Posts Tagged Congress
Is Today Thursday?
Posted by Lance Haley in BP oil spill, Congress, Energy, Environment, Government, House of Representatives, Oil, Pollution on June 17th, 2010
Seriously.
That was one of the questions posed to BP CEO Tony Hayward Thursday by a Congressman during the BP hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This was following several hours of questioning by others, after it became obvious that Hayward was well-versed in giving emotionless, but polite, non-descript, evasive answers to every question. He simply answered every question without ever giving a clear answer.
Finally, in a show of exasperation, an unidentified Congressman apparently had had enough. He asked Hayward, “Is today Thursday?”
Hayward almost showed a flicker of emotion, and seemingly answered in a veiled defensive tone:
“Yes, it is Thursday.”
That is likely the only good answer Americans will ever get from BP.
Massive Document Spill in Washington by Goldman Sachs
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, House of Representatives, How and Why We Get Screwed, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, financial industry on June 17th, 2010
WHERE’S WALDO?
Lost in the news cycle that has been inundated with stories regarding the Gulf oil spill, there was another giant “spill” that is overwhelming Congressional and SEC watchdogs.
Goldman Sachs is playing a classic legal game of “Where’s Waldo” with the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission by first refusing requests for documents related to the commission’s inquiry, and then suddenly dumping (delivering) hundreds of millions of documents all at one time - a legal maneuver intended to obfuscate and hide the proverbial “smoking gun” documents that may be lurking beneath that mountain of paper.
You can be certain most of those documents that were delivered have nothing to do with the Congressional inquiry. Moreover, it will take years to scour through them to find the one’s that really matter - assuming they haven’t already been quietly deleted and/or shredded. By the time this thing is over – years from now - Goldman Sachs will have likely have made enough money to pay a “small fine”, and then buy the remaining portion of Congress that they and the rest of Corporate America don’t already own.
The message from Goldman Sachs: we worked diligently at providing the documentation that you have requested, and we can ensure you that we left nothing out (except maybe the sh!t that really matters). Oh, and good luck finding what you are looking for,
If this was the Pecora Commission, you could bet that Lloyd Blankfein and Company – you know, those guys on Wall Street that are doing “God’s work”- would be a lot more cooperative. Yet, Lloyd’s betting this dog ain’t got no teeth. I hate to admit it, but Blankfein is probably right.
So the question should not be ”Where’s Waldo”?
Americans should all be asking “Where’s Percora“?
No One is to Blame for the Oil Spill
Posted by Lance Haley in Uncategorized on May 13th, 2010
THE WRATH OF GOD
“He did it. No, he did it. No they did it . . . “
Legal Memorandum to Members of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee:
This is in response to testimony provided the other morning to your committee by executives from the three energy companies involved in that drilling rig that is currently spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico. By way of this memorandum, we are giving notice that our law firm is providing legal representation for all three companies in this matter – BP, Halliburton, and Transocean – as well as the rest of the oil industry.
To clarify and correct the testimony provided to you thus far from our clients, we submit the following:
First: we acknowledge that our clients engaged in “finger-pointing”, blaming one another for the spill and then each denying that their company had any culpability in, or liability for, the disaster. We would respectfully assert to the members of the honorable committee that this is simple human nature; people often blame one another when something terrible happens that demands accountability.
After all, each one of us learned from the time we were about three years old that taking responsibility for doing something wrong will often have dire consequences. The lesson that some individuals took away from those experiences is that it is best to immediately deflect responsibility away from themselves, and blame someone else so that they can avoid becoming the target of the palpable wrath and inevitable punishment; we call them ”America’s Business Leaders”. By way of recent example, the Senate Banking Committee hearings involving executives from Goldman Sachs immediately comes to mind.
Second: after giving these circumstances their due consideration, as well as following the example provided by Wall Street, and finally by applying sound legal reasoning coupled with currently accepted American business principles, we have concluded that no one is to blame. At least not any of these oil executives, and certainly none of their companies.
This was simply an Act of God.
When American private enterprise engages in the pursuit of profits – as in “doing God’s work” – and something goes horribly wrong, it would be misguided to blame the shameless human beings who run these companies, or the heartless corporations themselves. This is just God’s will.
Think about it. These executives and their companies were following the Lord’s wishes by providing jobs for tens of thousands of employees at virtually the same wages they were earning thirty years ago – adjusted for inflation, of course. This results in huge profits for the corporations, as well as admittedly obscene salaries and bonuses for the executive management.
And in spite of the huge tax breaks you give the rich and the big corporations in order to protect and preserve the American way of life, they unfortunately still have to pay some income taxes. Fortunately, those taxes support the tax subsidies which you so generously give right back to the oil industry - talk about an “Oil Slick”? We like to think about it as a trickle-down theory for oil industry welfare. The oil executives pay taxes, and then they get that money back vicariously through their company coffers.
Isn’t it strange how the free market’s “invisible hand” and God’s hand work in concert with one another?
So if you expressly blame the oil executives, and then financially punish these companies, they will have to stop drilling for more oil off-shore because it will no longer be nearly as profitable. Oil exectutive salaries will fall. Along with large political campaign contributions from the petroleum industry. That is contrary to God’s will. You, in turn, will be blamed for taking gasoline out of the tanks of every American car in the country. Do you really want to answer to your constituents when they are waiting in long lines at the gas station this summer? Remember: mid-term elections are just around the corner (November). Getting voted out of office will simply be the consequences of you having incurred God’s wrath. This is just plain common sense to every good American – especially Sarah Palin.
Third: If you still are so inclined to make someone accountable, there really is only one group of people to blame: You. Washington. The Politicians. After all, Congress is the one that approved off-shore drilling. You were the one’s that insisted that our clients explore for oil anywhere in the United States, and that new technology made drilling for oil safer than ever. You said it was in the interests of our national security; that we had to stop buying oil from the Middle East, and vicariously supporting the terrorists.
It’s kind of like the War on Drugs (speaking of disasters): forget addressing the issue of demand for the product; Americans choose to focus on the problem of supply. Except in this case, Americans demand more oil, and simultaneously want a cheap supply, as well. Like drug addicts, they have no intention of taking responsibility for their behavior. They have been in and out of “oil rehab” numerous times over the past 40 years. We all recognize that relapse is very common among addicts, and we just have to accept that fact.
Let’s face it. Addicts are always deep in denial, and our clients are just opportunistic enablers, providing these oil addicts with the means to “chase the high” they get from driving their cars whenever they want, and wherever they want. Case in point: a new NBC/WSJ (Wall Street Journal) poll shows that 60% of these addicts still support off-shore drilling. Let’s just give them what they want.
Like any junkie, these American addicts can suffer the consequences of their behavior. OK. We are willing to concede that their children will suffer the greater consequences in the future. But hey, we all accept the fact that there will always be collateral damage in every war; it’s inevitable. Just go ask those maimed and wounded children in Iraq that George Bush “liberated” so American oil addicts would not be deprived of their “drug” (and real Americans did not want Uncle Dick Cheney to be deprived of obscene capital gains on his Halliburton stock – which God help him, he sold the minute that oil well “had heart failure“; he worked so hard to push us to war in Iraq so Americans could have their next ”fix” of cheap Middle East oil).
We rest our case.
In conclusion: we would once again encourage you to embrace our rational explanation for this environmental disaster, and re-frame the way you look at it; given the popularity of Congress right now – or rather the lack thereof – you guys may want to think carefully about this most recent poll (no, that is not a pole, Republicans), and reconsider your opposition to off-shore drilling.
We would suggest that when you are kneeling at your bedside tonight, praying for more political campaign contributions, you should ask God for guidance on this issue. We have faith and trust that you will come to understand the wisdom of his desires. For God only knows why he works in such mysterious ways.
Respectfully submitted,
Hugh Lewis Dewey (a.k.a. Hughie Louie Dewey)
The Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe (pronounced “Do We, Cheat ‘Em, and How”)
P.S. If God, in turn, shirks responsibility for this disaster, we’ll see you all in court. Including him!
UPDATE [5-14-10]: Watch “There Will Be Blame” – the segment which aired last night [5-13-10] - from Jon Stewart of The Daily Show – TOO FUNNY!
Sarah Palin Nuked Her Own Brain
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Government, National Security, Sarah Palin, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, White House, al Qaida, foreign policy on April 12th, 2010
It’s obvious Sarah Palin must have put her head in the microwave oven somewhere along the way.
In her most recent comments regarding President Obama’s nuclear weapons policy, Palin tried to belittle Obama by claiming that his only knowledge of the topic was gained through “his vast nuclear experience that he acquired as a community organizer and as a full-time candidate.”
Excuse me? Palin sees a full-time candidate every morning when she looks in the mirror.
But more to the point. What Palin obviously does not even know is that as a first-term junior U.S. Senator with a coveted seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Obama introduced his first major piece of legislation in 2005 with Republican co-sponsor Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the committee. Known as the Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative, it was designed to limit proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as well as expand the State Department’s ability to find and interdict weapons and materials designed for this purpose – particularly nuclear weapons.
Betcha didn’t know that one, Sarah?!?
Moreover, when she stated that the Obama Adminstration “treated the Afghan President poorly”- referring to President Obama’s direct and unambiguous criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s unwillingness to root out corruption and fraud within his own government – she explicitly ignores the fact that his government is financed by and exists only with the support of the United States taxpayer; that Afghanistan has virtually no Gross Domestic Product – as in an economy, Sarah; that Afghanistan’s largest export – opium - directly provides the world with an unending supply of heroin, while simultaneously financing the Taliban and Al Qaeda; and last, but not least, there is strong evidence that President Karzai’s brother is heavily involved in this game of drug trafficking and revenue-sharing with the terrorists organizations.
Yet she maintains that we should continue to finesse Afghanistan, but not Iran. She thinks we should finesse Pakistan, but not North Korea. She believes we should “quit coddling our enemies”, and that we should “respect” our allies – in spite of their unwillingness to respect our own national security interests. Sarah, here is what happens when you coddle an ally too much:
1) As you keep throwing more and more money at them – $21 Billion to be exact, in U.S. foreign aid given to Pakistan from 2001 through 2008 - you perpetuate their willful impotence and institutional corruption. The Bush Administration kept former Pakistani leader General Musharaff propped-up with U.S. taxpayer’s money for seven years with a promise from Pakistan that it would root out and pursue terrorists operating in its own territories. They did little or nothing. It was only after the Democrats had taken back control of Congress in 2006 and then threatened to pull the plug on Pakistan’s foreign aid, that Bush reluctantly decided it was time to “get tough” with Musharaff.
2) You cannot allow your ally’s sovereignty to be paramount to your own national security. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain – do you even recall who his V.P. running-mate was, Sarah (?) – stated that he (McCain) would not violate Pakistan’s sovereignty by going after terrorists in it’s territory if elected President. In deep contrast to that “coddle your friends” policy, President Obama made it clear on numerous occasions while on the campaign trail that if Pakistan would not do the job, he would! Shortly after President Obama took the oath of office, he made good on his word. And guess what, Sarah? Our terrorist enemies in Pakistan do not sleep well at night anymore – as this blog noted some 90 days ago.
3) When the U.S. taxpayer funds $21 Billion in foreign aid under the pretense that it is going to make our country safer, they want a President who is going to make sure that the recipients give us our money’s worth. President Obama immediately recognized that Pakistan’s government was full of graft and corruption, and that it was doing nothing about ousting the terrorists, so he pressed them very hard on the issue - unlike Bush and Cheney – and Pakistan has demonstrated a whole new attitude about going after the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Moreover, they have kept their damn mouths shut about the U.S. “violating their sovereignty” with our incessant and terrifying drone attacks – thus giving the terrorists a taste of their own medicine after seven years of U.S. impotence.
President Obama is now sending the same message to Afghan President Karzai – PUT UP, OR SHUT UP!
HMMMMMMMMMMM . . .
Amazing how that all works, eh Sarah???
If Palin thinks – and I use the term “think” very loosely in her case - that she has any standing to criticize President Obama’s foreign policy experience, let’s look at the facts. In the previous Presidential election campaign, Palin couldn’t even identify the Bush Doctrine when asked by Charlie Gibson of ABC news - damn those “gotcha journalists”, Sarah. Moreover, that she is not even aware of President Obama’s own prior nuclear proliferation legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate back in 2005 speaks for itself.
Here is the reality for Sarah Palin’s political supporters: well-timed platitudes and folksy quotes are not going to make this country more secure. To the contrary. And our enemies would be more than happy to exploit such blatant foreign policy inexperience and unprecedented ignorance of publically available information. The information contained in this post is not rocket science, and easily accessible to even a 5th grader, Sarah.
Most glaring though, is The Anchorage Daily News’ – as in Alaska’s largest newspaper – recent acknowledgement that “she has little or no foreign policy experience.”. If she cannot even get an endorsement from her own home state newspaper on this very important issue . . . well, that speaks volumes.
Which all leaves no doubt that the terrorists are just drooling at the prospect of her being elected President in 2012.
Hang All the Democrats? It May Be Too Late to Stop That, Eric Cantor . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in Anti-government sentiment, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Government, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Politics, Tea Party, crime on March 26th, 2010
OK. So many Americans are disenchanted with the direction of the country, specifically the health care legislation that was passed this week. One can disagree with policies – that is reasonable and to be expected.
So now it’s alright to threaten, intimidate and otherwise cast scurrilous invectives at our Congressional representatives – particularly by other members of Congress?
If the more civil party members of the Republicans and Tea Party (as for the latter, one has to wonder if “civil party members” isn’t an oxymoron) are sincerely interested in preserving the State of the Union, they would be well advised to tone down the rhetoric before something tragic happens that will ignite unforeseen consequences.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R.- Virgina) is a case in point. Cantor has suddenly decided that he wants to weigh in on this issue ONLY after his own Congressional office back home was fired upon by an unknown gunman. Cantor is now accusing Democrats of “fanning the flames” by reporting these acts, but said NOTHING prior to this when a member of his own Republican Party used language that was beyond incendiary, to wit:
1) House Minority Leader John Boehner (not ironically, Cantor’s “boss”) said this week of fellow Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus (D – Ohio), after Driehaus voted for the Health Care Reform Bill, “He may be a dead man. He can’t go home to the west side of Cincinnati.”
Moreover, Tea Party activists protesting on the Capitol steps spewed racist remark towards several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and even spit on black Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver (D – MO).
Cantor, who is of Jewish decent, claims that he has been the target of racist threats and invectives since he took office. Given that fact, coupled with the history of his own people, you think he would have spoken up earlier in the week. The silence of the German people regarding the slowly fermenting racist hatred towards the Jews by members of the Nazi party in the 1930’s was an act of omission – a moral crime, in and of itself. We all know what happened next. Cantor, of all people, should understand the unintended consequences of not speaking up sooner.
Yet, only now after he became a target of this decidedly un-American behavior, was Cantor quoted as saying, “Enough is enough, it has to stop.”
Yes Mr. Cantor, you are right.
You just should have spoken up a long, long time ago.
Going to War With Iraq Was “A Done Deal”
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, National Security, Politics, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 17th, 2010
Former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agent John Kiriakou has just released his new book, “The Reluctant Spy“.
According to reviews, the book reveals the inner-workings of the U.S. intelligence agency, and regales it’s readers with stories from the front lines in the War on Terror. Kiriakou’s participation in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, one of Al Qaeda’s senior commanders, as well as his prior support of the use of water-boarding as a legitimate means for acquiring intelligence, are just two of the many highlights in the book.
However, the most poignant experience of his career may well be the day he was called into a top-secret meeting while working at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in the summer of 2002. During that briefing, he was told that the Bush Administration had already made the decision to go to war with Iraq the following Spring (2003). His job was to support the decision.
In other words, it was “A Done Deal”.
Kiriakou was stunned that the question of going to war with Iraq was already pre-determined by the Bush Administration in spite of the fact that Congress and the public were still undecided over the basis for invading another country that posed no serious imminent threat to our national security:
“Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing.”
Approximately seven years later, George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” is anything but. Those elusive WMD’s are yet to be found. And brave young American men and women are still fighting and dying over there.
As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story”.
Harry Markopolos’ $50 Billion Dollar Failure
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Crime & Punishment, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Legal & Justice, Politics, Sarah Palin, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on March 2nd, 2010
![dumb and dumber [2]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dumb-and-dumber-23.jpg "dumb and dumber [2]")
S.E.C. LAWYERS’ GRADUATION CLASSES: 1999-2008
If you hired a security guard to watch your house, and it kept getting burglarized – even after someone told him countless times who the thief was – would you let him keep his job?
Stupid question, you say? Really?
So why do we keep the same morons on our government payroll to watch the financial markets? Now that is a good question. And there really is a simple answer. The foxes make sure to instruct their under-lords to have those dumb sharecropper farmers whom they pay beggars wages to for working their land, to keep that same old deaf and blind dog guarding the chicken coop. This metaphor should not be lost on anyone.
Bernie Madoff may be a household word – and one of Time magazines 2009 Top 100 people who affected the world. But Harry Markopolus is just another quiet hero in a global financial market run by pimps and whores. Markopolus has a new book coming out today called, “No One Would Listen“. The book chronicles the story of how Markopolus doggedly pursued a fraud case against Bernie Madoff from 1999 through 2008 by trying to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyers to investigate Madoff’s House of Cards. All to no avail.
WTF you might ask? At least that’s what I have been saying since this story first broke in early 2009 when Markopolus testified before Congress (you can read his testimony right here), and then was interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes.
This is beyond a comedy of errors. This is Dumb and Dumber, The Three Stooges, and Beevis and Butthead all working in concert to unwittingly thwart one another while the criminals continued to steal from us with unbridled impunity. Now is that not a terrifying image? Meet your S.E.C., America. Wall Street owns these guys.
Starting in 1999, Markopolus made several attempts to give the most fundamental proof of Madoff’s fraud to numerous investigators at the S.E.C. - all of which was either willfully or woefully ignored (Markopolus calls them “idiots” – that is too kind, don’t you think, Sarah Palin? I would have called them retards). By 2007, he was fed up with their wanton stupidity, and decided to document it by submitting a nineteen (19) page memorandum to the S.E.C. outlining the basis for his claim. That too, was ignored.
View the complete 60 Minutes interview with Markopolos - or just watch the real BOMBSHELL from minute 7:25 to 8:18 of the interview. That brief one minute segment is incomprehensible. And you wonder why so many investors were “Madoffed” by Bernie?
So after all this, has anything changed?
Hell no!
Harry Markopolus is still trying to settle his first big whistle-blower case, he has spent years living in fear, and yet he remains undeterred in his dogged pursuit of financial racketeers and corporate fraudsters. Of course, his new book should help keep his wife and young boys fed until payday comes. Ironically, Markopolus refers to himself as a “$50 Billion dollar failure”- because he could not get the S.E.C. to listen. One might conclude that he is being flippant, since he all but beat them over the head with his evidence. However, he is serious about characterizing this as his “failure” - he honestly takes it very personally that all these people were hurt by Madoff’s fraud in the face of the S.E.C.’s utter incompetence.
You just have to love this man. After all this, the crooks and the “police” shirk responsibility, and the hero feels guilty? And you wonder why it seems the world has started spinning in the other direction?
Meanwhile, back at the S.E.C., they are still re-disorganizing the deck chairs on the U.S.S. Financial Titanic, and there should be smooth sailing on the calm seas of Neo-Capitalism all the way back to port. No need to worry. They have their securities regulation minions fast asleep on night watch while the next massive financial iceberg awaits in the darkness. And brace yourself, because this next one’s really going to be a doozy folks.
In the meantime, bring them some Dom Perignon, the exquisite pate’, and that rare Russian escargot they just had imported, all paid for with your financial bailouts. And don’t forget to put that on a silver platter.
Oh, they almost forgot to mention it. You can ignore the water rising on the Italian marble dining room floor. That’s just from the watered-down financial regulation reform we are about to get from Wall Street’s wholly-owned public subsidiary, Congress. They have the S.E.C working on that minor leak down in the hull right now.
One Final Note: please do not bother counting the number of lifeboats. Those seats have all been reserved.
Enjoy the cruise. 
P.S. They saved several seats in the lifeboats for the S.E.C. lawyers. You didn’t really think the Financial Terrorists were going to row those things themselves, did you?
Why Good Non-partisan Politicians Like Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Dennis Moore (D-KS) Throw in the Towel
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Campaigns, Conservatives, How and Why We Get Screwed, Uncategorized on February 16th, 2010
These two men are the “poster children” for what’s really wrong with Congress and American Politics
You only need to look at their recently announced retirements – Bayh’s came yesterday and Moore’s was back in November 2009 - in order to divine that something is seriously amiss.
They are NOT Liberal Democrats. These are both very mainstream Centrists, at times even leaning a bit to the Conservative side. Moreover, it is highly unlikely either one of them would have lost their seats in the next election cycle. They were both very popular – especially with independents and Republican moderates – and they both have huge campaign war chests.
So why quit?
Evan Bayh’s stated reasons given at the press conference for his retirement announcement yesterday speaks volumes:
“There is too much partisanship and not enough progress — too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving,” he said yesterday. “Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples’ business is not being done.”
And although Dennis Moore has not stated the same sentiments publicly – and I have known Dennis for a number of years – I have a very strong visceral instinct that such is the case. If so, we are witnessing the disappearance of the political Centrists/Moderates, and an even greater polarization of the political spectrum.
Moreover, the inexplicable hatred of President Obama by the Right Wing - and blanket criticism of everything he does (or does not do) – defies logic and reason. Because of this insane hatred and the incendiary punditry, we are now treading down a very dangerous pathway; it does not bode well for the future of our country, or the security of this nation.
Are you listening America?
Credit Card Issuers Game Now Patently Transparent
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, How and Why We Get Screwed, Lobbyists & Lobbying, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, Wall Street on December 11th, 2009
The brazenness of the largest American bankers is now so patently transparent that it is arguably criminal. Yet, when you own the local sheriff and prosecutor, it’s a sure bet there will never be any charges filed.
In a previous post I called out J.P. Morgan Chase’s commercial banking subsidiary for raising interest rates on their credit card holders in an effort to squeeze extraordinary profits out of their customers ahead of the reform coming out of Congress.
Now other banks are following suit and working at a frenzied pace in order to raise rates and fees to unheard of levels before the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act becomes law. These are the very banks that we bailed out – and now they have the audacity to screw us. Compounding the problem was the U.S. Senate’s refusal to accelerate the effective date of the reform measures from February 22, 2010 to December 1, 2009, defying the U.S. House of Representatives’ attempt to stop these financial terrorists from exploiting us.
Ever wonder what is in it for the Senators? If you watched PBS ’s Frontline on November 23, 2009, called The Card Game, the banking consultants, lobbyists, and their shameless political minions are interviewed for this remarkable story and it’s exploration of the banking industry’s credit card business. There are numerous instances of individuals defending their practices of charging outrageous rates of interest on a “loan” – I mean the kind of rates that would make a loan shark shudder.
What is most surprising is how craftily the politicians dance around the notion that giving these financial terrorists another couple of months to screw as many credit card holders as possible in order to maximize their profits for years to come will be long forgotten in the next election cycle. Let’s face some simple facts. The enormous amount of money these politicians receive from the financial industry in the form of campaign contributions - both Democrats and Republicans collectively took in almost $500 Million from the financial industry in the 2008 election cycle – goes virtually unnoticed by the general public.
Moreover, their political consultants know that in spite of their transparent complicity in allowing the credit card industry more time to run up interests rates prior to the new law going into effect, most of the politicians’ constituents will not even likely know about this transgression of monumental proportions. Furthermore, even if a very small minority of us do know – as is evidenced by this post – they are confident that this fact will be long forgotten in the endless cycle of the “politics of distraction” fomented by the partisan rancor that occurs every day and is then reported in the media.
They right . . . and we will re-elect the incumbant based on our fear of the other party’s candidate getting elected – whether it be Democrat or Republican. They rely on that fact – to our detriment. Both parties in the U.S. Senate.
And that’s how we continue to screw ourselves.
P.S. to the Banking Industry: I WILL NOT FORGET!!!
PopuCon Teabaggers Give Whole New Meaning to Getting Teabagged
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Congress, Conservatives, Financial Crisis, Government, Healthcare Reform, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Tea Party, Uncategorized, Wall Street, taxes on October 21st, 2009
There is an interesting disconnect between what the current populist-conservative Tea Party movement pretends to represent, and certain historical facts that undermine their agenda. The idea for this nascent PopuCon (Populist-Conservative) phenomenon which first appeared in Spring of 2009 is modeled after the Boston Tea Party, which was a protest against a tax levied on tea imported from England’s East India Tea Company to the American colonies.
Just one problem . . .
There have been no new taxes levied on Americans since the very day that President Obama was inaugurated.
Moreover, according to the group’s newest YouTube video promoting their Tea Party Express II tour, they are also protesting bailouts, out-of-control spending, and government-run health care.
Hey Teabaggers, did you also know . . .
1) that the bailouts (TARP funds) were approved, and the first $375 Billion were dispersed by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, when George Bush was President and the Republicans controlled Congress?
2) that George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress took power in January 2001, outgoing President Bill Clinton had left them with a balanced-budget – which they subsequently decimated in six years, running up over $500 Billion in deficit spending (not including the $750 Billion allocated and spent on the Iraq War – which is borrowed from the Chinese government)?
3) Medicare, a government-run health care program for the American elderly, has been in existence for approximately 45 years, and some of your members would have no health care if not for this United States government-run agency.
I am still having a difficult time finding any pictures of protests regarding these very important facts (at least, according to your agenda) back in October, 2008. Can anyone help me?
This cup of tea is rather tepid and awfully watered-down.