Obama Weekly Address: Obama Applauds Important
Step Forward on Financial Reform

In his weekly address, President Obama applauded the House for passing financial reform legislation and called on the Senate to continue working toward meaningful reform that stands up for consumers,  sets clear rules of the road for businesses and investors and restores a sense of responsibility and accountability to both Wall Street and Washington. 

Over the past two years, more than seven million Americans have lost their jobs, and factories and businesses across our country have been shuttered.  In one way or another, we’ve all been touched by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

 

The difficult steps we’ve taken since January have helped to break our fall, and begin to get us back on our feet.  Our economy is growing again.  The flood of job loss we saw at the beginning of this year slowed to a relative trickle last month.  These are good signs for the future, but little comfort to all of our neighbors who remain out of a job.  And my solemn commitment is to work every day, in every way I can, to push this recovery forward and build a new foundation for our lasting growth and prosperity.

 

That’s why I announced some additional steps this week to spur private sector hiring.  We’ll give an added boost to small businesses across our nation through additional tax cuts and access to lending they desperately need to grow.  We’ll rebuild more of our vital infrastructure and promote advanced manufacturing in clean energy to put Americans to work doing the work we need done.  And I have called for the extension of unemployment insurance and health benefits to help those who have lost their jobs weather these storms until we reach that brighter day.

 

But even as we dig our way out of this deep hole, it’s important that we address the irresponsibility and recklessness that got us into this mess in the first place.

 

Some of it was the result of an era of easy credit, when millions of Americans borrowed beyond their means, bought homes they couldn’t afford, and assumed that housing prices would always rise and the day of reckoning would never come.

 

But much of it was due to the irresponsibility of large financial institutions on Wall Street that gambled on risky loans and complex financial products, seeking short-term profits and big bonuses with little regard for long-term consequences.  It was, as some have put it, risk management without the management.  And their actions, in the absence of strong oversight, intensified the cycle of bubble-and-bust and led to a financial crisis that threatened to bring down the entire economy.

 

It was a disaster that could have been avoided if we’d had clearer rules of the road for Wall Street and actually enforced them.

 

We can’t change that history.  But we have an absolute responsibility to learn from it, and take steps to prevent a repeat of the crisis from which we are still recovering.

 

That’s why I’ve proposed a series of financial reforms that would target the abuses we have seen and leave us less exposed to the kind of breakdown we just experienced.

 

They would bring new transparency and accountability to the financial markets, so that the kind of risky dealings that sparked the crisis would be fully disclosed and properly regulated.

 

They would give us the tools to ensure that the failure of one large bank or financial institution won’t spread like a virus through the entire financial system.  Because we should never again find ourselves in the position in which our only choices are bailing out banks or letting our economy collapse.

 

And they would consolidate the consumer protection functions currently spread across half a dozen agencies and vest them in a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  This agency would have the authority to put an end to misleading and dishonest practices of banks and institutions that market financial products like credit and debit cards; mortgage, auto and payday loans.

 

These are commonsense reforms that respond to the obvious problems exposed by the financial crisis.

 

But, as we’ve learned so many times before, common sense doesn’t always prevail in Washington.

 

Just last week, Republican leaders in the House summoned more than 100 key lobbyists for the financial industry to a “pep rally,” and urged them to redouble their efforts to block meaningful financial reform.  Not that they needed the encouragement.  These industry lobbyists have already spent more than $300 million on lobbying the debate this year.

 

The special interests and their agents in Congress claim that reforms like the Consumer Financial Protection Agency will stifle consumer choice and that updated rules and oversight will frustrate innovation in the financial markets.  But Americans don’t choose to be victimized by mysterious fees, changing terms, and pages and pages of fine print.  And while innovation should be encouraged, risky schemes that threaten our entire economy should not.

 

We can’t afford to let the same phony arguments and bad habits of Washington kill financial reform and leave American consumers and our economy vulnerable to another meltdown.

 

Yesterday, the House passed comprehensive reform legislation that incorporates some of the essential changes we need, and the Senate Banking Committee is working on its own package of reforms.  I urge both houses to act as quickly as possible to pass real reform that restores free and fair markets in which recklessness and greed are thwarted; and hard work, responsibility, and competition are rewarded – reform that works for businesses, investors, and consumers alike.

 

That’s how we’ll keep our economy and our institutions strong.  That’s how we’ll restore a sense of responsibility and accountability to both Wall Street and Washington.  And that’s how we’ll safeguard everything the American people are working so hard to build – a broad-based recovery; lasting prosperity; and a renewed American Dream.  Thank you.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.Demconwatchblog.com/diary/2893/obama-weekly-address-obama-applauds-imp
ortant-step-forward-on-financial-reform

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Thomas Hoenig For Fed Chairman

With the renomination of the current Federal Reserve chairman meeting some opposition, now is the time to start thinking about who might be a good replacement.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

At Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's reconfirmation hearing last week he offered this stirring defense of his tenure: "We did not - certainly not do a perfect job by any means. But I don't think we stand out as having done a worse job than other regulators."  Personally, I'd like the individual responsible for America's monetary policy to aspire to more than not being the worst regulator alive, but maybe I am too demanding.  

He was grilled in the Senate, where several Senators placed a hold on his nomination.  Holds are one of those inscrutable parliamentary maneuvers that are nearly impossible to game from the outside.  Harry Reid has ignored Democratic holds while being positively reverential of GOP ones; who knows what he will do with this one.  The sponsors might just be posturing, too.  It could be nothing more than the kind of institutional harrumphing the Senate seems to adore indulging in.

Still, the nomination could derail.  He has presided over a disastrous economic period, does not know what the purpose of his job is, and has few defenders.  But it would only cheer those who think he has done a terrible job until the next nominee was announced.  Bernanke's solicitousness of Wall Street is a feature, not a bug; the invisible hand of the financial industry would direct the process to another compliant nominee in short order.  Reformers would need (among other things) an alternate candidate.

It would almost by definition have to be from outside the political and financial centers.  While that would be no guarantee of independence it would be a hedge against it.  Moreover, an outsider would more likely have been a dismayed observer of the meltdown instead of a participant in or enabler of it.  S/he would need an unassailable r?sum?, though, because such a stranger would be eyed suspiciously as a potential cause of intolerable friction with the ruling class.

With that in mind I think Thomas Hoenig, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, would be a fine choice.  He joined the Fed in 1973 and has been president at Kansas City since 1991.  It is a plumb job: There are only twelve such banks in the country.  Just like being a judge in a Court of Appeals is often a stepping stone to a Supreme Court nomination, the regional Federal Reserve banks seem a reasonable place to look for a new Fed chairman.

He might have broader political appeal than Bernanke.  Right now the Senate seems at best resigned to the latter; no one seems to be coming out with full throated endorsements of him (including the man himself).  A new face would have more credibility than someone associated with economic crisis.  There is also a small chance Hoenig would attract at least some Republican support.  If the nomination was sold as a breath of solid, responsible heartland values being transplanted to the polluted air of Washington it might not be easy for the GOP to rev up the opposition.  If nothing else, Chuck Grassley might pause before trashing a native Iowan or Kit Bond a prominent Missourian.  Stranger things have happened.

Much more importantly, Hoenig appears to be less than impressed with officials' response to the meltdown.  Back in March he gave a speech titled "Too Big Has Failed" sharply criticizing the bailouts (more speeches are published here).  While some details have changed since then, the overall picture has not.  And while much of it seems unexceptional, it would sound downright revolutionary in the capitol, e.g.:

• Shareholders would be forced to bear the full risk of the positions they have taken and suffer the resulting losses.
• financial crises continue to occur for the same reasons as always - overoptimism, excessive debt and leverage ratios, and misguided incentives and perspectives - and our solutions must continue to address these basic problems.
• One other point in resolving "too big to fail" institutions is that public authorities should take care not to worsen our exposure to such institutions going forward. In fact, for failed institutions that have proven to be too big or too complex to manage well, steps must be taken to break up their operations and sell them off in more manageable pieces.

This might be academic since the odds favor Bernanke's reconfirmation.  Still, activists have targeted him and there is always a chance that they will succeed.  If so it would be helpful to have a nominee in mind immediately.  It does not have to be Hoenig, but it would be nice to see some names start bouncing around right now.  If an opportunity presents itself it will probably only do so for a short time.

Read The Full Article:
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s-hoenig-for-fed-chairman

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An amazingly sexist ad from Levi's

The question is whether this new ad from Dockers is somehow tongue in cheek. If it's serious, it's sexist as hell. No? (You can click the image below to see a larger, more readable copy.)

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/PRlmgLUONak/amazingly-sexist-ad-fro
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Tiger Woods Leaving the Golf Circuit Impossible,
right

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I admit to feeling a little sad for Tiger Woods, since he seems to have had nothing but positive publicity for most of his life, and now that has changed. I imagine he must be feeling a bit like O. J. Simpson felt when he was being followed by police in the white Ford Bronco.

And now Rippa reports that Tiger woods has announced that he's going to stop playing golf for an "indefinite" period!

Tiger's latest "press release" about his "indefinite break" from golf is the dumbest thing ever. People may think it is noble of him to put his family first at a time like this given all that has happened. But the truth to me is that this is a well timed move all in an attempt to draw sympathy and shift focus from what we know about him right now. I think his decision especially reeks of sheer arrogance given the fact that he could have stood up as a man two weeks ago and faced this head on, rather than lie or attempt to dodge the bullets, but hey that's just me. Yep, great timing there good buddy!

( . . . )

Why doesn't he just come out and face the music? Has anybody actually seen the guy within the last two weeks other than the people at the hospital where his mother-in-law was rushed recently after falling the fuck out? Oh yeah, rumor has it, she collapsed at his home after flying in from Sweden only to realize that her daughter was married to a Black man. It's a good thing his last name is Woods and not Simpson.

OK, so I'm not the only one seeing the O. J. Simpson-ness of this situation.

And what about Black women's view of Woods? He married a white woman. A lot of Black women were furious at him for that. But, in addition, he seems to have sexually engaged everyone woman he could find, but with one primary criterion: they had to have white skin. Am I wrong? Have any Black women come forward to say they had sex with Tiger Woods?

I'm thinking Tiger Woods must really be missing his father right now, since he was in Tiger's life as a mentor and counselor for so long, and then died sometime in the too recent past. It doesn't sound like Tiger is handling his business as effectively as he could and might. In fact, to hear Rippa tell it, Tiger Woods has become the laughing stock of the sports world, the entertainment world, and the whole American world.

his punkass didn't stand up and like a man and say "Yeah I did it, and I'm sorry," at the outset.

Ultimately it would have been a move that would have prevented the three ring circus that his life had become in the public eye as the naked body count of women and affairs continues to rise. Oh and let's not forget to mention the nude photos of his little putter that are in the possession of some porn rag after he so wisely sent them to one of his concubines using a camera phone. Which now that I think about it may be the real reason he decided to take an "indefinite break" from the sport of golf.

Will Tiger announce now, as John Edwards did, that his pregnant girlfriend's baby was fathered by his golf caddy? (In Edwards' case, it was a campaign staffer.)

We never thought we would feel sorry for Tiger Woods but now it's hard not to feel a little bit of pity. He has only received a $160.00 fine related to the accident he had, and will not face any criminal charges. Forbes and guardian.co.uk say Number 1 golfer Woods earned 110 million dollars last year, so the fine won't hurt much.

The golfer earns a reported $110m (£67.5m) annual income from his endorsements and appearances at tournaments. Forbes magazine ranked him as the fourth highest-paid celebrity for the 12 months leading up to the end of June this year. However, despite Forbes also reporting he was the first athlete to top $1bn in career earnings, his income may fall in the wake of the recent scandals.

Not one of Woods's sponsors has aired an advert featuring the golfer since 29 November, two days after the car crash that sparked the revelations.guardian.co.uk

I think kicking ass in golf while declaring himself "Cablanasian" helped Tiger to get treated as much like a white player as anyone over the last decade. Now, I'm afraid he's perilously close to getting the O. J. treatment from the media and his corporate supporters. If I were standing in his pants, I'd stay the hell away from that white wife and/or move out of the United States to a less color-aroused country. Tiger should keep in mind that Johnny Cochran has passed away and he was the force standing between O.J. Simpson and life in prison.

If someone slits Tiger's wife's throat, he'd better be on a different continent when it happens, with cell phone records to prove he wasn't involved.

Read The Full Article:
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2009/12/music-video-dramatizes-tiger-woods.ht
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Music Video Dramatizes Tiger Woods Asking
Girlfriend to Change Answering Machine Message

video details and more

I admit to feeling a little sad for Tiger Woods, since he seems to have had nothing but positive publicity for most of his life, and now that has changed. I imagine he must be feeling a bit like O. J. Simpson felt when he was being followed by police in the white Ford Bronco.

Tiger Woods has done nothing seriously unlawful. He has only received a $160.00 fine related to the accident he had, and will not face any criminal charges. Forbes and guardian.co.uk say Number 1 golfer Woods earned 110 million dollars last year, so the fine won't hurt much.

The golfer earns a reported $110m (£67.5m) annual income from his endorsements and appearances at tournaments. Forbes magazine ranked him as the fourth highest-paid celebrity for the 12 months leading up to the end of June this year. However, despite Forbes also reporting he was the first athlete to top $1bn in career earnings, his income may fall in the wake of the recent scandals.

Not one of Woods's sponsors has aired an advert featuring the golfer since 29 November, two days after the car crash that sparked the revelations.guardian.co.uk

I think kicking ass in golf while declaring himself "Cablanasian" helped Tiger to get treated as much like a white player as anyone over the last decade. Now, I'm afraid he's perilously close to getting the O. J. treatment from the media and his corporate supporters. If I were standing in his pants, I'd stay the hell away from that white wife and/or move out of the United States to a less color-aroused country. Tiger should keep in mind that Johnny Cochran has passed away and he was the force standing between O.J. Simpson and life in prison.

If someone slits Tiger's wife's throat, he'd better be on a different continent when it happens, with cell phone records to prove he wasn't involved.

Read The Full Article:
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2009/12/music-video-dramatizes-tiger-woods.ht
ml

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In Terms Of Republican Sex Scandals, Mark Sanford
Is Just A Sad And Pathetic Pipsqueak

Yesterday South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford filed for divorce against tango-crazed Governor Mark. The grounds: adultery. Fortunately, no one ever took Sanford's fake quest for a Biblical state-- with a sort of a South Carolina version of Sharia law-- seriously. Otherwise he might get stoned-- and not the way his former Treasurer Tom "Teabagger" Ravenel gets stoned.

The news comes the same week as Gov. Sanford was censured but spared impeachment by a House subcommittee investigating allegations that Sanford misused campaign money, and state planes and other assets. Those allegations came to light after the governor secretly left the state for five days in June to visit his Argentine lover.

...In her court filing, Jenny Sanford said ?the defendant has engaged in a sexual relationship with a woman other than the plaintiff (Jenny Sanford). The plaintiff has not condoned that relationship and is informed and believes that she is entitled to a divorce ... on ground of adultery.?

The first lady?s filing said she ?is informed and believes that all ... matters between the parties?-- custody of the couple?s four sons and division of their assets ? ?will be resolved by agreement, which agreement will be presented to the court for approval and adoption. ...?

While both Sanfords-- who married in Florida in 1989-- regularly are described as multi-millionaires, Jenny Sanford is, in fact, the wealthier. She is an heir to Skil saw fortune, while his wealth is largely based on illiquid land holdings.

A little hanky panky charged to the taxpayers down in Buenos Aires is small potatoes compared to some of the stuff I've been reading in David Rosen's new book, Sex Scandal America. Although "powerful congressmen," writes Rosen, "are protected by certain privileges," sometimes things go startlingly wrong, even for them.

In February 1989 [Donald "Buz"] Lukens was outed by an Ohio TV station reporter on a Columbus woman's charge that he had been paying her daughter for sex over the past three years. The girl, Rosie Coffman, was only thirteen years old when the affair with the congressman began. Lukens was eventually indicted and found guilty, not for rape but for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and given a slap-on-the-wrist sentence of thirty days in jail. Refusing to resign in the face of the scandal, he was defeated in his re-election bid. While completing his lame-duck term in Washington, Lukens was accused of inappropriate sexual conduct, this time fondling a Capitol elevator operator. He resigned in disgrace.

Lukens was caught on camera trying to make a deal with Rosie's African-American mom at a McDonald's. Lukens, who had paid Rosie $40 for sex, appealed his conviction on the grounds that she was already a delinquent when he seduced her! Appropriately enough John Boehner, one of the most blatantly corrupt men to ever serve in the House of Representatives, beat Lukens in the Republican primary and followed in his political footsteps. (He was later convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges for actions he took while in Congress; not Boehner, Lukens.) But Lukens' story is nothing compared to one going on at the heart of the Republican Party simultaneously. Ever hear the name Craig Spence, Craig J. Spence? Although just a big shot Republican operative and lobbyist and not a member of Congress, he was kind of the Patrick McHenry of his day, in terms of providing powerful gay Republicans with boy-toys. Like McHenry's business/love partner, Spence was found dead in a hotel... suicided. Back to Rosen's book:

One of the biggest-- and least reported-- scandals of the late-eighties was broken by the Washington Times, the conservative, Moon or Unification Church-backed newspaper. The first inkling of a scandal was a report about a male prostitution ring operating in the DC area. Additional reports kept expanding on the story. The paper claimed that Craig Spence, a Republican lobbyist, took youthful prostitutes (one fifteen years old) and clients on late-night tours of the [Reagan] White House. It claimed that Reginald de Gueldre, a Secret Service agent, arranged the tours [at the order of Vice President Bush aide Donald Gregg]; it also reported that the Secret Service "furloughed" three White House guards tied to the episode. It reported that Spence hosted lavish parties for the Washington rich and powerful at which cocaine and other illicit pleasures were provided. Also named in the scandal were Paul Balach, White House political personnel liaison for Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole, and Charles Dutcher, the Reagan administrations' associate director of presidential personnel; both charged prostitute services to their credit cards. [And you thought that Salahi thing was a big deal!]

However, the story took a bizarre twist when the paper linked the Washington goings-on to a ring that was trafficking children from Nebraska orphanages for sex orgies with Republican officials and other social worthies. It identified Lawrence King, Jr., an African-American Republican who operated the Omaha-based Franklin Community Credit Union, and Harold Anderson, then publisher of the Omaha World-Herald, as the ringleaders. The scandal reached its "climax" when Spence, who had been indicted on [crack] cocaine and gun possession charges, was found dead in a Boston hotel room.

Many of these people are dead or retired. Not so with a sick and corrupt current Republican congressman, Ken Calvert, who represents an Inland Empire district, CA-45. Calvert is widely considered one of the most hypocritical members of the California Republican congressional delegation. Rosen looked into his case as well:

Hypocrisy was one of the social virtues that underscored the Clinton era and no one better expressed it than Calvert. A tireless supporter of the Christian Coalition and "family values," he took a principled stand against Clinton: "We can't forgive what has occurred between the President and Lewinsky." However, in 1993, this upstanding citizen was caught naked in his car getting a blowjob from a hooker, only to be apprehended by the police when he attempted to flee. He later pleaded for mercy, complaining that his father had recently committed suicide, his wife had left him and he did not know that the woman was a sex worker. Adding insult to injury, his ex-wife denounced him for refusing to meet his child-support payments.

Last year voters nearly retired Calvert-- even after Boehner came to his rescue by assigning him to the Appropriations Committee, where he was able to amass a huge war chest. Last year Calvert spent $1,150,432 in his re-election campaign, while grassroots Democrat Bill Hedrick only managed to spend $191,461, though nearly getting as many votes. This year the two will face off again.


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Is it Time to End the Connecticut Compromise

"The use of the Senate is to consist in its proceedings with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch." - James Madison The Connecticut Compromise, proposed by that humble cobbler and self-taught jurist Roger[...]

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Mark Twain on War and Peace

The Anti-Imperialist League was founded in 1889 as an opposition group, intended to counter what was then seen as an imperialistic approach toward Cuba and the Phillipines.  After the Spanish-American War (April-August, 1898), the Treaty of Paris,[...]

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Casy Anthony sobs

"Yea, let's kill her. Let's tie her down and stick a needle in her vein. Let's get a crowd around her to cheer. That's the way to make the world a better place. Maybe we could give her a fighting chance. Turn her loose then hunt her down and kill her.[...]

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http://cat008.blogspot.com/2009/12/yea-lets-kill-her_2575.html

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Casey Anthony sobs at account of daughter's death

Casey Anthony sobs at account of daughter's death: "Yea, let's kill her. Let's tie her down and stick a needle in her vein. Let's get a crowd around her to cheer. That's the way to make the world a better place. Maybe we could give her a fighting[...]

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