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To: TopQuark
Hey, those were not buildings that were sitting in $15,000 seats to hear Obama in the Mandarin Oriental yesterday.

I agree that not all Wall Street people are ideologically identical, so my text should be more precise, but consider that according to numbers from the Federal Election Commission, Goldman Sachs (20,000 employees, much smaller than other top donor organizations) was the number 2 Obama donor organization in 2008.

So I will rephrase:

"Like employees of big Wall Street firms who donate big bucks to Obama?"

You advocate a moral purity that seems very difficult for many of your Wall Street heroes to live up to.

Speaking of imprecision (on several levels), from your post 31:

It’s nice to see the unity of the leftist scum and the supposedly conservative forum...

It seems to me that Taibbi does have an ugly underlying hatred of capitalism in general, not just the Wall Street Ferengi, and unfortunately some FR posters do not seem to notice that. I think it's very unlikely I would have much in common with him or his friends. I guess I should not be too surprised with a Rolling Stone article.

The point of all this is that, even though I find Taibbi sleazy sometimes, I also find some of his enemies equally sleazy. If he were a pure marxist, why would he attack Crap and Trade so passionately?

117 posted on 10/21/2009 2:46:35 PM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Joe Wilson said "You lie!" in a room full of 500 politicians. Who was he talking about?)
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
"your Wall Street heroes to"

And where did you get that they are my heroes? You are putting words in my mouth. I don't take sides but try to stand on position of principle.

Wall Street firms are actors in a capitalist economy. They are reviled for that reason now, since they symbolize that economy. Most of accusations are moreover false, mere repetitions of the NYTimes garbage.

"The point of all this is that, even though I find Taibbi sleazy sometimes, I also find some of his enemies equally sleazy."

There are plenty of sleazy capitalists. I personally despise those Wall Streeters that, while using and profiting from capitalism, send donations to fascists like Obama. And not only Wall Streeters, of course: Warren Bufffet and Bill Gates are the same (even worse: they are not even patriotic, spending most if not all of their charity abroad --- as if some Americans did not need help). The same is true about Hollywood: all those "start" marking $30M in six weeks support every Leftist cause under the sun. There is plenty of sleeze everywhere.

The point, however, is not to look at people but at what they do and say. I agree or disagree not with people (takign sides) but with SPECIFIC things they say or do. I have not a shred of respect for Taibbi, but if he said something correctly --- even on accident --- I would acknowledge that. Likewise, when the Wall Street honchos fall before Obama and send money to Dems, I view them as immoral scum. But when the same people are falsely attacked for what they do as managers of their respective firms, I point out that that is wrong.

"If he were a pure marxist, why would he attack Crap and Trade so passionately?"

You touch here on something deep: what you say is true and not only about Taibbi. There are very few pure Marxists today. You can't sell yourself well as a Marxist after the fall of the Soviet Union and millions killed by the communists. So they call themselves by other names: "progressives," liberals, etc. In addition, it's been 150 years since Marx, and the circumstances changed. So they too adjust to these changing circumstances. Finally, not all people are consistent: the conservative president Nixon instituted fixed prices --- control of the economy advocated and practiced by socialists and fascists. Likewise, the generally leftist Taibbi may be against Cap-and-trade. People are not always consistent.

But in case of Taibbi, I believe it to be simpler: he is a charlatan that spends little time reflecting on things and getting to the heart of matters. My impression is that he'll writever seems provocative --- just to get attention and feel important.

118 posted on 10/21/2009 4:40:43 PM PDT by TopQuark
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/page/2/

Taibbi is more of a disrepector of all who is looking for honesty and fair play on Wall Street. Look at his blog and he bats against right hand pitching and left hand pitching

He is not a leftist-Marxist punk. That is absurd


121 posted on 10/21/2009 9:17:52 PM PDT by dennisw (It's not called the Wheel. It's called the Carousel)
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