I suppose, if you actually want to believe that the reason we are not in a deep reactionary political movement in this nation, because 'both parties' have ignored, the 'Fraud to Cover Up the Fraud' is where we find ourselves today, and I suppose, if you want to believe that, then all I can say to you, is that you've got you're head up your ass.
But Frank Rich gets it, and so do most Americans, and that is why we are now facing perhaps the worst of the worst, Sarah Palin spins offs, and why the Election Laws have been thrown under the bus, despite the fact that Senator Al Franken has demanded, that this 'foreign' money be investigated. What is wrong with this picture...
Everything. What is wrong with this picture? We have lost our moral compass, we have lost the rule of law in this nation, and both parties, are bought and sold, lock, stock and barrel, and everyone in our nation knows it, except of course, the Obama Administration.
In fact, they keep giving the same 'pitches' and foul balls, that are ignoring what most Americans are 'living' day in and day out as a result of allowing Wall Street/the Banks to finish up the job, that the Bush Wrecking Crew started in 2008. Millions are being thrown out of their homes, illegally, millions have lost their jobs as a result of what Wall St./the Banks got paid off for, and where, are we know? We are in a deep downward spiral, because President Obama is ignoring the problems, and somehow, someway, honestly believes, that 'this is all going to just blow over' or even worse, is allowing Wall St./the Banks, along with the Blue Dogs, to finally destroy the very Middle Class that put his ass in the White House to begin with.
The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are a catechism by now: the dark cloud cast by undiminished unemployment, the relentless disinformation campaign of his political opponents, and the White House’s surprising ineptitude at selling its own achievements. But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever. No matter how much Obama talks about his "tough" new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change. That’s not just because so many have lost their jobs, their savings and their homes. It’s also because so many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer.
This intractable status quo is being rubbed in our faces daily during the pre-election sprint by revelations of the latest banking industry outrage, its disregard for the rule of law as it cut every corner to process an avalanche of foreclosures. Clearly, these financial institutions have learned nothing in the few years since their contempt for fiscal and legal niceties led them to peddle these predatory mortgages (and the reckless financial "products" concocted from them) in the first place. And why should they have learned anything? They’ve often been rewarded, not punished, for bad behavior. Asked in "Inside Job" why there’s been no systematic investigation of the 2008 crash, Roubini answers: "Because then you’d find the culprits." With the aid of the "Manhattan Madam" (and current stunt New York gubernatorial candidate) Kristin Davis, the film also asks why federal prosecutors who were "perfectly happy to use Eliot Spitzer’s personal vices to force him to resign in 2008" have not used rampant sex-and-drug trade on Wall Street as a tool for flipping witnesses to pursue the culprits behind the financial crimes that devastated the nation.
The Obama administration seems not to have a prosecutorial gene. It’s shy about calling a fraud a fraud when it occurs in high finance. This caution was exemplified most recently by the secretary of housing and urban development, Shaun Donovan, whose response to the public outcry over the banks’ foreclosure shenanigans was to take to The Huffington Post last weekend. "The notion that many of the very same institutions that helped cause this housing crisis may well be making it worse is not only frustrating — it’s shameful," he wrote. Since Obama has neither aggressively pursued the crash’s con men nor compellingly explained how they gamed the system, he sometimes looks as if he’s fronting for the industry even if he’s not. Voters are not only failing to give the White House credit for its economic successes but finding it guilty of transgressions it didn’t commit. The opposition is more than happy to pump up that confusion. When Mitch McConnell appeared on ABC’s "This Week" last month, he typically railed against the "extreme" government of "the last year and a half," citing its takeover of banks as his first example. That this was utter fiction — the takeover took place two years ago, before Obama was president, with McConnell voting for it — went unchallenged by his questioner, Christiane Amanpour, and probably by many viewers inured to this big lie. The real tragedy here, though, is not whatever happens in midterm elections. It’s the long-term prognosis for America. The obscene income inequality bequeathed by the three-decade rise of the financial industry has societal consequences graver than even the fundamental economic unfairness. When we reward financial engineers infinitely more than actual engineers, we "lure our most talented graduates to the largely unproductive chase" for Wall Street riches, as the economist Robert H. Frank wrote in The Times last weekend. Worse, Frank added, the continued squeeze on the middle class leads to a wholesale decline in the quality of American life — from more bankruptcy filings and divorces to a collapse in public services, whether road repair or education, that taxpayers will no longer support.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
And that is the point, thank you Mr. Rich, the real tragedy here, is the prognosis, for Americans, on both sides of our worthless, bought off government, and where President Obama has refused, over and over and over again, to hold those accountable, and his worthless, AG, Holder, has refused, again and again and again, to uphold the laws of this nation.
That is exactly why we are facing this insane 'Tea Party' fake Karl Rove, Redux, extravaganza, and Darrel Issa, is chomping at the bit, once they come into office, to 'Impeach' our own President.
It does not matter, at all, that these same Rethugs, led us to this place, because in the end, what most Americans do understand, is this simple premise:
No one, is standing up for the rule of law anymore in our nation, and everyone knows this.
I mean, do you honestly think the Clinton's ever left the White House? OMFG. They never did, and neither did Robert Rubin, or all his pals, that made out like bandits, for the big fucking bubble, to end all bubbles, that has led us to this place we are now facing.
I am a fucking died in the wool Democrats, all my life, and like many of you I worked my ass off for President Obama. I took 6 months off from my regular job, to be a volunteer for him, because I believed so deeply in his mission, and I believed so deeply, that this election, was a rare time, for him, (as did Teddy Kennedy) to reclaim the 'soul of the Democratic Party.'
What is wrong with this picture? It is more simple than we think it is: Most Americans have lost complete faith in our government, and for absolutely good reasons. Who is standing up for us? Who is sending the worst of the worst, as these new fake Christian Tea Party assholes, are taking over now?
What I fail to understand is this: Was President Obama, so disconnected, and so unaware, and so incompetent, and so bought off, and so immoral, as to believe, all of this would not catch up with our party in the end? I am honestly, not sure, of if this is total disconnection, or a total sell out, or a total lack of competence, in his administration.
Yes, by all means, the Rethugs, are the worst we can get, but why are we going to 'get them now' is the real question, isn't it?
My fear, is because of President Obama's inability to understand the real repercussions of what he has ignored, will be the very end of our own, original party platform. Anyone want to remind us of what that is?
I've done it on this blog many, many times.
The rule of law, is now staring all 50 State Attorney's in the face, and now we have been forced into this horrifying mess, because Timothy Geithner, and Ben Bernanke refuse, to admit what we all know: The Big Banks are insolvent, and everyone knows this. That is why business in America, everywhere has come to a huge halt, and why they are doubling down, and ignoring the most basic tenants of the law: Property law, and how contracts are written, and honored.
Where in the hell, did President Obama think this would lead us?
He is either completely out of touch, or he knows exactly what is going on, or he is complicit in the same cover up, that the Rethugs, are....what other answers can we have? I welcome this debate, I welcome your comments.
"The danger here is that the note would not be considered a qualified mortgage," said Robert Willens, an authority on tax law, "an obligation which is principally secured by an interest in real property and which is transferred to the Remic on the start-up day." If, within three months, substantially all the assets of the entity do not consist of qualified mortgages and permitted investments, "the entity would not constitute," he said. If such failures increase taxes for investors in the trusts, Mr. Willens said, the courts will have to adjudicate the inevitable conflicts that arise.
What if a loan originator failed to provide documentation substantiating that what’s known as a "true sale" actually occurred when mortgages were transferred into trusts — documentation that is supposed to be provided no longer than 90 days after a trust is closed? Well, in that situation, a true sale may not have legally happened, and that doesn’t appear to be a problem that can be smoothed over by revisiting and revamping the paperwork. "The issue of bad assignment has many implications," said Christopher Whalen, editor of the Institutional Risk Analyst. "It does question whether the investor is secured by collateral." In other words, were the loans legally transferred into the trust, and, if not, do the trusts lack collateral for investors to claim?
For example, according to a court filing last year by the Florida Bankers Association, it was routine practice among its members to destroy the original note underlying a property when it was converted to an electronic file. This was done "to avoid confusion," the association said. But because most securitizations state that a complete loan file must contain the original note, some trust experts wonder whether an electronic image would satisfy that requirement. All of this suggests that while a paperwork cure may eventually exist for foreclosures, higher hurdles exist when it comes to remedying flaws in mortgage-backed securities. The only way to wrestle with the latter, some analysts say, is in a courtroom. "The whole essence of this crisis is fraud and unless we restore the rule of law and transparency of disclosure, we are not going to fix this," said Laurence J. Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Sorry, if I'm upsetting your 'feathers' during an election cycle, but you know what, I don't give a shit, if the Pete Peterson, Cat Food Commission is next up, after the fucking elections, and the worthless, fake new Pecora, Angeledis Commission is up next. Both reports, are due right in December (who decided that was the 'greatest dump' month of them all?) Not since Geithner, told us all that Frannie and Freedie Mac, now has a total ATM, in our veins, as an ATM for all the toxic shit, that paid off the toxic debt, that paid the bonuses, for AIG, and all the other crooks that got off stock free.
Unfortunately, we are now at a great crossroads in our nation. It will, regardless of what anyone tells you become, State Vs. Federal Government, and the States, will in the end win. The reason they will win, is because when President Obama decided, (for whatever reason) to ignore, the tax base of these states, to allow the foreclosure fraud to continue, he again, made yet another, bad, bad, really bad gamble for all of Americans.
In fact, here's a proposal: Want to see our elected officials sit up, take notice, and stop treating the bankers so nicely? Let's have a national mortgage protest month this December. Everyone should skip a mortgage payment during the holiday season and instead send in a note to their bank saying that they are not paying on their mortgage until the bank produces proper documentation--a properly signed and notarized mortgage note-- to prove that they owe the money and to whom it is actually owed. If angry French people can take to the streets and shut their country down over an effort to impose regressive changes in their retirement program, we Americans should at least be able to organize a national protest by mail!
Two issues are rushing to the fore that could have most Americans grabbing pitchforks, guns, shovels, bats, mop handles, and whatever else they have handy that could be useful in the streets. The first is Social Security, and the angry mob is going to be the Baby Boom Generation whose members, myself included, have paid 13-15 percent of income into the Trust Fund now for over 40 years, expecting that at 66, we could retire and collect our pensions. Now the greedheads on Wall Street and their toadies in Washington are trying to say that we shouldn’t be able to count on that money. They want to make us wait until we’re 68, 69 or 70, and they don’t want to give us cost-of-living adjustments. They say that the money’s going to run out before we die (unless we oblige them and starve), even though the reason for that is that they’ve been stealing all that money and giving us Treasury Bills in return, which they now plan on refusing to honor, saying it would mean raising taxes on our kids. (Actually those T-Bills could be retired by taxing the rich, and leaving our kids alone.) Anyhow, when we hit 66, let me tell you: if our money isn’t there, or if we get to 76 and they try to take it away (and right now I’m supposed to be able to count on collecting $22,000 a year when I retire), we’ll be ready to take out Washington and Wall Stree. And we could do it, too. Some in my generation, remember, spent a few years in Vietnam, and they got the skills. Me, I’d be willing to take lessons.
But that’s only part of it. The other is the housing fiasco, and that’s an even bigger cause for rebellion. See, that was our other bastion for retirement. All these years, Americans have been fed this comforting myth that our homes are our castles, and that the best investment we could make in life was to invest in the "American Dream" of home ownership. Then Wall Street, having already stripped the industrial base down to the concrete pads, looked around and saw this huge pile of real estate ripe for the taking. They couldn’t just steal our property outright, though. After all, we all had these deeds on file with the local county Deeds Office. But we all had mortgages. And they figured out a way to steal these. They created derivatives, called Mortgage Backed Securities. They took our mortgages and they chopped them up into little pieces, which they then bundled into tranches and started trading like bonds. These tranches were designed to have varying risk levels, which they accomplished by putting "good" mortgages--those that were expected to be repaid regularly--with "bad" mortgages--those likely to default. But since it’s really a guess whether any particular mortgage, good or bad, is going to default, they didn’t really put individual mortgages into individual tranches. They put them all into an electronic data base called MERS, for Mortgage Electronic Registration (sic) System, and then shifted them, or pieces of them, around as needed when they wanted to create a good tranche or a bad tranche or a mediocre tranche. This meant that they had to deliberately sever the chain of ownership of the repayment note formerly attached to those mortgages--because it’s the note, which is signed at a closing, that actually entitles the holder collect payments on a mortgage, or to foreclose on a defaulted property. Get this now: What I’m saying here is that the banking industry deliberately broke the chain of ownership on all the mortgages that have been securitized, not just on those famous subprime mortgages you’ve been hearing so much about.
http://www.counterpunch.org/...
You might call me a disloyal Democrat, but first and foremost, I am an American citizen, who has worked diligently for my party, the Democrats, for over 40 years.
When the rule of law, is ignored, when corruption prevails, when our very own President has failed to show and lead with integrity and morality, for the people of this nation, in favor of the very corporations that are bleeding us dry, then no matter, what party we are affiliated with, we must stand up and be counted.
Again, I implore you to understand this: We are in a deep reactionary phase of our political body, because (not that we elected a African American President) but because, the Rethugs, used that as a wedge issue, to do what they always did, but the saddest thing of all, is that both parties and all our leaders have failed us all the way around....
And now what is coming up?
Expanded U.S. military aid sought for Pakistan
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 22, 2010; 9:01 PM
The Obama administration will ask Congress to expand military aid to Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday, announcing a five-year, $2 billion package that would increase current financing for weapons purchases by about one-third.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
If you actually 'think' the Clinton's ever left the White House, that sold us out to NAFTA, that sold us out to Glass-Stegall, that sold us out all the way down the fucking pike, to globalization, then perhaps, you will never get it...
But I do. President Obama, knows exactly what he is doing and who he is working for, and I can assure you, it is not the very same people that worked their asses off, to get him elected.
Time to 'rethink' our priorities, in our party, time to rethink, if we might have one more chance to regain, the 'third world shit hole' we are becoming, time to regain, the laws, that have been ignored by both parties, and have lead our nation, to the Road to Perdition.
The lost, Democratic party, can regain it's strength again. I honestly believe that, but it is going to take a great leader, one that cannot be bought off. A team, that does understand, what is at stake here. The rule of law, is being ignored, by both parties, and therefore, I would suggest, a new primary for Obama in 2012.
Chances are, we will probably get Sarah Palin, or Mike Huckabee, (what could be worse than that?)
Let us elect a new President: I would suggest to all of you: Three amazing Americans who have called this 'shit out' from the get go:
Congressman Alan Grayson, Elizabeth Warren and William K. Black. These people will and have proven from the get go, what has been going on in our nation.
You can deny that all you want. I know their records, I know that they have told the truth of what has gone on in our country, and I am so very, very sad to say, that President Obama, did not ever step up to the plate, and now what we are probably going to see, is either, Hilary Clinton, coming up to primary him, or even worse, a further move to the right, to finish off, what President Obama allowed, willingly, Wall St./the Banks to do:
To upsurge, the very laws of this nation, and that is why the French, are burning their cities, and have stopped the fuel lines, the garbage lines, and all other services as have the Italians. The economic Pearl Harbor catastrophic takeover of our nation, has spread like a horrible plague, throughout the world. The Robber Barons, want to take us back to 1920, and we are letting them, aren't we?
They get it, they have been through all of this, and we, sit here like stupid idiots, not realizing, how the hell they are selling us all out.
Thanks as always.
'The truth will always set you free, but first it will piss you off'
Wish it wasn't so, but it is.
Ms. B.