Spitzer: Bank Regulators Lacked Will, Not Power.

All Things Considered, April 10, 2009

As New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer pursued the insurance company AIG and drove the company's longtime boss, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, out of his job.

Spitzer, who last year was forced to resign as New York's governor after news of his involvement in a prostitution ring, now writes about AIG and other Wall Street matters for Slate.com.

In a recent Slate column, Spitzer takes exception to the idea that federal regulators lacked the power to stop financial abuses before the crisis.

"An effort is being made to suggest if only the regulators had had more power, they would have found a, b and c," Spitzer tells NPR's Robert Siegel. "Whereas, in truth, what we have gone through is a decade where regulators had the power but not the will.

"Unfortunately, the loss of will was more fundamentally damaging to us, because they should have done things that were visible and reacted to things that were visible."

As for skeptics who may point out that Spitzer's own participation in a scandal has earned him his place on the sidelines of public life, Spitzer says people can decide whether they find his perspective valuable.

"I look back at the record we had when I was attorney general, and if it suggests that there are some useful observations I can make about our current economic crisis, I'm happy to provide them when asked," he says.

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Tell Congress to Stop Taking Wall Street Money.

March 26, 2009.

Dear Fellow Americans,

During the Great Depression, Congress passed laws designed to ensure that our economy would never collapse like that again. Regulations were enacted to keep banks and insurance companies separate, to establish regulatory bodies with real oversight, and more. Unfortunately, over time Congress succumbed to Wall Street and repealed those laws¹ and sowed the seeds of the current crisis.

Tell Congress to stop taking Wall Street money.

Why did they do this? One answer is the need for ever increasing amounts of money to pay for expensive political campaigns. Some Democrats² wanted to compete with Republicans over who can be more 'business friendly' by loosening the controls that kept our financial system stable.

The result? A Dow Jones index nearly half what it was a year ago. Trillions of dollars in bank bailouts, loan guarantees and stimulus packages. Unemployment is up, retirement funds have been decimated, and there's a tidal wave of foreclosures and bankruptcies. And we might not have hit bottom yet.

Why did this happen? Because Wall Street got enough political power to set aside the regulations that kept them in check. They used it to earn obscene compensation totally unrelated to the real economy of goods and services that people need. And now we're the ones paying the price.

We hope President Obama can make a difference - and soon. But we also need to make sure this never happens again. Our idea? Tell your Representatives and Senators to make the pledge: No more Wall Street money!This isn't all we need to do, but it's a good start.

http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/3865/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2646

You might have heard about our successful tour of the homes of AIG executives' homes and the AIG headquarters in Wilton, CT. See a great video about it here and read what other WFP supporters had to say to AIG. Are we standing on the verge of a new progressive era for New York and America? Make it happen by signing up to join us as a campaigner.

Sincerely,

Charles Lenchner
Director of Online Organizing

¹Two great articles on this process: Thomas McCraw at The New Republic and Matt Taibbi at Rollingstone.
²Hillary Clinton leads the pack of New York politicians with $6.7 million from Wall Street, including $37,965 from AIG (in 2009). But Charles Rangel, Kirsten Gillibrand and Joseph Crowley have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars each as well. Learn more about the nexus of Wall Street and political donations here.

Help Working Families fight for the little guy: We can't count on Wall Street. We rely on contributions from ordinary people like you to keep the WFP going. If you'd like to support our work, visit:http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/contribute.php

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Enough is Enough. Repeal the Arcane Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Enough is enough!

For 36 years, New York State’s Rockefeller Drug Laws have forced judges to hand down extremely harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of small amounts of drugs. This has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted state resources, a severe racial disparity in state prisons, thousands of ruined communities, and no decrease in drug use or sales.

We now have an opportunity to enact real reform and put an end to these harsh and wasteful laws. That’s why it’s so important for you to take action today. Contact Governor Paterson today. Help reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws. There’s already momentum on this issue, but we must keep the pressure on.

Last week, the New York State Assembly passed a historic overhaul of the Rockefeller Drug Laws by a vote of 96-46. This bill goes a long way towards reaching many of the goals communities and advocates have spent almost four decades pushing for.

But the fight isn't over. The same progressive bill has now been introduced in the New York State Senate where it faces a much tougher road to passage. Many senators have been intimidated by the scare tactics and misrepresentations of prosecutors who don't want to give up their power over New Yorkers' lives. And recent media reports suggest that Governor Paterson, who was once the strongest champion of Rockefeller reform, wants to cut a deal to put a band-aid on these fundamentally broken laws.

What we need is real reform, not piecemeal fixes.

So, it's up to all of us to remind New York’s lawmakers that power-hungry prosecutors do not run the state. And it's up to all of us to tell Governor Paterson that we need his leadership more than ever right now.

Contact Governor Paterson today. Help reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws. This is the best chance we've seen since the Rockefeller laws were passed in 1973 to actually get real reform of these harsh and wasteful laws.

But, New York’s government will not act if we do not lead the way. After you take action, please consider sharing this information with your friends and neighbors. We need a HUGE outpouring of support for this bill to overpower the prosecutors’ fear-mongering.

This is our chance. Let's go make it happen!

Sincerely,
Graham Boyd
Director, ACLU Drug Law Reform Project

© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The Wingnut Revolution

by: Bob Cesa
Political Author, Blogger, and New Media Producer

Huffington Post
Posted February 26, 2009 | 05:48 PM (EST)

After nearly three decades of Reaganomics in which the wealthiest two percent have grown exponentially wealthier while middle class wages have remained stagnant, a growing faction of super rich Americans is seriously pissed off -- and their Wingnut Revolution is upon us.

Sure, the interests and influence of the wealthiest two percent make them more responsible than most for the free market policies that created this current economic crisis. But if there's one thing we've learned about those responsible for this recession, it's that the concept of accountability is about as foreign as their live-in au pairs. Instead, they're trying to pin this on Barney Frank and a legion of "losers" (read that: working class minorities) even though Ben Bernanke himself has debunked this myth.

But accountability (a "day of reckoning" as President Obama called it) is underway in the form of the president's housing proposal, his health care plan and, naturally, the recovery act. At the end of the day, ninety-five percent of Americans will benefit from what amounts to the largest tax cut in American history, along with increased access to affordable health care and millions of new jobs.

Though, alas, the super rich will have to pay slightly more in taxes.

Yeah, that's a shame.

So they're gathering in their secret war rooms in the Orange County underground and on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, grinding the tips of their Salvatore Ferragamo Pregiato Moccasins into razor-sharp spears and fashioning their Bentley key fobs into makeshift nunchakas in preparation for a supremely ridiculous rebellion led by a cast of far-right characters more freakish than the acid trip monsters from Yo Gabba Gabba.

At the vanguard of this Wingnut Revolution is CNBC's Rick Santelli. You've probably seen the video of his public conniption fit already, so we'll skip right to an example of Santelli's economic prowess.

Remember back in September when John McCain famously doomed his campaign by suggesting that the "fundamentals of the economy of the economy are strong?" Well, several days earlier, Santelli told his CNBC audience, "I think the economy is healthy." This was September 2. Fourteen day later, Lehman Brothers collapsed.

I'm beginning to think John McCain got a bum rap. He wasn't alone. It turns out that one of the spazziest of the spazzy white guys from the financial cable shows was suggesting the exact same nonsense. In fact, here's a convenient chart of the Dow proving why Rick Santelli is nothing more than 2009's answer to the Star Wars Kid:

That's one healthy-looking economy. Now, economists will tell you that the Dow isn't totally indicative of the broader economy, so just to be fair to Santelli, here's a chart documenting job losses during various recessions with Santelli's quote marked accordingly:

If Santelli and his fake lightsaber of economic awesomeness is the loudest voice of the revolution, then the foot soldiers in the coming revolt are being mustered by Michelle Malkin and Joe the Plumber. Ostensibly because their goal is to be taken seriously. The Pajamas Media people have organized something called The American Tea Party. This is absolutely real:

America is on the brink of another revolution. In a new American Tea Party, citizens across the USA are beginning to protest giant government programs that reach deep into their pockets.

Did you notice their slogan? "Uncle Sam - Get out of my wallet!" Get out of our wallets and pockets, Uncle Sam, and crawl into our wombs, where you belong.

The Pajamas TV team including Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, and Joe Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber) - are mobilized to help cover this new and evolving revolution.

Evolving? With Joe the Plumber (aka Cartoonish Prop) involved, they're clearly starting at a hairless proto-wingnut stage of evolution.

Yes, the original Sons of Liberty risked their lives in order to protest against monarchical tyranny. The Pajamas Media revolutionaries on the other hand...

You will need to determine from local authorities if a permit is needed for your particular event.

Revolution! But get a permit first. You know: a permit for the revolution.

Then there's Glenn Beck who devoted an entire show to gaming out how exactly a revolution would take place here. He dubbed the special episode the "War Room" and it involved in-depth analysis from a team of experts who agreed that an army of survivalist "bubbas" might take up arms against the "communist" Obama government.

Now, before any cable news conservatives fire off angry missives to the Huffington Post editors, allow me to underscore that I'm not exaggerating Beck's communist accusations here. For the last year or so, Glenn Beck has been attempting to peg Barack Obama and the Democrats as actual communists, and now he's going all out with, quite literally, a red scare segment on his show -- festooning his set with Soviet flag graphics, a "Comrade Update" logo and a Russian language crawl in the lower-third of the screen.

I never thought someone would materialize on FOX News Channel who could actually make Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly seem reasoned and rational, but Glenn Beck has done it. To eleven. Watching this "Comrade Update" video, I'm beginning to think that Rick Santelli and Michelle Malkin are on the very serious end of the wingnut spectrum with Beck and, perhaps, Michele Bachmann on the opposite crazy flank -- jars of their own urine lined up along the wall as they assemble enemies lists while reviewing moon landing footage frame-by-frame to see if they can spot a boom mic.

But all of this silliness tends to overshadow the very basic fact that these self-anointed revolutionaries have all along sought to derail and defeat the largest tax cut in American history; going so far as to define the recovery act containing this historical tax cut as socialism and "porkulus."

What this far-right movement appears to suggest is that middle class tax cuts, job creation and affordable healthcare -- ideas that are supported by 82 percent of Americans, by the way -- are criminal acts of tyranny, and an eventual tax increase to the tune of pennies on the dollar for the wealthiest two-percent is worthy of opposition by revolutionary means.

Okay, well. Good luck with that, wingnuts. But don't forget your permits.

BobCesca.com

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Urge Your Legislatures to Support Marijuana Reform

This morning, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced groundbreaking legislation that would remove state-level penalties for responsible marijuana use in California. The bill, A.B. 390, would not only allow personal use and cultivation of marijuana but would also set up a legal system to tax and regulate it similarly to alcohol.

Urge your state legislators to support this bold legislation!

Using MPP’s online action center, writing your state representatives is easy. Just visit the site, enter your contact information, and send your e-mails to your state assembly member and state senator. You can use one of our pre-written messages, or you can write your own.

Just last week, the legislature approved a budget that significantly increases taxes for almost every Californian and makes deep cuts across many vital services. With the state’s imperiled economy, the need to end the costly and ineffective policy of arresting marijuana users and to instead begin taxing California’s largest cash crop is extraordinarily obvious.

This is the first time that legislation calling for marijuana regulation and taxation has been introduced in California’s state capitol. Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of California history by supporting A.B. 390!

You can read more about this bill on our blog. Please forward this alert to as many like-minded Californians as you can so that they too can take action. Thank you for supporting MPP and sensible marijuana policy in California.

Sincerely,

F. Aaron Smith
California Policy Director
Marijuana Policy Project

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NOTE: Consequently, this brave legislature inspired me to write to my own NY state senators, congressman & assemblymen & encourage those not living in California to do the same. Below is a copy of my letter. Feel free to use any of the information. Of course, the Wall Street Wanker-Banker's comment is NY specific, but true nonetheless. You can find your representatives through project Vote Smart HERE.

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Dear Assembly member / Congressman / Senator _________:

As I type California Assemblyman Ammiano has introduced the marijuana regulation bill, A.B. 390. California schools are facing deep budget cuts and teachers are losing their jobs while the state’s biggest cash crop is untaxed. A.B. 390 will correct this disparity by taking marijuana out of the criminal-controlled underground market and place it in a well-regulated and taxed system. This sensible legislation will raise billions in new state revenue and save precious law enforcement resources.

NYC has the largest public school system in the United States and our children's education is suffering greatly. I'm writing today to strongly urge you to introduce similar marijuana regulation legislation on behalf of NY.

According to research done in 2006, marijuana is contended to be the number one cash crop in the United States. A new Rasmussen Reports in a national telephone survey, that 40% of Americans believe marijuana should be legalized. 55% of Americans believe possession of small amounts of marijuana should not be treated as a criminal offense and 78% support making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering. It should be no surprise to learn then, that the World Health Organization estimates 42% of Americans have tried marijuana – indeed, the highest usage level in the 17 countries profiled. That's over 100 million Americans, with 15 million reporting to use monthly!

In fact, every comprehensive objective government commission examining the marijuana phenomena over the previous 100 years has recommended that adults should not be criminalized for marijuana use. Yet, federal government figures indicate that there are more than 41,000 Americans are in state of federal prisons on marijuana charges right now - not including those in county jails. This represents more than the number imprisoned on all charges combined in eight individual European countries! With so many convicted felons, who will be left to vote for you?

Three Nobel Prize winners - including Milton Friedman - were among the more than 500 economists who endorsed a 2005 Harvard study concluding that legalization of marijuana “Would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. If, however, marijuana were taxed similarly to alcohol or tobacco, it might generate as much as $6.2 billion annually.” Not surprisingly, these statistics are fiscally conservative. According to more realistic estimates by one of the Harvard University economists, Jeffrey Miron, replacing the current failing marijuana prohibition system with one of taxation and regulation would save between $10 and $14 billion per year in reduced government spending, and increased tax revenues. Still another researcher recently estimated that the revenue lost from our failure to tax the marijuana industry could be as high as $31 billion!

Even congressman Ron Paul - perhaps the most conservative, grandfatherly man to ever be admired by America's marijuana enthusiasts - agrees the "War of Drugs" isn't working. Speaking live from Clute, Texas, on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, the libertarian-leaning Republican did what few other members of Congress will and openly called for the United States' War on Drugs to be abolished. He elaborated further stating, "I don't like pot, but I hate the drug war, so I would repeal all of prohibition. But, I wouldn't even bother taxing it. People have the right in a free country to make important decisions on their own lives. If they want to make mistakes, they can. They just can't come crawling to the government to get bailed out or taken care of if they get sick. I believe in freedom of choice in all that we do, as long as the individual never hurts anybody else. So that means I would get rid of all the federal laws. I would dispose with the drug war. We're spending tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars on this, then (we) march into places like California, override state laws, arrest sick people and put them in prison. It makes no sense whatsoever," he insisted.

Isn't it time we start making sense for a change? Whether the savings is $2.4, $7.7, or $31 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement, any of these numbers should be incentive enough. You've already got some pretty heavy-hitters on your side - three Nobel Laureates, 497 economists and Ron Paul. Do you seriously believe you're more intelligent than these men?

Just think of the boon in tourism a measure like this would bring to the city of NY, not to mention the small business growth. Have you ever been to Amsterdam? It resembles none of the ilk of "Reefer Madness". In fact, Americans already smoke more marijuana as those who can do so legally in the Netherlands. So, why not give people some peace of mind, save copious amounts of money in the process, and inject some much needed revenue into our failing schools? This is a win-win scenario. Perhaps if the wanker-bankers of Wall Street's preferred drug were marijuana, rather than cocaine, we'd be in an entirely different scenario?

Yet, here we are. And where is here, exactly? Someone is arrested for a marijuana offense in America every 36 seconds and 89% of these are for marijuana possession — not for sale or manufacture. In the U.S., there are more arrests for marijuana possession each year than for all violent crimes combined. The "War on marijuana" is clearly not working. However this be decided, we need to shake off the clearly outmoded puritanical shackles, and start getting real. Our nation is in deep you-know-what. FDR was sensible enough to repeal prohibition, what's stopping you, Mr. Assemblyman? Try this site for some hard-hitting research.

Most sincerely,

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.