He's about as much of a breath of fresh air as those little deodorizer trees made to hang in cars.

Who's kidding who? Obama's maladministration is OF the banksters, BY the banksters, and FOR the banksters.

· Yr Obd't Servant

Katrina vanden Heuvel is getting warmer, but she again is failing to move in the most beneficial direction. I would have liked the article better if she would have focused on how this situation is, in fact, classic Obama (and democratic leadership) spouting pretty platitudes to mislead the increasingly more desperate and gullible and then doing whatever he can to kiss the asses of our corporate owners.

Ms. vanden Heuval is in a position where she could make a much greater impact, if only she could get in touch with a sense of "righteous indignation" instead of this seemingly polite analysis which only gives these crooks more time to steal that which she seems to be seeking.

C'mon Katrina, use your power and start kicking some ass!

Oh, the irony!

In an article attacking the Barons of Wall St and economic injustice, Katrina actually quotes Barack H. Obama -- attempting to convert this obsequious Wall St toady into "The Grand Enunciator of High Principle"!!

There has never been a president more subservient to Wall Street than Obama. Yet Katrina tries to portray him as some sort of champion of economic justice!!

As they say, you just can't make this stuff up.

"i seem to recall Ike in his last address to the nation also warned Americans of the need to be vigilant about the growing threat of the MIC""

Yes indeed. He warned of a military industrial complex he was instrumental in creating.

It is as obvious as it can possibly be that the foxes are in absolute and total control of the hen house.

Nowhere have I ever come across a story in history where the foxes of a hen house were expelled except by force.

We have the best government money can buy.

i seem to recall Ike in his last address to the nation also warned americans of the need to be vigilant about the growing threat of the MIC - that one went in one ear and out the other, to the detriment of all.

now we have vast corporations who have found obscene profitablity in "war without end" - further these coroproations have bought off all the politicians - to the extent that they control the government, tail wags the dog.

in fact, if anything, thanks to the corporate media the sheeple know less about the real world and the issues that actually affect their day to day lives. instead they bone up on clinton's blowjob, oj's nocturnal travels etc - they know less about their own country and the scoundrels who run it.

they know nothing about what the game plan is - control the oil and gas, put the squeeze on russia and china, and the full spectrum dominance policy

so KVH is surprised we have learned nothing from the bank scam so far....

she is the one who isn't learning...

the lesson is the sheeple never learn and they have lousy memories to boot

they believe anything they see on tv.

they eat fast food by the metric ton and they stretch 9X tee shirts to the max

they don't like to waddle too far

many are dentally challenged as well

some wear curlers in their hair all day long

they like to watch black girls get their hopes dashed again and again on the maury povic show

so let's not expect too much of them when to comes to learning lessons.....

Let's see, Ms. vanden Heuvel, Obama "got it right" when he inveighed against excessive executive pay in April, but "the government" was very wrong in not moving to implement the populist rage to which the President was giving voice. It's as if the President as an icon of idolatry is not "the government" or at least any effective part of it (unless he can find a way to "pop the pin" a la Chuck Collins). Talk about royalty, where Queen Elizabeth couldn't stop British participation in the Iraqi invasion because Tony Blair was dead set on it---she was too busy playing golf with moguls at Martha's Vineyard...er, selecting royal table settings. Ah, the impotence of the powerful, but they do find their own compensations, do they not?

Take the money out of politics and it's all solved. Simply allot so much federal money to each politician in an equal amount and that's it. Let them run on their merit and creativity, not corporate money. The WAY they spend the money they get, will do much to show their leadership potential and care for public funds. All accounted for...any money left over goes into the fund for the next election.

Of course, none of this will happen, since THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INC....is just that ...another corporation run by big money. We the People have little if NO say.

I'm ready for the streets. Anyone else?