After watching PE Obama's speech, I went back and I read the entire speech as transcribed on the front page of Kos by the Jed Report. I thought that the speech was excellent in many respects, and that Obama had the courage to absolutely go to the heart of the matter:
We are in 'dire straights' in our country. There is no time to waste, that time has come and gone. Obama make it exceedingly clear that if partisan politics are not put aside, and Congress does not work together to put the country first (for once), that the repercussions will be tantamount to national suicide. I applaud Obama for his serious and somber tone, and his leadership shown through in this speech.
However, this idea, or the way that he worded exactly 'how we got here' really burned my butt just a little bit....
We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC. For years, too many Wall Street executives made imprudent and dangerous decisions, seeking profits with too little regard for risk, too little regulatory scrutiny, and too little accountability. Banks made loans without concern for whether borrowers could repay them, and some borrowers took advantage of cheap credit to take on debt they couldn't afford. Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline, and too often focused on scoring political points instead of the problems they were sent here to solve. The result has been a devastating loss of trust and confidence in our economy, our financial markets, and our government.
Yes, this is correct, but the words 'profound irresponsibility' (at least to me) is like calling a 'serial killer' an 'enthusiastic body handler'.
We got here because of criminal activity all the way from the White House down to predators of Wall Street. We got here because the SEC was, according to one article I read: was watching porn and running businesses on the side because no body was holding anyone accountable. Hence we've got Bernie Madoff sitting in his cushy 7 million dollar condo for bilking and ruining millions of people's lives for the tune of 50 billion dollars...when this asshole should be in solitary confinement at Attica. I read today that the FEDS had investigated him 8 times in the past several years, and guess what? They didn't find a thing. Wow what a surprise, seeing how Bernie's son-in-law works for the SEC.
Criminals running amok is how we got here. This is the bottom line, and the future of our country will depend on how PE Obama proceeds to find direct accountability for the past eight years of mayhem for a what has become Nation of 'men' with the word 'laws' thrown into the gutter to rot.
That is how we got here. Here is another way we got here from research done by John Amato from Crooks and Liars:
Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.
The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers. In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative.
Profound irresponsibility really doesn't 'do it for me' by a long shot. We were lied into two wars, that are bleeding us dry, Wall Street was allowed to run rampart with no oversight what so ever, and if that isn't bad enough, I have yet to see any kind of 'Over Sight' report on where the $700 billion dollar bail out has ended up, because the BANKS are refusing to 'share' that information with the very people who own that money. Bernake is still refusing (hiding behind the Freedom of Information Act, which has never been used to hide tax payer financial information before) to tell the country what happened to two trillion dollars.
That would be us...me and you and the taxpayers of this country.
There is a word for this kind of criminal behavior. It is called Legalized Corruption, not 'Profound Irresponsibility'. These 'crooks and liars' not only knew exactly what they were doing, they are in fact, in my estimation going to get away with what they have done. This is: Profound arrogance. Profound illegality. Profound criminality.
PE Obama goes on in his speech to say:
It will take time, perhaps many years, but we can rebuild that lost trust and confidence.
Yes, it will take time, but it will take more than just time to rebuild the lost trust and confidence.
Trust and confidence in our government will only be able to return if and when there is ACCOUNTABILITY.
I have faith in Barack Obama, and I am going to maintain that faith for as long as possible. I know with all my heart that I want him to succeed. There will be many hurdles to cross, there will be things I do not agree with him about. There will be compromises I may not always agree with, but I know exactly 'how we got here' and I know this to be one true thing:
That the American people should not have to 'pay' for the Profound Criminal Activity that has taken place for the past eight years with the collusion of the Bush Administration and Wall Street. The very idea that Dick Cheney telling the media,'that no one really knew this financial problem' was in the making, and that Bush should not apologize for bringing our country to it's knees, makes me shake my head in disgust. Not only did 'they' know what was going on, they bled this country dry, and are still daring anyone to come after them. Dick Cheney's standard response? So What? Who cares? What are you going to do about it?
The words credibility and accountability are one in the same for this American citizen, and I will not be able to have 'trust and confidence' in my country unless direct action is taken to hold all of those individuals legally accountable for their ravenous and predatory greed, that should have never have occurred in the first place.
If the American people are the ones that will be paying for these criminal activities, then how can we ever trust our government again?