Via Greg Sargent, Vanity Fair has a long, very positive piece on Elizabeth Warren, “The Woman Who Knew Too Much“:
… At a time of record corporate profits, a time when 14 million Americans are out of work, when millions have lost their homes and, according to the Census Bureau, the ranks of those living in poverty has grown to one in six—that Elizabeth Warren could be publicly kneecapped and an agency devoted to protecting American consumers could come under such intense attack is, ultimately, the story about who holds power in America today.
__
When the C.F.P.B. was first proposed to Congress, in early 2009, the Chamber of Commerce, the leading business lobbying group in the country, announced that it would “spend whatever it takes” to defeat the agency. According to the Center for Public Integrity, from 2009 through the beginning of 2010, it would be one of the biggest spenders among the more than 850 businesses and trade groups that together paid lobbyists $1.3 billion to fight financial reform…
__
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in 2010 the financial industry flooded Congress with 2,565 lobbyists. They were financed by the likes of the Financial Services Roundtable, which, according to the Center, paid lobbyists $7.5 million, and is on its way to spending as much or more this year. The Chamber of Commerce spent $132 million on lobbying Washington in 2010. The American Bankers Association spent $7.8 million. As for individual banks: JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in TARP funds from taxpayers, spent nearly $14 million on lobbying during the 2009–10 election cycle; Goldman Sachs, which received more than $10 billion from taxpayers, spent $7.4 million; Citigroup, which was teetering on the brink of insolvency and received a $45 billion infusion, has paid more than $14 million to lobbyists since 2009. And none of this money includes the direct campaign donations these organizations, and their surrogates, made to members of Congress.
__
The banks “do not like to lose,” says Ed Mierzwinski, of the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups, which was part of the grossly outmatched consumer coalition that managed to scrape together a paltry $2 million to lobby in favor of reform…
And on the other side of that race, Glen Johnson Alex Katz at the Boston Globe informs us that Scott Brown’s campaign is so poverty-stricken, it has to “recycle” old quotes from Elisabeth Dole.
How are the battles proceeding in everyone’s neighborhoods, tonight?
arguingwithsignposts
$174.9 million (if my calculator isn’t broke) is a lot of debit card fees.
lamh34
Saw Real Steel with Hugh Jackman. It was way better than I expected. Hugh Jackman was as HAWT as ever. The kid was cute. I’m not into boxing, but the robot fight scenes were way better than the “rock’em sock’em robots” I expected. All in all, one shirtess Hugh Jackman scene (yay, but not enough…lol!), a number of excuses to see Hugh Jackman’s dreamy smile (what! I like Hugh Jackman…ya wanna fight about it?), for a couple of mindless hours, I’d give it a low A-, and a high B+.
Omnes Omnibus
The byline at the link is Alex Katz, not Glen Johnson (about whom I will merely say “Fruitbasket!”).
barath
Saw that earlier, though don’t you get the feeling that Vanity Fair was pushing a bit of the FDL ‘Obama sold Warren out’ meme when it seems pretty clear that that’s not what happened?
jrg
While it may be that in 1978 Warren had her “Damascene conversion” over bankruptcy, she got her law degree from Rutgers University in 1976… So she had already been studying to be a librul elitist for at least a couple of years. Therefore, by 1978, she was dumber than the average redneck who spent ’74-’76 smoking weed, four-wheeling, and compulsively jacking off.
I’d like to add that Sarah Palin has a vagina. That is all.
gbear
I’ve got a battle in my house today. Somehow a squirrel got into the basement. I’ve got a live-trap down there baited with peanut butter and sunflower seeds but he hasn’t gone for it yet. I hope I can catch him before he finds a way to get upstairs. I don’t want it coming face to face with my cat.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: Release the hounds.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks, fixt.
Poopyman
Not in my neighborhood, but apparently there’s a roving gang of beard-chopping Amish. Does it mean anything that the majority are named “mullet”?
piratedan
is Ms. Warren the vanguard of a new breed of folks getting into politics because the people currently in charge shouldn’t be walking our dogs much less writing legislation
Wordsmith
There was something on NPR/PRI – one of them – that I listened to this morning.
burnspbesq
@jrg:
“While it may be that in 1978 Warren had her “Damascene conversion” over bankruptcy, she got her law degree from Rutgers University in 1976… So she had already been studying to be a librul elitist for at least a couple of years. Therefore, by 1978, she was dumber than the average redneck who spent ‘74-’76 smoking weed, four-wheeling, and compulsively jacking off.”
Is there an idea in there? If yes, it’s very well hidden.
McGeorge Bundy
@piratedan: I sure hope so.
jrg
@burnspbesq:
That’s why it’s art.
Ruckus
Just walked by a sign for someone running for city council. On the back side can’t be seen driving by, at the bottom “Eliminate Illegal Alien Gangs”
We live in one of the richest counties in the country, votes 80% democratic, I’ve been here 6 yrs and I’ve seen 2 pieces of graffiti.
I’m not going to post his platform but here are his 19 reasons why we need a new police chief. His platform is worse.
“Immediately remove graffiti
Incarcerate parole violators and hold for hearing
Code Enforcement, strictly enforce housing violations, back yard tent cities
Cooperate with USDOJ, ICE, Homeland Security to deport illegals
Insure that ICE picks up all illegal alien convicts released
Ensure that ______ Police officers take meal breaks at all restaurants throughout ______ to show presence, target illegal alien hangouts
Establish rolling checkpoints for vehicle/driver violations
Use Vehicle Code section 14602.6 to impound vehicles driven by persons who drive without ever having been issued a driver license.
Impound and auction vehicles whenever permitted. Strictly enforce driver licensing, registration, insurance, on traffic stops, ticket/tow abandoned and/or unregistered cars and pick ups
Cross reference all public housing and other welfare programs with county and statewide criminal records and terminate benefits where obedience of the law is a requirement of the benefit (e.g. HUD)
Prosecute all illegal alien felony crime as felonies, instead of plea bargaining to misdemeanors
No probation/parole for illegal aliens
Adopt Rule of Law Resolution, repudiate sanctuary city status
Enact Legal Employment and Contracting as an Ordinance without balloting
Regularly visit illegal alien sites of drug sales
Stop, cite, and impound cars and trucks with only one vehicle registration plate
Stop and check business and vehicle licensing for all food vehicles in _______
Stop and check business and vehicle licensing of all pick up trucks with gardening equipment in the bed
These suggestions have been forwarded to the current chief, and he has implemented NONE of them.”
Needless to say I’m not going to vote for this asshole.
Chukwu
http://www.dvice.com/archives/2011/10/we-now-know-why.php
Great article title, or greatest article title?
burnspbesq
@jrg:
I see. That makes perrrrrfect sense.
burnspbesq
Has anyone seen anything that describes in detail the security measures built into iCloud?
Suffern ACE
@Ruckus: Well, if you live in one of the wealthiest counties, wouldn’t the police have better luck capturing the aliens by taking their meals in the kitchens of some of the larger residences?
WaynersT
what are the chances the seal beach shooter actually had a freaking tea party license plate –
http://www.presstelegram.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=4017143
what’s that saying – ‘all republicans aren’t racist but all racists are republicans’ –
can we add violent morons?
Cap'n Magic
BoingBoing is reporting that Dennis Ritchie, the co-creator of the C programming language, along with his key contributions to the C-written Unix operating system, has died. Dennis Ritchie is the example of superior engineering-Steve Jobs is the paragon of superior marketing.
Ruckus
@Suffern ACE:
Most likely.
Might even have better luck checking his kitchen.
THE
You all think you’ve got problems?
What if you were the guy who met Tim Berners-Lee in 1990?
And he told you about his idea for something called “The World Wide Web”?
And you said no.
slag
Wow. Vanity Fair is shrill. I’m impressed.
Mike
@Cap’n Magic: Wow, you’re right about Ritchie! I can’t believe that slashdot has nothing on that story. Man, that’s a bummer. The C Programming language book that he wrote is the software bible, and IMO, C is still the best programming language out there. Of course, he also invented UNIX, which is still the best operating system out there. It’s the basis of Apple’s OSX and iOS and has stood the test of time better than anything else (even the old IBM mainframe stuff, which is still chugging along like crazy in many places!)
Joey Maloney
No, where Jobs excelled was in superior design. He came up with interfaces that were effortlessly, naively intuitive and hardware that was beautiful as well as functional. And then he cajoled and hectored and bullied his engineering staff into making his designs into reality.
Yeah, Apple puts a lot of thought into advertising but that’s only after putting at least as much thought into the products. All the marketing in the world won’t sell a turd, at least not for long.
Ian
@jrg:
Can’t tell if you’re doing snark or serious.
In the event you are being serious, go fuck yourself.
Paul in KY
@Chukwu: That’s one for the ages :-)
Mnemosyne
@Joey Maloney:
John Lasseter and Ed Catmull have a mantra at Pixar: Quality is the best business plan. I suspect that Jobs brought that kind of thinking back with him when he returned to Apple.