Posted on 10/05/2008 12:20:12 PM PDT by AFreeBird
I just caught the middle part of a special on Fox that is quite damning (IMO) to democrats and Congress on this financial mess we find ourselves in. ACORN and Obama mentioned, and NOT in a flattering light.
If you haven't seen it, or you only caught a part of it like me; you MUST catch it again tonight at 10pm ET on the Fox News Channel.
We need to make sure this information spreads far and wide and fast. Hammer it home people, especially to any lefty (or independent/undecided) friends.
This kind of information coming now, can bring down the democrat's house of cards.
Saw it yesterday. McCain should use it as a campaign ad!
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. It also provides a civil cause of action for those injured by violations of the act. RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub.L. 91-452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted 1970-10-15). RICO is codified as Chapter 96 of Title 18 of the United States Code, 18 U.S.C. § 1961–1968. It was intended to make it easier to prosecute organized crime figures, but has been applied in several other cases as well.
Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.
When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, he or she has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond. This provision was placed in the law because the owners of Mafia-related shell corporations often absconded with the assets. An injunction and/or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.
In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney. Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court, as it focuses on patterns of behavior as opposed to criminal acts.
There is good news for “We the People”. We do not have to depend on a corrupt federal government for action. There is also a provision for private parties to sue. A "person damaged in his business or property" can sue one or more "racketeers." The plaintiff must prove the existence of a "criminal enterprise." The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise. A civil RICO action, like many lawsuits based on federal law, can be filed in state or federal court.
Now with the foundations of our economic system under attack we are entrusting those responsible to address the symptoms. The Democrats cry that this is not a time to point fingers all the while they, and their media accomplices place the entire blame on the Bush Administration and the GOP.
I am demanding that the Justice Department begin a full RICO investigation that will not exempt anyone inside or outside of government. I am encouraging those whose businesses were harmed by these culprits file numerous suits against the offending parties. If Raines, Schumer, Dodd, Frank, and the like do not end up penniless and in orange jump suits then we need to seriously reread the words of Thomas Jefferson when he said:
"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery.”
I just watched it for the second time... David Asman and the others did a very good job with this one.
No kidding. An hour long campaign ad. Of course it won’t sway any hardcore lefty’s. But we’ll have ample information with which to hammer them down with.
Yes, I just caught about the last 15 minutes or so. It’s a terrific piece- I was scribbling down notes as fast as I could for future reference. I also just emailed Asman to thank him for the piece and urged Fox to run it on prime time.
I also commended to him the American Thinker article, “Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis” which a Freeper has been touting on a couple of threads. If you haven’t seen it, it is a valuable tool to add to your information arsenal.
I only caught the end and am very happy to know that it will replay this evening. It's a shame this book isn't required reading(BEFORE the election) for every one of those college students who are voting twice. It sounds as if we're going to be led down the dark tunnel by liberals who want to repeat FDR's mistakes.
Like it or not, we are at the last legs of a National Presidential election. A whole lot is on the line. If the "One", and his fellow D's get elected and retain Congress; it will have an effect on what happens going forward.
And this piece is not w/out blame to some R's either. Wall St, and Congress are both to blame. And yes, blame does need to be addressed. And we have to dissect and disseminate this information to understand what exactly has happened so going forward we know what we have to do to prevent it from happening again.
Why don't YOU watch it for yourself and decide if it's worhtwhile and get back to us.
Just saw it, a great piece. Just following up on one of its guests, Amity Shlaes author of “The Fogotten Man, A New History of the Great Depression”.
A one hour program from C-Span:
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8320&SectionName=After+Words&PlayMedia=No
Duh!
The only way people will learn not to do it again is to have their noses rubbed in what has happened this time. History only repeats itself when we fail to lok back on it and learn.
The MSM has been carefully shielding the guilty parties in this fiasco....some of whom will remain in charge.
You can't direct your thoughts toward the future until you figure out what was done wrong.
It's called "trial and error" learning and it's the only kind that works on some people.
What you were expecting would be something boring enough to capture zero audience, regardless of how useful it might be. If it can't draw an audience, they're just wasting time and running up their electric bill.
I don’t know who the author was, but if he covered FDR ‘s policies, and how they may have actually prolonged the depression, then yes.
YES, show OBAMA CONNECTION WITH ACORN...and the fact they caused a lot of this subprime mess with FRANK, DODD, PELOSI,SCHUMMER AND REID...and use that PICTURE OF OBAMA WITH A CIGARETTE...SLEAZY POLITICIAN.
'sounds like you're not overly concerned about letting these destroyers of our country being allowed to skate by and continue in office.
rather, we need to start shouting about giving McC/Sarah a Senate and House that cannot continue to shout down/vote down/refuse to bring to vote anything that can stop their headlong program to kill our Constitution and freedoms.
This FOX program is, perhaps, the FIRST and best expose on the demRats in decades - and spells it out for us all just how the country got to this point. It sounds the clarion call to vote these Marxists OUT.
It's curious you have a problem with this...
That show was tremendous. Nails Clinton, Carter, LBJ, FDR, Dodd, Frank, Shumer, ACORN and Obama.
Extremely informative and powerful.
Write FoxNews and ask them to show this special about what happened with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae..until the election at least twice a week.
Exactly - keep it alive
Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
I never gave it much thought, but when it was reported that the raising of taxes and more socialist spending actually kept the nation in poverty for years afterword, I was thrilled they reported it.
That's what Obama wants to do. Raise taxes, increase socialism, and prolong this financial crises for another decade.
It should, and I hope and pray that it does, spell doom for them!
The book in my other post is the one, then. I’ve already put it in my Amazon shopping cart. If anyone else asks, that’s it. I only wish pieces such as this would make it on the MSM...sigh...I’m just full of wishful thinking today.
My girlfriend was asking me about this mess last Friday. And I was having a hell of a time trying to explain it to her. I’m sitting her down to watch this tonight.
Pathetic.......
PING
There have been multiple threads about this program - too bad they can’t just be condensed into one and kept at the top of the list!
Also, I saw this article / thread last night, which adds some more useful info.:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2097802/posts
It appears from that article that fraud @ AIG was the powder in the keg, and the Dems through Fannie and Freddie provided the fuse and match.
But, I still have many questions. Among them: AIG was apparently insuring the high risk loans, but did not actually have the collateral to cover them. Did the 2004 Republican proposals, or Bush’s attempted reforms, or McCain’s tries, address this? Did ANYONE’s? If someone did, who opposed it?
It appears to me that worldwide banking regulations were skirted. Would U.S. regulations alone have really helped, and would the rest of the world gone along with them?
In a similar light, has anyone previously attempted to limit or regulate mark-to-market accounting? Who opposed such moves? That’s a big part of all this too.
The answers to those questions would go a long way, in my mind, toward answering the question of whether Bush or “the Republicans” were asleep at the wheel. (I don’t think they can really be faulted if NOBODY saw the details of what was coming.) A general attack from Obama of “Bush’s opposition to regulations caused this” doesn’t hold water if he (Obama) wasn’t making or supporting specific proposals that would have helped. To the contrary, Obama and the Dems clearly made things worse, from everything I have seen so far.
From the article referenced above, I have come away with a somewhat different view of the bailout than I had even a day ago. I guess I would compare it to dealing with a plug in the toilet when there is no plunger or Draino around. You sure as heck don’t want to reach in there, but...
The author is quite dubious about the bailout doing anything but preventing complete disaster: “First, you must understand that without the government’s actions, the collapse of AIG could have caused every major bank in the world to fail.”
As far as I’m concerned, “Heads need to roll” is putting it mildly.
Oh, so we should not bother catching the arsonists, eh?
Incidentally, I don’t get Fox News (can’t afford the Dish or Direct TV due to being laid off recently!) Am trying to have someone tape the Fox News Special for me. If the show answers some of my questions, let me know! (I’ll try harder to get a copy!)
:-)
Hulu.com/fox-news-specials. Fox introduced this site right after the special.
Can Fox put up a link to this on their website so that people can watch it on their computers at any time?
I posted upthrad that I hope Fox puts a link to it on their website so that people can watch it on their computer at any time.
Now I am adding that I hope they so do AND promote the link in ads all over not only their own network, but on internet sites, Drudge, etc.
Waxman is going to hold hearings to question a Lehman Bros. executive. Obviously another way for the Rats to extend the OCTOBER SURRPISE tactics with which they have shamelessly used and timed the denouement of this financial crisis.
But CHRIS SHAYS (R-CT) is also on this committee, and he is excellent on these issues.
We all need to write Shays and ask him to hit back hard on this garbage, especially if Waxman tries to use the committee to deflect blame from the Rats.
On another note, so I hear Bawnie Frank’s BF was a senior executive at FANNIE MAE for many years while all this house of cards was being built . . .
I’ve watched it three times since last night- I am finally grasping the concept of derivatives and CDS thanks to the informative explanation to David Asman by the NYU professor..
What I took from the article on AIG was that, in general, those trading in these credit-default swaps, etc., simply thought the FANNIE MAE paper, which was at the bottom of this trashpile, was implicitly "insured" by the U.S. government.
Turns out they were right, eh?
This is an absolutely wonderful presentation! Clear, easy to understand, and most important names names! David Asman is the anchor and does a very good job. I’ve emailed lots of “heads up”. I’m sure FOX will be repeating this often, or at least I hope so. Notice FOX is the only place to see anything like this——perhaps some kudos to them are in order.
Spread the link around when they do.
My timeline is mostly in step with Fox’s presentation. At least some of the data points are there for anyone that needs them.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2097789/posts?page=2
Gee and from the headline I was expecting something directed at the future and a positive action or contribution of some kind.
I'm sure you were. I looked you up in the Thesaurus and, lo and behold, there you are!
Main Entry: sourpuss (aka JasonC)
Part of Speech: noun
Synonyms: complainer, crab, crank, grouch, grump, killjoy, sorehead, spoilsport
Main Entry: grouch (aka JasonC)
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: A person who habitually complains or grumbles.
Synonyms: complainer, crab, faultfinder, growler, grumbler, grump, murmurer, mutterer, whiner
Next search, pompous know-it-all! ;^)
Oh, hey, that’s exactly ANOTHER question I had: Did the bankers and such believe the Fannie and Freddie paper was, as you put it, “implicitly “insured” by the U.S. government”?
Ok, thanks! I’ll still try to get the tape, too, as video on dialup (another budget reality) is gonna be pretty tedious...
“”McCain should use it as a campaign ad!””
He absolutely should use the video clips and have one ad per clip! We had friends drop in so we missed the last 30 minutes of it so I’m glad it’s going to be on again.
Well, there are lots of areas I’d disagree with Rep. Shays on, but, on his website right now, he presents some interesting history, including:
“How did things get this out of hand? Banks, brokers and Congress encouraged people to buy homes they couldn’t afford, often with little or no documentation, and compelled institutions to extend credit to individuals incapable of making their payments. Members of Congress put tremendous pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy subprime loans. Subprime, by its very definition, is a loan extended to high-risk borrowers.”
Note that line: “Members of Congress...” It sounds to me like Shays could absolutely name names. What do you want to bet Barney is one of them?
More at: http://www.house.gov/shays/news/2008/september/septshaysfinancialcrisis.shtml
And then there’s this, on Bill O’Reilly, Frank says: “The fact is it was 1994 that we passed a bill to tell the Fed to stop the subprime lending. We tried to get them to do it. The first time we were in power again in 2007, we passed the bill to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Huh??? “Stop the subprime lending”?! What a bald-faced lie!! Just HOW the heck could the FM’s have existed and functioned as they did, without pushing banks into excessive subprime lending?
As I understand it, there’s actually nothing wrong with a subprime loan, as long as somebody’s backing it with adequate and REAL assets, and it’s only a small portion of one’s portfolio. (Ie., you can afford to default on it.) But when the system has been pushed so far out of kilter that (if I read this right, elswhere) HALF of the U.S. mortgage market value is in subprime loans, and 70% of new mortgages are subprime, sheezo, man, that is obviously asking for a problem.
Transcript of O’Reilly and Frank here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432173,00.html
The scary thing is, from the transcript alone I’d say O’Reilly WAS boorish, ranting, bullying, yelling, dumb, and irrational in spots, and he still comes off as being more in the right than Frank. Yikes!
Great show - was on last night and again this afternoon - particularly good in showing how Republicans including Secretary Snow and John McCain tried to reform the FM’s way back in the early 2000’s.........
Oops, I meant to say “you can afford a default on it.”
I agree that BOR would have been more effective to just keep confronting Frank with the truth, playing the clip, putting the quotes up on the screen.
However, the fact is that that would not have garnered nearly as much attention as this smackdown-—so it’s six-to-one, half-a-dozen to the other on this one, I guess.
I also am not the biggest Shays fan, but he has been smart on this for a long, long time, and he seems willing to go out there and tee this up for the sake of our country.
I encourage people to support Shays on this-—look at the committees he is on, including the one Waxman chairs.
Good catch about Shays’ website. However, I wish he would go on to say that “Members of Congress aggressively, affirmatively and explicitly STOPPED and DEFEATED attempts to regulate Fannie and Freddie so as to limit the risk their business practices posed to the entire economy.”
According to the articles I’ve read, yes, they did believe Fannie paper was implicitly “insured” (and, as I’ve also pointed out, they were right, weren’t they? The U.S. government did swoop in a pay the claims when they defaulted).
Also there was an idea that the U.S. housing market had never crashed, and that the government would not “let” it crash. This was a more general view of the matter, not just focused on the risk associated with the actual paper.
Because of this, it’s my view that it is not the investment banks that are to blame so much as it is almost 100% Congress’ fault in how they handled “affordable housing” and Fannie and Freddie.
The banks and corporations did what they were born to do: take advantage of almost free money in the marketplace. Sure, they had an obligation to limit risk for the sake of their shareholders. But look at it from their perspective: no matter how risky the paper was standing alone, it *wasn’t risky* if it was backed (implicitly or explicitly) by the U.S. government.
Moreover, the U.S. government (through “affordable housing” scams) was more or less FORCING lenders to literally give money away to people who could never pay it back. The lenders had some “right” to proceed as if the outcome for that government give-away (for which they were only a conduit, albeit making money along the way) was NOT THEIR PROBLEM.
The more we focus blame on Wall Street, the more we play into the Rats’ playbook that “corporations are evil,” “kill all the fat cats” and other forms of lethal class envy. Moreover, we help perpetuate the despicable myth that the Rats are “for the little guy” and “better on the economy.”
If that Depression-era anachronism is passed on once again to the next generation, that is what will truly take our country to Marxism.
This mess was 100% CAUSED by the U.S. Government, through the Democrats. Others took advantage of the situation, but without the Democrats enlarging and propping up and protecting FANNIE and FREDDIE, none of this would have happened.
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