Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

“woke” is the new caravan.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

This fight is for everything.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / First they came for the bankers…

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    Violet

    Those poor investment bankers! How will they afford to summer in the Hamptons and send Tripp and Missy to boarding school if this kind of thing keeps up?

    And holding them accountable for breaking the law? What is this country coming to? Rich, white, well-educated men don’t break the law. The law fails them.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    Why do you hate freedom? It is commie fascism to deprive the bankers of their constitutionally protected right to destroy the economy and steal from consumers. And what will happen to us if they get angry and decide to go Galt? I am afraid.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Jeb got shot down, you’ll have to settle for Mosby.

    Was recently rereading Shelby Foote’s massive Civil War history, and there was one great bit about how one Confederate cavalry commander (Morgan, I think) was unable to bring his forces to bear for two good reasons. The first reason was that the forces were still regrouping after some battle, and the second reason was that Morgan himself was dead, having been shot in some skirmish or something.

    dms

  9. 9.

    Xantar

    Serious question: will this move cause the firebaggers to shut up about Obama failing to “show leadership” and “twist arms” on the issue of finance reform?

  13. 13.

    Alex S.

    Terrible optics to oppose financial reform on the day Goldman Sachs got charged with fraud. I hope the Dems go to war over this, it’s a winner. It’s a fight they cannot lose, but they can choose the size of their victory.

  15. 15.

    Linda Featheringill

    @geg6: That is rather sastisfying to watch.

    Question: Do you think that the details of the charges will be published about the time that the financial reform bill is being published?

    Another question: If so, do you think that is a mere coincidence?

    Elections do have consequences.

  16. 16.

    Bob K

    In a perfect world there would exist no lobbyists. However, since we must live in the real world (unlike Faux/Pravda viewers.) I think that ALL congresscritters should be required to wear corporate logo patches on their suits (works for Nascar). I think even the teabangicals can agree with us on that. Senator Exxon-Mobil? What’s your opinion?

  17. 17.

    Jay C

    @Xantar:

    Serious question: will this move cause the firebaggers to shut up about Obama failing to “show leadership” and “twist arms” on the issue of finance reform?

    Serious answer: probably not.

    Anyway, if President Obama sticks by his veto threat (or at least puts it out on the table), my estimation of him (already high) will go up to carve-a-new-face-on-Mt-Rushmore levels. People elect a President to lead: and even though they’ll be disappointed more often than not (especially the ideologically obsessive – Left or Right), it’s still heartening to see leadership out of the White House on a major matter of reform. (As IMHO, was lacking in the HCR debate).

  18. 18.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    This open thread was brought to you by the tag “Black Jimmy Carter” and “Great News for John McCain”

  19. 19.

    IM

    Perhaps for once the democrats are taking advantage of an opportunity.

    I was optimistic about healtcare when I heard that even Evan Bayh had enough of republican obstruction.

    Now that even Lincoln is on the reform train –

    well, hope blooms eternal.

    Washington Post – Time – Newsweek – Economist will still blame Obama and the democrats for not being bipartisan enough, though.

  20. 20.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    And what does the new junior Senator from Mass have to add.
    When asked about the Dodd Financial Reform Bill.

    Brown left open the possibility that he could support a compromise.

    “I want to see when it’s going to come up, how it’s going to come up,’’ he said. “I’m always open to trying to work something through so it is truly bipartisan.’’

    Brown, whose vote could be critical as Democrats seek to find a GOP member to avoid a filibuster, assiduously avoided talking about specifics.

    When asked what areas he thought should be fixed, he replied: “Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I’ll get a team and go fix it.’’

    Why didn’t you all in the Bay State just elect a news reporter instead of an idiot?

  21. 21.

    Bob L

    As Cramer said, first Lenin came for the derivative bankers who speculated the Russian economy into self destruction. It is 1918 again!

    (BTW that quote from Cramer has to be one of the ignorant retelling of history I have ever seen)

    Anyway, how long before GOP tries to cross out Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to the list of American presidents?

  22. 22.

    Martin

    @Prof. K&G: I’m just astounded that they’re going to do this. They’re fucked either way – surely they know this. But they’d rather fuck over the public on a losing strategy rather than support the public and hope that by not being absolute dicks about everything that they’ll get some credit?

    Jesus, the teabaggers really have them by the sack.

  23. 23.

    Prof. K&G

    @licensed to kill time: At this point, it’s reflexive. Even with a no-brainer like this that would be in their best interests, they go straight to lying and talking points. I used to think they were just indifferent to objective truth, but now, I think, they regard it as the enemy in all situations.

  24. 24.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    When asked what areas he thought should be fixed, he replied: “Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I’ll get a team and go fix it.’’ In what respect, Charlie?

    Heh.

  25. 25.

    geg6

    @Linda Featheringill:

    LOL!

    Question: Do you think that the details of the charges will be published about the time that the financial reform bill is being published?

    Well, it’s not that they are planning this. It’s just how it will all work out. Takes time to write them up and print them out, you know.

    Another question: If so, do you think that is a mere coincidence?

    A coincidence. Really. No, really. ;-)

  27. 27.

    Mike Kay

    wait a minute!

    wait a one damn minute!

    The shrill-hippie-firebaggers told me Obama was a corporatist. Now your saying he wants to regulate …. gasp… derivatives?!??!

    Obviously this is one of RAHM’s tricks.

  28. 28.

    ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty

    repost number 1

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    When asked what areas he thought should be fixed, he replied: “Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I’ll get a team and go fix it.’’ In what respect, Charlie?

    Heh.

  33. 33.

    Prof. K&G

    @AngusTheGodOfMeat: U r teh winnar.

    Unrelated: If all of the democrats repeat this as often as the republicans say “financial reform will lead to more bailouts,” they will control public opinion and it will pass easily.

    The odds of this happening are not high.

  34. 34.

    licensed to kill time

    @Prof. K&G: It’s like a lizard brain, instinctive reaction.

    The one thing I give those guys credit for is their solidarity. They really know how to stick together, damn commies.

  35. 35.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    @Prof. K&G:

    What gets me is, not only is the statement itself (reforms will lead to bailouts) just an absurd Orwellian reversal of the truth, it’s the damned Republicans who came up with the bailouts in the first place and breathlessly announced that unless we employed the bailout immediately and without question, the sky would surely fall at once.

  36. 36.

    Mike Kay

    @Xantar:

    Serious question: will this move cause the firebaggers to shut up about Obama failing to “show leadership” and “twist arms” on the issue of finance reform?

    But then where will they get the impetus to feel morally superior if they can’t put obama down. How will their “leaders” gin up outrage that underwrites their PACs if they don’t manufacture an us-against-them narrative.

  38. 38.

    jl

    Then they came for the mercenary warlords…

    Ex-Blackwater Prez Indicted On Weapons Charges
    TPM
    Zachery Roth
    April 16, 2010

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/ex-blackwater_prez_indicted_on_weapons_charges.php?ref=fpa

    And I guess the Titans of Finance too, given the civil case agains Goldman Sachs.

    But I did nothing because I was not a banker, not mercenary warlord, not a titan of finance.

    They are coming for all the useful Americans. What are we going to do about it?

  39. 39.

    Tonal Crow

    @Prof. K&G:

    @licensed to kill time: At this point, it’s reflexive. Even with a no-brainer like this that would be in their best interests, they go straight to lying and talking points. I used to think they were just indifferent to objective truth, but now, I think, they regard it as the enemy in all situations.

    We *might* be witnessing the end of the GOP’s rhetorical dominance. They now appear to believe their rhetoric about necessary (and popular) financial reform being “sockialism”, and to be acting on that belief. The immediate consequence may well be that voters will disbelieve the “sockialism” charge and begin to feel (feel, not “reason” — most voters don’t “reason”) that Republicans are siding with the banksters. If this plays out into (yet more) filibustering, and the Democrats handle it well (there are hopeful signs from Dodd and Obama), it could erode Republicans’ rhetorical advantages on the whole gamut of issues on which they’ve complained of “sockialism”.

    The Overton Window, it is vibrating.

  42. 42.

    geg6

    @jl:

    Man, this has been one exciting Friday. If the next headline is that Cheney’s mechanical heart has exploded and the resulting destruction, sadly, took his evil spawn with him, I’ll consider reverting back to deism from atheism.

  43. 43.

    Sentient Puddle

    Reading through the summaries of Lincoln’s bill, my initial thoughts…

    This thing comes down hard on swaps. Like, it drops a fuckin’ train on ’em. Gotta go through the clearinghouses, massive amounts of transparency at every level, these things can’t be considered insurance or securities, regulators can close out international buyers if they think these buyers will pose a risk…you can’t go more than two paragraphs in the section-by-section summary without tripping over a new regulation. I approve.

    Speaking of regulators, I do think it leans a little too hard on them. There are a lot of possible exemptions available if someone gets approval from a few layers of regulators. I doubt this will be an issue initially, but I’m afraid of what will happen when the economy recovers and regulators feel a little too irrationally exuberant.

    Finally, I saw nothing that explicitly states that banks and investment firms must be broken up (bummer). The closest is language to the effect of “The Federal Reserve and FDIC will be prohibited from providing any federal funds to bail out Wall Street firms who engage in risky derivative deals.” Ideally, this means these firms will put the brakes on risky behavior because they know that they have to own their fuck-ups. But I’m afraid what this may mean is that the firms will continue their risky trading with reckless abandon, fuck up, and now we’re hamstrung and have to accept the fact that the economy is fucked. Y’know, the whole thing about being careful about wishing for no more bailouts.

    But overall, my initial reading is that this looks pretty solid. Not quite the best thing evar, but we did kind of set expectations way the hell up in the sky based on what Lincoln was saying. I’m sure my opinion will be shaped as I learn about more of the specifics.

  44. 44.

    Platonicspoof

    Dennis,
    In the last thread, “Fla. Senate Race . . . “, all the comments after comment 45 have a delete line through the handles and all text.
    Did #45 forget something after he lined out “B.O.B.”?

    I’m using IE 8 and XP SP 2.

  46. 46.

    geg6

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Doesn’t Dodd’s bill kill the whole idea of the TBTF sort of bank? I mean, it basically put all the consequences on the execs and shareholders, right?

    I haven’t had time to follow this much the last few days, but is Dodd’s bill dead and Lincoln’s now the next iteration? Or are these two separate bills? Any reason they can’t be merged?

  47. 47.

    El Cid

    I am so offended by this offense against American capitalism that I will immediately go meditate and ask for guidance at Stone Mountain.

  48. 48.

    jl

    Speaking of absurd Noboman reversals of truth, what will these outrages do to the American Way?

    Their Newspeak is being imposed upon us.

    All-American ‘sharp-dealing’ is now ‘fraud’.

    ‘Working the angles’ is now ‘conflict of interest’.

    This is an all-out commufascist attack on my ability to my money (my private property) any way I want. Whether it is begged borrowed or stealed is irrelevant because we used to be innocent until proven guilty and possession is nine points of the law (did I get that right?).

    We don’t make ‘things’ in America anymore, we make Deals! Booyah!

    The end is nigh.

  49. 49.

    licensed to kill time

    @Platonicspoof:

    I have seen this happen (well, not literally, because Firefox fixes it for me) at least a dozen times this week. It seems if you use a hyphen before a word to create a strike through, it wreaks havoc in this version of FYWP. There is no way to close it, all your base are belong to us!

  50. 50.

    Platonicspoof

    P.S.
    The edit screen for me on this thread is a barely visible “ghost” image. Also. Too.

  51. 51.

    Bob K

    A veto from the Obama? I’m sure they won’t know what to do with it. It’s all Obama’s fault that they can’t over rule the veto and pass the legislation that does what their puppet masters want. If only Walnuts had won – their world would have been so much simpler. We probably would have invaded Iran, Mexico AND Canada by now. War without end amen.

  52. 52.

    El Cid

    By the way — how will this SEC fraud charge against Goldman-Sachs turn out to entirely be the fault of Barney Frank, Fannie & Freddie, Jimmy Carter, the CRA, and ACORN?

    I await.

  53. 53.

    kay

    It’s interesting, because I think the stakes are really high, for Democrats.
    Wall Street donors abandoned Democrats and shifted to Republicans, which freed Democrats to pursue reform, but also means Republicans will have all of the Wall Street cash that was (formerly) flowing to Democrats and Republicans.
    Republicans are betting they’ll be able to keep the donors and the voters, and Democrats have already lost the donors, so can now pursue the voters.
    Democrats could end up with neither, and Republicans are guaranteed the Wall Street donor money, even if the Democrats prevail.

  54. 54.

    geg6

    In other good news, financially speaking, new legislation has been proposed to allow private student loan debts to be discharged through bankruptcy again. It had always been the case that private student loans were like any other sort of debts during bankruptcy, unlike federal student loans which have never been discharged by bankruptcy. As is always the case, this was changed during the W administration and during the GOP congress in 2005.

    Can’t give a link because it’s on my professional organization’s website and you all don’t belong, so I’ll just cut and paste:

    Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation yesterday that would allow private student loan borrowers to once again discharge their private student loans in bankruptcy. Since 2005, private student loans have not been dischargeable in bankruptcy. Before changes were made to the bankruptcy code in 2005, only federal student loans and private loans where substantially all of the funds were provided by a nonprofit institution were non-dischargeable in bankruptcy. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Al Franken (D-MN) cosponsored the legislation in the Senate and Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Danny Davis (D-IL) cosponsored the legislation in the House. “People who seek higher education to better their futures should not be dissuaded from doing so by the threat of financial ruin,” said Cohen in a press statement. “The bankruptcy system should work as a safety net that allows people to get the education they want with the assurance that, should their finances come under strain by layoffs, accidents, or other unforeseen life events, they will be protected.”

    “One of the great inequities in student aid is the inability for private student loan borrowers to receive the same consumer protections that are provided to countless other types of borrowers,” said NASFAA Interim President Joan Crissman. “We support this legislation and urge lawmakers to do likewise.”

    The bills in the House and Senate differ slightly. The House bill would return the bankruptcy law to the language that was in place before 2005, with minor tweaks. The Senate bill would allow all private education loans – including nonprofit loans – to be dischargeable in bankruptcy.

  55. 55.

    gbear

    @jl:

    They are coming for all the useful Americans. What are we going to do about it?

    Tell them that the world is coming to an end and we need them to be the advance team to prepare a new planet for the arrival of everyone else, who will be along shortly…

  56. 56.

    Sentient Puddle

    @geg6: You’re right. Dodd’s bill has resolution, which is what you describe (dismantle the bank, wipe out the leadership and shareholders). I’m not entirely sure how well that will jive with Lincoln’s bill, if resolution can be used with bank/investment firm combos (probably).

    [And as a side note for how all these bills are working, they’re all in committee, so they’re all in play. They’ll be merged eventually and hit the Senate floor as a single bill.]

    This all said, I’ve also grown to think that TBTF has been something of a distraction, and not as important as the stupid investments reform. So inasmuch as there’s flaws in whatever they got with TBTF, I’m OK with it as long as they’re getting derivatives right. And it looks like they’re doing that.

  58. 58.

    Platonicspoof

    @licensed to kill time:
    Thanks.
    If that’s the case, are administrators able to either re-open the problem comment and edit out the hyphen, or just delete the entire comment?

    It was a good comment, so I hope WP can be fixed directly, since Firefox knows how to fix it.

  59. 59.

    mr. whipple

    Who besides McConnell will protect Wall Street from reform?

    40 republican senators and a gazillion lobbyists.

  60. 60.

    mai naem

    I am seriously thinking of believing in Obama’s 11 dimension chess “chill out, I got it man” piece(I am one who’s constantly made fun of this.) I have to believe they knew of the GS suit coming up and that the GOPeers were going to fall for this crap with the ensuing bad bad optics for the dumbasses. Okay, it’s either that or that Obama and Co. is pissed off about the bankers meeting with the Repubs to bankroll them in the next election.

  63. 63.

    Prof. K&G

    @Tonal Crow:

    […] The immediate consequence may well be that voters will disbelieve the “sockialism” charge and begin to feel (feel, not “reason”—most voters don’t “reason”) that Republicans are siding with the banksters. If this plays out into (yet more) filibustering, and the Democrats handle it well (there are hopeful signs from Dodd and Obama), it could erode Republicans’ rhetorical advantages on the whole gamut of issues on which they’ve complained of “sockialism”. […]

    I really hope you’re right. Personally, I really don’t see any external incentive forcing the right to change its approach – not from the media, not from swing voters, and certainly not from their base. The democrats could exert some pressure, but only if they handle the know-nothing media as skillfully as the republicans do, which requires consistent messaging repeated ad nauseum.

  64. 64.

    licensed to kill time

    @Platonicspoof: I have seen John come on and fix a thread that got borked and then yell at everybody for crayoning on the walls and eating all the paste, so it can be done. He seems to be MIA at the moment, however.

  65. 65.

    Onihanzo

    Heartbreakingly sad article. So tired of these xenophobic, Red Dawn-addicted fucks getting in the way of ACTUAL terrorism prevention.

    A growing school of thought among counterterrorism specialists, and within the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, argues that law enforcement should engage more deeply with the Muslim community. Their case has been bolstered by encouraging examples of outreach programs in the Netherlands, Britain and, closer to home, Los Angeles….But outreach has the potential to turn political, with Democrats anxious not to appear soft on terrorism before the November elections and Republicans smelling opportunity. Opponents on the right are fiercely critical of this shift in counterterrorism strategy. “Outreach is a joke,” said conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel, who advocates being tough on mosques and immigration. “Muslims don’t respect people who kowtow to them. I think they respect those whom they fear.”

  66. 66.

    Nikki

    Has anyone read Amity Shales’ column on the NYT Room for Debate blog?

    Generally the media these days depict Tea Partiers as bigots who look down on minorities as inferior. Yet 11 percent of Tea Party supporters said that what they liked best about the president was that he was intelligent, while only 6 percent of the general population said that intelligence was their favorite attribute of Mr. Obama. Asked what they liked least about Mr. Obama, and offered the option of answering “He’s Muslim,” only a tiny share of both groups, 1 percent, chose that description for their dislike. These responses undercut the argument that Tea Partyism is racism.

    So because, within both groups, only 1 percent answered “He’s Muslim” means the teabaggers aren’t bigots. Nice.

  67. 67.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Breaking from WaPo:

    ——————–
    News Alert: Massa wrote aide a $40,000 check after announcing he would quit Congress
    04:56 PM EDT Friday, April 16, 2010
    ——————–

    The day after Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) announced he was resigning his office amid a sexual harassment scandal, the congressman wrote a $40,000 check to his chief of staff, federal campaign records reveal. Massa described the Mar. 4 payment to Joe Racalto as a “campaign management fee.”

    News like that just tickles me.

  68. 68.

    mr. whipple

    Serious question: will this move cause the firebaggers to shut up about Obama failing to “show leadership” and “twist arms” on the issue of finance reform?

    No, and I’m not just talking firebaggers here.

    There will be numerous voices that the legislation doesn’t go far enough, and that Dems are corporate whores, and that Obama threw everyone under the bus. This is just an innate feature of a certain segment of the LW. They are happiest when they are unhappy, which just happens to be all the time.

  69. 69.

    Tom Hilton

    @geg6: it just shows how ruthless the Chicago machine thugs in the Obama administration are: they’re using the SEC to go after Goldman on trumped-up charges just to give the Democrats political cover for an outrageous government takeover of the financial sector.
    [/wingnut]

  70. 70.

    kay

    @mai naem:

    Democrats can raise money somewhere else. If they lose Wall Street donors they’ll just have to figure out a way to make that up, and both sides of the aisle being bought and paid for stooges of the finance sector was never going to work, long-term, for Democrats.
    As discouraged as I get with how hapless Democrats are, they are quite good at raising money. They’re good at that.
    These are donors Democrats can’t afford. They belong with Republicans. Good riddance.

  71. 71.

    Ailuridae

    @Sentient Puddle:

    This all said, I’ve also grown to think that TBTF has been something of a distraction, and not as important as the stupid investments reform. So inasmuch as there’s flaws in whatever they got with TBTF, I’m OK with it as long as they’re getting derivatives right. And it looks like they’re doing that.

    This has been my take on it for a while. Financial instability comes from financial “innovation” not from the size of the banks. What I like about Lincoln’s bill is that limits the scope of the banks to something more traditionally like banking meaning consumer accounts are less likely to be covering for high-risk investment.

    FWIW, spaz Dylan Ratigan just teased Chris Dodd coming onto Hardball by saying that Dodd’s bill institutionalized TBTF. Now he’s wrong about that, as he was wrong about his pervasive and stupid 23T bailout line but I suspect he wants to hang onto his hour of TV enough that he’ll repeat outright lies that originate from Frank Luntz to do so.

  72. 72.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    They are coming for all the useful Americans. What are we going to do about it?

    What we need is a good Rapture.

    Hey, is that my neighbor sailing up into the sky like Mary Poppins?

  73. 73.

    Cat Lady

    I love how Obama just seems to be able to make everyone overplay their hands at just the exact wrong time. Scott Brown gets elected, and boom – the insurance companies send out their rate increases right after, assuming HCR is dead. HA! Dems realize they need to find their inner Hulk (Nancy SMASH!)

    Blankfein et. al. didn’t come to meet with Obama- they were “too busy”? and now, they all thought they’d give themselves rich rewards for thinking they’re all John Galt after sucking the government teat.

    Well, it looks like they chose poorly. This is just the beginning. This is a winner for the Dems. Barney Frank’s comment about the reform legislation should be tattooed on McConnell’s forehead – we’re creating death panels.

    Heh.

    Heh.

  74. 74.

    Ken

    Instead of JEB Stuart, I’m thinking more along the lines of good ol’ Nathan “get there fustest with the mostest” Bedford Forrest. No, wait, he was a KKK Grand Dragon. Never mind.

  76. 76.

    licensed to kill time

    __

    What we need is a good Rapture.

    Back to back
    Sacroiliac
    Spineless movement
    And a wild attack

    Face to face
    Sadly solitude
    And it’s finger popping
    Twenty-four hour shopping in Rapture

  77. 77.

    liberty60(Veteran, Great War of Yankee Aggression)

    Where is Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry (that bastard is always late).

    Perhaps Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL) can come to the rescue.

    Don’t know if he has any connection to bank reform, but any family tree that produces a man named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has got to be chock full o’ Confederate heroes, nay, even Night Ridin’ heeros.

  78. 78.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @kay: You could be right Kay, but I tend to think that people are underestimating the populist rage out in the countryside for the bailouts and all the greedy reach arounds the financial and business companies have given themselves after they nearly killed our economy. It is the single real item the tea baggers holler about that extends past their little hate group.

    And as always, if dems find the right tone and tenor to paint repubs what should have always been obvious, as tools of Wall Street, then lots of money will not help them all that much. Or at least be mitigated.

    The calculus for the wingnuts is focused like a lizard brain beam on 2010, that their tribe will come out to vote against Obama no matter what they do on Finance Reform, and they could well be right about that. But past 2010, the kind of politicking they are engaged in will come around to bite them, I think.

    Their entire political platform now is based on seeing to it that Obama and dems fail, that is it, and maybe all they need for the short term, that will serve to cover up the fact that nearly every idea the conservative movement was originally built on, has failed miserably, and none more than their economic theories. To become viable again for the longer term, they are going to have to admit that fact and that markets cannot govern themselves and certainly not the country at large.

    I am rambling here, so will stop.

  81. 81.

    Sentient Puddle

    Since this is open thread-ish, Megyn Kelly is pants-on-head retarded:

    “[W]hy can’t it be a day where we take a moment and we stop and we acknowledge the role that God has played in the formation of this country and its laws,” Kelly asked incredulously. “What’s so promotional about religion there?”

  82. 82.

    Xenos

    @gbear:

    Tell them that the world is coming to an end and we need them to be the advance team to prepare a new planet for the arrival of everyone else, who will be along shortly


    “My commanding officer told me that the entire planet was in imminent danger of being eaten by an enormous mutant star goat!””

  83. 83.

    mr. whipple

    Can’t have this shit going on Cole. Time to put up the Halter Actblue page,

    I think a good case can be made that this is only occuring because Halter is primarying from the left of Blanche. It’s a good thing, iow.

  84. 84.

    Xenos

    @mr. whipple: It is remarkable how even small sums of money, astutely applied, can really pivot things around in Washington. It is about time we figured this out.

  86. 86.

    Dennis G.

    @Platonicspoof:
    I had that same problem with Windows. I switched to Google Chrome and it worked. So does Safari and Firefox.

    Windows must be having a bad day…

  88. 88.

    burnspbesq

    @Xantar:

    Serious question: will this move cause the firebaggers to shut up about Obama failing to “show leadership” and “twist arms” on the issue of finance reform?

    Serious answer: No.

  89. 89.

    kay

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    And as always, if dems find the right tone and tenor to paint repubs what should have always been obvious, as tools of Wall Street, then lots of money will not help them all that much. Or at least be mitigated.

    That’s sort of my point. Democrats were in the pocket of finance too, Stuck. That’s why we’re in the goddamn mess we’re in. BOTH sides were bought and paid for.

    It wouldn’t matter if Democrats found the “right tone” in this fight if they had actually, in real life, remained in the pocket of finance.

    I was relieved when I read Wall Street money was fleeing Democrats. The donations aren’t worth the price we’ve paid. They’re freaking psychopaths and they won’t compromise. Look at how unions handled health care. They’re big Dem donors. They came to the table. They offered suggestions. They compromised. Compare that to the finance industry, who will accept NO regulation of any kind, and threaten to BLOW UP the world economy every time anyone threatens their bonuses. Who wants donors like that? Not me. But we had them. Democrats were pulling down tens of millions in donations from that whole sector, until here recently.

    Democrats will just have to find another campaign contribution source. That particular source costs too much, and we’re well rid of them.

  90. 90.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @kay:

    That’s sort of my point. Democrats were in the pocket of finance too, Stuck. That’s why we’re in the goddamn mess we’re in. BOTH sides were bought and paid for.

    Yes, but to equate them is a false equivalence imo/ Dems were also in the pockets of Big Pharma, but passed a sweeping regulatory HC bill in spite of that. They are not wedded to the finance industry in the way wingnuts are.

    I put the primary onus on the American voter who put wingnuts in charge, mostly, of governing this country for the past 30 years that remade our economy into their economic philosophy.

    And yes, some dems went along with the massive deregulation in economic matters and Carter was the first to broach the subject.

    But is also true that quite a few dems dissented and warned of calamity at some point, and repeal of Glass- Steagall among other epic mistakes was driven by the GOP that the country put in charge. A number of dems like Dorgan and others fought against it.

    But we are where we are, and there is not much comparison of dems and repubs at this point in time. Repubs want the status quo their plutocrat masters demand and dems, for the most part, realize somethng must be done. And the bills put forth by Dodd and even Blanche Lincoln do a fair amount as a first step to correct the situation that has been in the making for 30 years and is deeply structural, that will take time to correct.

    I would say that big finance donors are turning to the wingnuts because they can count on them to resist to a member meaningful reforms. And they cannot count on dems because there are those that have resisted the dereg. over the years plus those who didn’t that now know the game is up on their complicity and won’t buck the dems they know are right.

  91. 91.

    kay

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I was laughing today when Obama said “it’s time to make a choice, we can side with Wall Street or side with the American people”.

    He’s talking to himself, Stuck. HE has to make a choice. DEMOCRATS have to make a choice.

    It was always a given that the GOP were going to side with Wall Street. That only leaves one option, and it’s Democrats. Republicans aren’t going to regulate shit, and Obama knows it. He’s always known it. The only question was if HE was willing to lose the contributions and do what Democrats should have been doing all along.

    My hope is the “choice” is made, and the Wall Street donors have already fled, and that will leave Democrats with no excuse not to regulate properly.

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