(Hat tip Crooks & Liars.)
And of course, it’s more than just the economy on which John McCain mimics George W. Bush; you can learn more at Third Term: The Movie.
Voters should keep McCain’s role in the savings and loan debacle in mind as they’re asked to once again to pick up the pieces from yet another financial crisis largely created by the free trade/deregulatory policies McCain has ideologically championed throughout his entire career. Sure, the markets are soaring this morning, but taxpayers’ spirits won’t be when they hear the reasons why:
Congressional leaders said after meeting Thursday evening with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that as much as $1 trillion could be needed to avoid an imminent meltdown of the U.S. financial system.
[…] “We’re talking hundreds of billions,” Paulson told reporters. “This needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get to the heart of the problem.”
A trillion dollars of taxpayer money to buy up the bad debt whose accumulation made Wall Street executives rich beyond your wildest dreams. And for this we’re supposed to reward McCain with the reins of government?
Those guys with the booze in the funny hats? That’s McCain partying with Charles Keating in the heady days before McCain pressured regulators to lay off Lincoln Savings, and the S&L’s collapse subsequently cost taxpayers a couple billion dollars, and Keating a few years of his freedom on a fraud conviction.
And this is the guy we’re supposed to trust to keep an eye on Wall Street? The guy who bills himself as “the greatest free trader” and “the greatest deregulator” ever…?
A trillion dollars, folks. $1,000,000,000,000.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” said lawmakers were told last night “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications, here at home and globally.”
For all you McCain-style free traders out there, this is what we call a market failure. Your economic philosophy—your religion—that the market always makes the most efficient allocation of resources, and that it always corrects itself, as if guided by the invisible hand of God? Well, it’s just been proven wrong.
Again.
And the impact on the rest of us, I mean beside the recession that will bring undue economic hardship on billions of people worldwide, while Wall Street executives become honored philanthropists for giving away a fraction of their ill-gotten golden parachutes?
The solution being proposed by the Bush administration is the most expensive bailout in the nation’s history, sharply curtailing the ability of the next president to push for tax cuts or new spending.
Well thanks a fucking lot. Once again a Democratic president will be forced to spend his entire eight years, shoving progressive policies like universal health care aside so that he can clean up the mess of the previous administration.
That is, assuming, voters aren’t stupid enough to elect John McCain.
This site is full of made-up propaganda.
Anyone with a integrity knows the truth about keating 5 that the lawyer against keating stated Senator John McCain was innocent of all charges.
Obama backs Iran’s nuclear reactor says we shouldn’t be the only superpower.
Strange that goldy didn’t mention the outcome of the keating 5 investigation as it concerns mcsame. How much time did mcsame serve, or how much of a fine did he pay?
The excuses for obama not doing anything he promised are already being made. Of course obama won’t get anything done, he’ll be too busy to vote in the senate because he will be campaigning for president in 2012.
Let me say this: This article is a crock of shit. I repeat: This article is a crock of shit. Bush actually tried a major regulatory overhaul 5 years ago. Democrats shut it down under the claims that such an overhaul would impact the ability of the poor (read unqualified) to get home loans. See the NYT 9-11-03 if you don’t believe.
Obama, refuses to attend rally against Iran held in NY due to not wanting to offend a peaceful nation.
Obama has the answer to the financial mess, but he doesn’t want to tell us.
Didn’t john kerry, the vietnam war hero, also have a plan to end the iraq war that he kept secret.
So democrats have all the answers but just don’t want to help the country.
Yeah, all that partisan wrangling. Just imagine of obama really did have the answer to the problem. Even someone as dense as steve could figure out that obama would use his answer to sew up his nomination.
When obama loses the election, at least he can feel good abut having all the answers and not wanting to share them with all those bitter americans.
Good idea. Obama;s first step would be to let the world vote for the president of the united states.
The best thing about the obama campaign is that after he loses democrats won’t run presidential nominations so far left of america’s values.
Damn, another longtime democrat jumps ship for mcsame.
Everyday I get to post about another dem turned mcsame supporter, and I enjoy it!!.
Yeah, keep believing the wing-nuts at dailykus that say that hillary supporters will support obama. Obama split the party in ways rove could only dream about.
No doubt that non-profit he started will be working for mcsame.
Sucks to be a democrat and have no choice besides to vote for obama.
Ahhh been waiting for the this tired horse to be brought out of the Democrat playbook.
The memo must be out from the DNC.
2005 McCain SPONSORED legislation to address issues with Freddie and Fannie. Issues that lead to where we are today.
Demmocrats blocked it….
Layer on top of this the fact that two former CEO’s of Fannie, who took huge WINDFALLS from the companie by cooking the books a la Enron (Hey why no perp walks and congressional hearings like Enron???? oh yeah Democrats ran it)Johnson and Raines both were or are employed by the Obama campaign……
The truth is out Democrats….
Mr. Change, Obama, is neck deep in corruption and influence peddling. Classic Washington.. Not change.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq7DGTggpx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceMtvRjZkO0
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was passed 90-8-1 by the Senate, 362-57-15 by the House, and signed by Bill Clinton, on the subject of banking deregulation. Leach refers to James Leach, a republican who has thrown his support to Obama this campaign season.
Democrats have received plenty of $$ from organizations that have been knee-deep in the current crisis.
For example:
The top three lawmakers who received Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, 1989-2008:
Christopher Dodd $165,400
Barack Obama $126,349
John Kerry $111,000
FYI, Obama had originally asked James Johnson, a former Fannie Mae CEO, to lead the process for selecting his VP.
The top four lawmakers who received campaign contributions from Lehman Brothers employees, 1989-2008
Hillary Clinton $409,980
Barack Obama $395,574
Charles Schumer $181,450
Christopher Dodd $165,800
Dodd, incidentally, is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman. Schumer sits on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Obama’s top doners (financial services indicated):
Goldman Sachs $689,280 **
University of California $531,070
JPMorgan Chase & Co $449,671 **
Citigroup Inc $411,504 **
Harvard University $407,452
University of Chicago $396,339
UBS AG $390,000 **
Google Inc $379,212
Lehman Brothers $365,922 **
Skadden, Arps et al $358,121
Sidley Austin LLP $356,345
Kirkland & Ellis $351,714
Moveon.org $347,463
Morgan Stanley $314,638 **
Exelon Corp $310,911
National Amusements Inc $298,500
Microsoft Corp $280,425
Time Warner $279,859
Jones Day $266,705
These contributions probably helped purchase an awful lot of hands-off treatment. For example, regarding Fannie and Freddie, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....id=topnews
As the authors write:
—————–
In October 1992, a brief debate unfolded on the floor of the House of Representatives over a bill to create a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On one side stood Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican concerned that Congress was “hamstringing” this new regulator at the behest of the companies.
He warned that the two companies were changing “from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the stockholding few.”
On the other side stood Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who said the companies served a public purpose. They were in the business of lowering the price of mortgage loans.
—————–
It is simply disingenuous to argue the current crisis can be chalked up to one party.
The Chimp “conservative” administration is again pimping “sossheeaaleesm” for the rich.
They’re not only bankrupt intellectually – they’ve bankrupted US all.
A part of me wants McSame to win so that it’s all on him but it won’t matter because he’ll just point the finger at a Dem Congress. So I guess it’s up to us clean up this Republican mess – again.
If the Dems are smart – taxes go way up on the rich. A good old fashioned soaking of the rich is way overdue. Payback for the stupid fucking war and their unhinged greed.
Thanks chimp administration. There goes my middle class tax relief.
Chalk it up to whoever you want. The blame game is pointless, because it all boils down to socialism for Wall Street, and “you’re on your own” for Main Street.
We could take the trillion taxpayer dollars the Bush administration proposes to spend buying back bad assets from banks and investment houses and use it to directly help homeowners out of foreclosure or bad mortgages. End of mortgage crisis, end of problem.
Sure, some rich investment bankers might lose their shirts if we did that, but hey, there’s always unemployment insurance and welfare, right? If it’s good for the goose…
But no, we’re going to bail out the people who invented the derivatives and securities that created the whole problem in the first place. Big money wins, middle-class screwed. Again.
The Politico is saying this meltdown is going to cost more than the fucking stupid Iraq war.
More..
Privatize the profits.. Socialize the costs of what?
American ruling class greed.
The trillion dollars that McCain Banking Mess II is costing taxpayers is mere chickenfeed compared to the bill for McCain Hundred Year War.
@11 The blame game isn’t pointless. This crisis — like the California electricity market rigging — is a direct result of the Republicans’ stupid and dysfunctional “free-market-regulate-nobody” mentality, and if stupid half of America’s electorate puts McCain in to perpetuate this idiotic ideology, America’s taxpayers will foot another huge bill for more of the same.
Pointing the finger of blame in this case is the same thing as saying, “After 3 DUIs it’s time to take Joe Sixpack off the road.”
Yes, It’s Patriotic To Tax The Rich
They got the money from all this, so why shouldn’t they give it back to pay for all this?
@1 See #2.
Yes, this site is full of made-up propaganda, and here’s why:
1) This is a liberal blog.
2) Anyone can post here (except JCH).
3) There is no censorship.
And so, wingnut trolls flock here knowing their outrageous lies won’t be deleted, moderated, or edited. Therefore, I need to remind them of the rest of the HA ad hoc posting rules:
4) As liberals, our mission is to verbally kick the living shit out of these fascist traitors.
5) No mercy for wingnuts!
6) Our terms are unconditional surrender, and there will be trials.
And, and one more thing:
7) klake is a nazi.
Any questions, trolls?
@8 More of the same stupid RNC Rove quotes – sorry, the 2005 legislation would have made things WORSE! oooopsy!
McCain himself has said he is a deregulator.
@9 the real vote was 54-44 – republicans for democrats against. McCain voted for. Get your facts straight. ooopsie.
And the bill was sponsored by….drumroll please…McCain’s chief economic advisor, Phil Gramm. ooopsie!
Also@9 – Obama is taking NO PAC money and no 527 money (unlike McCain) so your figures are from where? No citation means false.
They must be from individual donors because otherwise Obama doesn’t take them. On the other hand – among McCain’s lobbyist advisors there are at least three major advisors that lobbied for banks and Fannie and Freddie.
ooopsie!
good try though – try convincing us that John (deregulation) McCain was in favor of regulation to prevent the problems…right.
Obama, is a racist the only reason he picked Biden was to get a white vote.
Obama’s and the black caucus hate whites and will side with Islam against America.
300- advisors and it’s said 20 are from the middle east.
I keep pointing this out. While wingnuts are quick to point out that some Democrats went along with the deregulation that led to the current crisis, they cannot deny, and none of them even attempt to deny, that this is an abject failure of Republican philosophy.
Play the blame game all you want, wingnuts, but, while you do, the indictment against your ideology stands completely unanswered.
The true Republican religion is the pagan worship of money, and I’m Goddamned sick and tired of how much they keep passing the basket.
19:
Perhaps another hit off of your Hookah pipe before you post? I bet you could conjure up better bullshit than that.
Please post a link
NOTE TO ALL WINGNUTS:
It is called spell check. Try it some time. You will look a lot less moronic.
But you will still be stupid.
The Current Administration knows that they are short timers and is setting up the next administration for failure, or at least, trying to. They are maxing out the Fed’s credit card, issuing another one to cover the money market funds, but they are missing a crucial piece: the derivatives bubble has not burst yet. It is larger then the entire US economy. Several Trillion.
This rally is temporary.
In the 1930’s, FDR created the Fed in part to bail out capitalism through public investment and public works. Even he understood that labor creates all wealth. But with that credit card maxed out, what will be available to similarly bailout the US economy?
Well, what did WWII do for industrial production, and the middle class, post war?
Obama cannot just be good; he had better be a genius. Although, even just good would be miles ahead of a Palin/McCain presidency in 2009/10. No, I didn’t mis-type.
What happens when working people become desperate, and government fails them, and they cannot get bread? History repeats itself.
Everyone, remember what I taught you. Don’t get sucked into the post. Pause. Pull back from it. Look at the big picture. Think about how Goldy posts. Are there any patterns? Where are the pro-Obama posts? Where are the pieces that highlight what a great candidate Obama is? Take a look at Goldy’s pattern. He only writes negative pieces.
Don’t believe me? Go back and look at the last 15 posts of his where the subject is one of the presidential candidates. Add ’em up. Anti-McCain vs pro-Obama posts. Notice the pattern. What does that tell you?
Fact: John McCain was one of the Keating Five.
Fact: Neil Bush was up to his neck in the S&L meltdown via Silverado Savings.
Fact: The Bush family and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon own adjoining properties in Paraguay (over the world’s largest reservoir of fresh water).
@25
Fact: Your facts aren’t going to win this election. Your boy needs to get off his ass and start fighting for the job!
re 24: That he doesn’t like McCain???
What’s your point?
re 26: Facts won’t win this election? Here’s a fact: Democrats are playing rope-a-dope this time around.
Keep your candidates flailing. Obama’s not going to go down. Palin hits like a girl and McCain is too old.
Wrap your brain around this fact: McCain is too old to be president and Palin is an airhead.
@27
I went back and looked about the last dozen posts of Goldy’s where the subject was about the presidential candidates. I noticed a pattern. None of the post were about Obama. Let that sink in for a minute.
In other words, when Goldy chose to write about either one of the candidates, either McCain or Obama, he always wrote about McCain. Obviously, he doesn’t like McCain, so he is going to write some anti-McCain pieces. But it’s not just some. It’s all. He does not write positive pieces on Obama, at least not recently, and at least not often. In my research, not once did he write a pro-Obama piece. They were all anti-McCain posts.
Draw your own conclusions. I’m just the messenger.
@28
Kid, if you think your boy can just coast in to victory in November without lifting a finger between now and then, you’re in for a big surprise. Your boy need to get the fuck off his ass and start campaigning hard.
@22
You racist pig oops, forgot you don’t eat or like pork.
@22
http://billayers.org/
That he can’t find anything good to say about obama.
So instead he slings dirt, smears and lies against mcsame.
Do you have any idea what happened to mcsame regarding the keating 5?
@32
The site Goldie and his Racist clones gets their marching orders everyday.
Klingon, do this. It will just take one minute. Look at all of Goldy’s posts where the subject is of either one of the presidential candidates. Scroll down through all the posts. The click page back, and go to previous posts. Then click the a few more times, until you see a good sampling of posts that have to do with who’s running for President.
Now, look for the one’s where the subject is about Obama.
(You won’t find any)
31
What in my post 22 referred to racism? What are you smoking? It seems to be getting stronger and stronger.
Even though I am Jewish, I do eat pork. You really need to check your “facts”.
The left wing nuts are on the war path again.
Did America receive some good news today?
@36
Take a bath once a day camel head.
LMAO @ the squeals of desperation from the trolls.
You’ve had it your way mostly for the last 28 or so years: tax cuts, deregulation, war.
I doubt people are going to re-up for more of the same with McSame despite his crazy flip-flops all over the place.
And Sarah who?
Wow. The trolls are out in force today. Guess I hit a sore point, huh? All you R’s a little uncomfortable watching your candidate go down in flames with the economic mess he helped create?
Republicans have championed the cause for 30 years to deregulate everything as much as much as possible.
There polices, starting with Ronald Reagan, are nothing more than Financial Treason committed against the United States of America.
And, as such, Republicans should be treated as treasonists.
Speaking of the senior American traitor supreme, Ronald Reagan, remember his now INFAMOUS line: “What are the 10 most DANGEROUS words in the English language? ‘Hi, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.‘”
Yeah, now we find those same greedy bastards who funded Republicans find themselves in trouble, then, they don’t mind having their cap in hand begging for the ULTIMATE gu’mimt cheese handouts.
Of course, if you were a Katrina victim, Reagan’s words ring true.
re 30: Obviously, you don’t understand rope-a-dope.
The entire r-a-d goes like this: Opponent punches repeatedly until exhausted. Exhausted opponent is knocked out with reserve energy of hero (Obama).
Obama jabs bony ridge over opponents eyes until it starts to copiously bleed. Then Obama punches out the lights of exhausted and blood-blinded opponent.
“Boom! Boom! Out go the lights!”
re 42: They should go visit their pastor. Charity is not a function of government.
@40 Good one Goldy.
If McCain was so influential in this current mess? Why isn’t he in the top 10 recipients of campaign $$ from Freddie and Fannie? And how is it that BO has been in the Senate for such a short time and amassed so much campaign money from these companies?
You kooks try to lay off “greed” as a Republican problem. Wrong…
Democrats are beyond neck deep in this credit fiasco….
Get real.
Again. Where are the hearings? Why aren’t the heads of Freddie and Fannie sitting on every cable news channel answering questions from the house and senate about accountability?????
Very simple. All roads lead back to congress, and Democrats know that they are bullseye in the middle of this situation….
So they adjourn and go home…..
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....PBaUbYV_qQ
Now that’s leadership…..
re 35: Why don’t you use Daryll’s ‘Monte Carlo Technique’ and provide me with some graphics.
re 45: Your graphic should be captioned: “Caution — Slow Republicans at Play!”
A picture of an elephant on a tricycle wearing a beanie with a propeller on top would cement the image in peoples’ minds.
Say la vee! Go ahead. Say it.
La Vee.
Democrats are beyond neck deep in this credit fiasco….
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.....Bliley_Act:
After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15. This veto proof legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.
From Arianna Huffington of Huffinton Post:
He (Obama) needs to start by making sure that the economic advisers he turns to extend beyond those he had on a conference call on Monday — Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Laura Tyson, and Paul Volcker. It’s great to include graybeards who have been through crises before, but he needs to go beyond the two Treasury Secretaries who were complicit in the 1990s deregulation orgy that has led to so many of the problems we are now seeing. **** And he needs to make it clear that the Clinton-era Democrats who put the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of Main Street are not going to be the primary voices he listens to.*****
Some who voted for the version of the bill that overwhelmingly became the law of the land in 1999:
Joe Biden
Christopher Dodd
John Edwards
Diane Feinstein
Edward Kennedy
Patrick Leahy
Carl Levin
Chuck Schumer
You look at Obama’s top financial industry donors and all of them except for Lehman Brothers are the SOLVENT banks.
Most of them gave something to McSame as well but much, much less. Just hedging their bets.
I’d say that’s a vote of confidence in a winner and a rejection of a bottom-of-his- class, econ and finance ignorant, 72-year old has been who chose an even greater lightweight a heartbeat away from the job he lusts after.
And who are some of McSame’s top donors? Merril Lynch – a loser – and Bear Stearns – a “gubmint handout” basket case.
Wow. The trolls are out in force today. Guess I hit a sore point, huh?
Goldy, you’re out of touch with the history of some of the members of your own party. Even Arianna Huffington is attuned to this issue.
The model of government proposed by, and enacted by conservatives if a FAILED model of government like that of Marxism, Communism, Fascism, and Nazism.
Jimmy Carter wanted to stop our addiction to oil and proposed renewable energy sources. He even installed solar panels on the White House to demonstrate LEADERSHIP.
Ronald Reagan scoffed at the oil crisis notion and promptly had the solar panels removed.
Liberalism 1
Conservatism 0
Ronald Reagan took America from being the largest financial lending nation on the planet to the largest debtor nation on the planet in less than 6 years.
William Jefferson Clinton created the “pay as you go program” and actually paid down a portion of the Republican national debt.
Fiscal Responsibility; chalk up another for Liberalism.
Liberalism 2
Conservatism 0
Drill here, drill now for oil that won’t become available to us in 10 years and not effect the price of oil significantly vs. Invest and Invent our way out of this crisis that T Boone Pickens says we can solve in less than 10 years.
No argument, Liberalism wins.
Liberalism 3
Conservatism 0
Global warming is real and backed up by scientific fact that humans are a major contributor to the problem.
Al Gore works tirelessly to educate the world to save the human race. George W. Bush consults the bible and good folks like Rev. Ted Haggard and redacts and restricts official US Government documents containing the truth.
Again, Liberalism on the right side on history and what’s best for America.
Liberalism 4
Conservatism 0
Bush said in the opening days of the War on Terror “You’re either with us or against us.” Now, Pakistan threatens to “fire on the US military” who go after bin Laden and other terrorists in the lawless regions of NW Pakistan. 7 years after 9/11 bin Laden is still free and al Qeada is as strong now and waging attacks against US embassies. The last time we were embroiled in a World War Liberals in the White House and the congress mobilized a nation, fought and won TWO WARS in HALF the time Republicans have been fooling around with our national security.
Liberalism 5
Conservatives 0
Social Security. The greatest and most popular government program ever was created by Liberals. Bush and McCain wanted to “privatize” S.S. and risk it in a deregulated stock market. Last week John McSame referred to Wall St. as a “casino.”
Obvious answer here.
Liberalism 6
Conservatism 0
All the major challenges we face today were created by the ideals of conservatism and they will be corrected by purity of thought that is the foundation of our GREAT nation; Liberalism.
I’m going to love seeing who’s on the “gubmint cheese” handout list once Dumbya’s bailout program gets going.
Those are names that are going to be burned in people’s minds for a generation and I think this time people aren’t just going to just shrug and forget it.
People are going to make those dipshits pay.
RS @ 45
If McCain was so influential in this current mess?
I keep saying this, and you folks keep ignoring the point. The key issue in the current crisis is not one of who did what.
The current crisis is an abject failure of Republican philosophy–a philosophy that McCain espouses, and has espoused for more than a quarter century. No one is saying that McCain had any specific hand in the current crisis. We are, however, saying that McCain wants to continue the policies that have led to it in the first place.
That’s not change we can believe in.
re 51: Hear1 Hear! Let’s all give a silent ‘thank you’ to our Secular Humanist forefathers who wrote the Constitution and kept the mindless ‘2000 year-old invisible friend’ believers out of the body politic.
I love throwing that ‘gubmint cheese’ handout meme back in the righties’ faces.
Hey, righties, all the bigwigs at Bear/Stearns need to get their baby-mamas some metal-flake purple Cadillacs to go pick up their welfare checks in.
re 55: With glossy whitewalls and spinners and curb feelers! Oh, Yeah!
Why Terrorist want Obama as POTUS.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2.....y-program/
RE 57: YOU ARE A SIMPLETON.
@ 58
No. He’s a terrorist. He’s trying to use fear to achieve a political end.
We’ve got a new wingnut team assigned to HA. They could all be more or less the same guy: Alex, Fred, John, Edward, THTRUTH.
Who have I left out?
So far their drivel has been pretty moronic like that in 57.
The truth of posts 4,6, 8 & 9 should be
enough to make any sane person leave the
democrat party for the rest of their lives.
Why in hell can’t you tards get it?
Except that is it pure bullshit. The “overhaul” was a thinly disguised attempt to incoporate redlining and did nothing to get at the real problems that led to this crisis – selling packaged loans, lack of regualtion to guarantee transparency on the books of financial institution and the lack of barrieres between selling mortgages and selling investments in mortgages.
It was the republicans that voted for this – 54-44. The final bill was a committe compromise that republicans worked out – the even worse bill that passed originally was sponsored by Gramm and most every democrat voted against it. McCain voted for the bill. Biden and all the other democrats voted against it.
Dear Mark: Are you stupid or do you just not understand. Republicans are FOR deregulation and wrote the bill that deregulated the banking industry. What don’t you get?
Your facts are wrong. I already linked to the correct vote. It was written by Phil Gramm and the co-sponsors were all republicans. Phil Gram is the chief economic advisor to McCain – he also called Americans whiners and said the economy was fine. Republicans controlled the congress at the time (1999).
Do you think that republicans are for more regulation of the banks? Are you that stupid?
I lived in Arizona during the whole Keating 5 debacle. McSame was up to his ears in keeping the regulators at bay. The fact that he managed to maneuver his way out of serious consequences does NOT equal the argument that he was innocent–unless, of course, you also believe that OJ was innocent…
@61 – If those posts were true, you might have a point. However, those of us who don’t believe everything we read on the internet–and who know how to google know that the only thing Republicans have going for them at this point is a bunch of “facts” and “statistics” that they’ve pulled out of their ample hindquarters. As they say, the truth has a liberal bias…
the only reason we’re in this mess is that the demo social engineering experiment went terribly wrong. period. people who had no business signing big-ass mortgages were led to the trough by well-meaning dim-witted democrats who forced companies to get raped by sub-prime loans. you can look in pelosi’s beady eyes and see that they have absolutely no clue what they are doing, except holding up any progress we can make in this country. where are the smart (not smart-assed) lefties? i don’t know one that could match up to say victor davis hanson, who that huffington green acres lady once begged to join her side because he was so smart… there’s definitely an absence of real intelligence on the left – no don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of fascist tactics, but not much serious debate.
@66: And back to reality – it was the Phil Gramm bill in 1999 that led to the deregulation that let bankers bet on sublprime mortgages. the real problem was unbridled and unregulated wall street risk takers who bet on risk taking loans that were sold in bunches to people hwo did not even care if they were ever paid off.
thge idiot above has NO CLUE that banking excesses did all this. the free market, if left to it’s own devices just screwed over the entire financial sector..oooops! So much for the free market idiots, some of them (like the idiot above, don’teven understand the free market they advocate for. Socialism my ass …..it was out and out greed!