Posted on 03/23/2009 6:57:21 PM PDT by jazusamo
Death threats to executives at AIG, because of the bonuses they received, are one more sign of the utter degeneration of politics in our time.
Congressman Barney Frank has threatened to summon these executives before his committee and force them to reveal their home addresses— which would of course put their wives and children at the mercy of whatever kooks might want to literally take a shot at them.
Whatever the political or economic issues involved, this is not the way such issues should be resolved in America. We are not yet a banana republic, though that is the direction in which some of our politicians are taking us— especially those politicians who make a lot of noise about "compassion" and "social justice."
What makes this all the more painfully ironic is that it is precisely those members of Congress who have had the most to do with creating the risks that led to the current economic crisis who are making the most noise against others, and summoning people before their committee to be browbeaten and humiliated on nationwide television.
No one pushed harder than Congressman Barney Frank to force banks and other financial institutions to reduce their mortgage lending standards, in order to meet government-set goals for more home ownership. Those lower mortgage lending standards are at the heart of the increased riskiness of the mortgage market and of the collapse of Wall Street securities based on those risky mortgages.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
On all counts, agreed. Still the Republicans should call for it to draw attention to them.
I honestly don’t know if he has any expertise in the field, the thing that makes me doubt it strongly is he was a major player in getting us into this mortgage fiasco.
I think today's academia is safe, not much critical thinking going on there these days.
You’re right, the Repubs should push it to the max.
"In 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Frank stated, "These two entities...are not facing any kind of financial crisis.... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."[42] He clarified in 2009 that Fannie and Freddie were not in crisis at the time and many financial institutions, like Lehman Brothers, also fell into crisis from 2003 to 2008.[43]"--Wikipedia
Thanks, I have read parts of that in the past. The other thing that I read, and I think it’s for real, his boyfriend or significant other or whatever they called it at the time was a banking official of some kind but I can’t recall how long ago it was.
Do a search on “Herb Moses” and you’ll have your answers.
The sickest fast is it is the American public that are letting these fools do this.
There was a time they would have been driven out of congress in shame. Today we have no more shame.
“fast” = “fact”...
This is the first thing I’ve read all day that makes any sense. And it’s quarter to midnight. Think I’ll end on this note of reason and honesty and go to bed. Thanks.
It was once upon a time in America we voted into office the "best" representative (we thought) of "WE, THE PEOPLE".
The American left thinks America is arrogant, brutish, and evil. And so, the people who think this of America have voted into office the people they think best represents this view of their own. And so it is. We have low-lifes with a gangster mentality sitting in elected office.
Some of the voters think this is GREAT! That now the uber "real" America is being represented to the world.
D-Frank and D-Dodd stridently, vigorously legislated for the confiscation of wealth by their constituents, and are now tribally hacking away at the very corporations the D's set-up to perform this confiscation of wealth. The D's are cutting out the middle-men, played as stooges by the D's.
This is Main Street Thuggery. And those of a low-level education and certain other cranial and spiritual limitations see this as a Victory for them. What they don't see? They are also considered usable, malleable blobs of worthless tissues by the very same "playahs".
the sheep look up. And Rev Wright et al applaud.
The American Congress is beginning to resemble Africa's turmoil.
All joking and insults aside, is he such an incredible expert on these matters that he should be tossing around his considerable weight on these subjects?
Sowell explains it perfectly:Just as everyone seemed to be a military expert a couple of years ago, when it was chic to say that the "surge" in Iraq would not work, so today everyone seems to be an expert on executive pay.
Just as everyone seemed to be a military expert a couple of years ago, when it was chic to say that the "surge" in Iraq would not work, so today everyone seems to be an expert on executive pay.Speaking of demagogues distracting people into mob action against arbitrarily chosen targets puts me in mind of the dystopian short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. Which I had to read in college half a century ago - and only in recent years ever connected to left wing politics. But then, Alinsky rule #12 amounts to that very thing.The real point is to pander to envy and resentment against people who make a lot of money. Envy is always referred to by its political alias, "social justice." But to put the lives of the wives and children of executives at risk for the sake of Beltway grandstanding shows how low our political saviors have sunk.
I'm thinking of Belize myself. Of course my family thinks I'm nuts and do not support this but as the crisis deepens, one must make plans whether to weather the storm or cut and run.
Belize is my husband’s choice too.
Who will bell the Queeah?
Changing the way you see things can also change your reality. You can create your own rules for changing your reality.
Presently, we are only trying to imitate one. As the imitation becomes more practiced and intense it will become the real thing and we will know that we have "arrived."
And as far as the bonus sideshow.
"It’s a farce -- a sham."
It's like toddlers fighting over a sugar packet in the parlor, while Snidely Whiplash sneaks out the back with a 50lb sack of Sugar that was supposed to last the family all winter.
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