5 signs 'liberals' in congress are faking it

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/five-signs-liberals-congress-are-faking-it-1359299774

***SNIP

Sign #1 The filibuster –

Harry Reid and company used rhetorical flourishes about filibuster reform as a smokescreen to hide the shameful fact that they had no intention of fixing a rule that makes impossible to get any measures President Obama backs (and we voted for) passed. Senate Democrats have no desire to change the rules. As things stand, they can pretend to care and blame the filibustering Republicans for inaction. But don't take my word for it:

Exhibit A – From the Washington Post: "Senate leaders reached a deal Thursday that keeps the chamber’s long-standing, 60-vote threshold for halting a filibuster but streamlines some of the chamber’s more cumbersome procedures. ... [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell are presenting the draft proposal to their caucuses Thursday afternoon, and if they get a positive response, the changes could come to a vote by the end of the day. ... The key new proposal allows the elimination of one filibuster vote during the 'motion to proceed' to a bill, when the chamber begins considering legislation. Republicans have increasingly filibustered the motion to begin debating legislation to either slow passage of or block bills altogether."

***SNIP

Sign #2: Gun control –

President Obama struck the right chord on gun control in his inaugural speech, but there is one big difference between the president and every Democrat in the House and Senate: he doesn't ever have to stand for re-election again. (Note that he, too, was careful not to offend the NRA before the November election.) The fact that our legislators love being in Congress more than they love any principle or obligation, that there is no honor among these thieves, will be displayed in tawdry Technicolor if even a pale imitation of gun-control legislation gets to the floor of either house.

***SNIP

Sign #3: Bank regulation –

Here's William Black, a leading authority on control fraud in the financial industry and corporate crime: "…President Obama intends to appoint Jacob Lew as Treasury Secretary Geithner's replacement. Most people assume that Geithner is a creature of Wall Street through direct employment, but Geithner never drew a paycheck directly from Wall Street. Geithner worked for a wholly-controlled subsidiary of Wall Street - the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Lew is the real deal, another brick in Obama's creation of Wall Street on the Potomac."

[ProSense]

1. That's so fucking unfair.

"Exhibit C - An email from Elizabeth Warren "I'm disappointed by the filibuster reform deal we passed in the Senate last night." The "deal" passed by a vote of 86-9…"

William Black gained credibility during the S&L crisis, which is often held up as the model for what should have happened, but Glass-Steagall was still the law of the land. Enron happened post the repeal of that law. Black refuses to deal with the fact that while there were myriad crimes, some of them were undoubtedly illegal, given that that Glass-Steagall was repealed, some of those activities fell within the boundaries of the post-repeal legal landscape. They were horrible and immoral, but you can't convict people for being horrible.

Wall Street reform was the biggest regulatory package since the 1930s. It expanded the powers of the FDIC and created the CFPB.

To attack Elizabeth Warren and all liberals in Congress (Harkin and others) is ridiculous. They can't control the likes of Baucus and ex-Senator Lieberman.

The health care law is still the biggest expansion of the safety net since Medicare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022159929

If every Senator in the Democratic caucus was a staunch liberal, then the author would have a point.

Does anyone think that now that Elizabeth Warren is in, and Lieberman an Nelson are out, that the Senate is now completely liberal?

[KharmaTrain]

2. Whatcha Done For Me Lately...

...couldn't you tell it's pony season? There are those who will feel their vote or support (not always the same) means that every Democrat owes them (and President Obama double or triple). If someone doesn't toe the line the way they think should be, then that person has been betrayed and all Democrats are corportist sell outs. It's like clockwork...things either don't move fast enough or are done far enough. Yesterday's hero is today's goat...

[ProSense]

3. Senator Harkin is leaving

and I don't blame him. It's a thankless job. Elizabeth Warren is already being cast aside as a sellout.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Didn'tcha Know...

...Harkin leaving was Reid's fault? I guess using that logic then that's gotta be the reason Chambliss is quitting With all the in foil around this place you'd think there'd be an aluminum shortage. I'm sad to see Senator Harkin call it quits...I met him in the 80s and supported him in '92, but you can only beat your head on the wall for so long. I still remain optimistic we'll see more done in the next two years than the last but the "drama" from all quarters will be intense.

Cheers...

[dsc]

15. actually I think the filibuster likely did have a great deal to do with him leaving

I don't think Reid is entirely to blame for the filibuster not being reformed but I do think the lack of reform is one reason Harkin is leaving.

[Hotler]

7. What I am owed is some.....

spine, some fight and some backbone from the Democratic party. How about upholding the rule of law and sending some bankers to jail. What I get instead is a bunch of puppies rolling over for big money and the ass kissing it takes to keep their jobs.

[bread_and_roses]

9. Amen, Hotler (n/t)

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. Spine and Backbone are fine ...

actionable unlawful activity is quite a different animal (if one wishes to follow that Rule of Law).

[Hotler]

21. "actionable unlawful activity" We'll never know if .......

that is what Wall St. did unless there is a vigorious and thorough investigation with some teeth behind itbut, that would require some spine and backbone.

[1StrongBlackMan]

29. And I can assure you ...

Speitzer and the AG of NY both have conducted vigorious and thorough investigations with teeth behind them ... remind me how many criminal charges either of them have brought against the banksters?

[Hotler]

32. PBS Frontline "The Untouchables"

Why no Wall St. execs have been prosecuted for the financial crisis.

[1StrongBlackMan]

37. That's my point ...

those with the expertise to prosecute these (alleged) crimes, even Spietzer and the NY AG, have chosen not to ... they can't all be on the take.

[PrezHillary2016]

44. +1

[forestpath]

13. +1

[DogPawsBiscuitsNGrav]

24. + 1000 and what about the jobs? People don't want welfare, they want to work. Where

are all of those shovel ready jobs? Shouldn't the economy have been a number one priority?

[Hotler]

26. Damn straight!

all we heard from the repugs since the 2010 election was jobs, jobs, jobs. Well where the fuck are the jobs Mr. Boner?????

[blackspade]

17. Yep, pony season.

For republicans and Democratic Party sellouts.

Most of Congress remains firmly bought be the 1%.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. Your argument has fallen on deaf ears ...

While you are exactly correct that the indictments of Black and Talibbi(sp?) of Rolling Stone would have applied in the pre-Glass/Steagall legal environment, neither have built a case in the current legal envirnoment, other than to merely say, "It (the banksters' activities) is wrong."

[jtuck004]

20. If one were to accurately represent the comments of Bill Black, they would note that

he has consistently described, in excruciating detail, what he believes that crimes are, that the administration's refusal to support the investigative force needed is the primary and most important barrier to prosecution.

Riley: It sounds like you don’t think this new working group is going to get the job done. Last week, Schneiderman said that he thinks he has the resources (particularly the IRS and the Consumer Protection Unit) and the political will to pursue the investigation in a meaningful way. Why do you disagree?

Black: First, the “investigation” will not investigate what was by far the largest and most destructive fraud — control frauds — the origination of millions of fraudulent loans. Second, the working group’s resources to investigate secondary market fraud are ludicrously inadequate.

Here.

Despite the exhortations and eclectic experience of the many Internet-based-armchair-attorneys and a few bank apologists, no one with any credibility is insisting we investigate for violations of a defunct Glass/Steagall. Rather, Professor Black, a respected and expert forensic criminalist describes the "control fraud" he believes has and is occurring, a crime he investigated and the model for which he created, responsible for sending criminals in the S&L business to jail.

It's just one of many pathetic defenses of slimy bankers and their friends and politicians, however. Albeit mostly clumsy and partisan, they argue FOR people who are hurting others, who laughed - LAUGHED - about the shit they were selling to widows and orphans, testified to the misery they were visiting on the American people in front of Congress. In the process they turn their backs on the cause of our neighbors whose lives have been irreparably damaged, directly, by the greed and fraud of those bankers and their friends, children on food stamps, the working poor, people whose homes and lives are being foreclosed on. They become apologists for the most venal so-called people who have done more to hurt this country than any terrorist has ever dreamed of.

Why anyone would want to side with those bastards I have no idea, but they do.

[1StrongBlackMan]

30. I'm thinking that ...

the reason Black's indictments are largely being ignored is that his "control fraud" theory (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/11/control_fraud.html) is a pretty novel theory that may have worked in the 1980s, but no doubt useless after 30 years the post S&L degulation and legal neutering.

[jtuck004]

31. Well, "largely" probably depends on who one is being paid by and serves...

but it wasn't these dirty thieving bastards that made the decision to let themselves off the hook at the expense of hungry children and millions of lives ruined. I am damn sure holding people responsible for not using their position of trust to defraud others has ever gone out of style.

[1StrongBlackMan]

36. No ...

holding people responsible for crimes has not gone out of style; but after 3 decades of the law being neutered (post-Black's involvement in the S&L stuff) and the Clinton-era regulation, criminal prosecution now a dicey matter.

[jtuck004]

38. Yeah, I suspect it's tough give a subpoena to a fraud with one hand while writing a check to them

with the other.

[1StrongBlackMan]

39. What are you talking about? n/t

[jtuck004]

40. Sorry, haven't the time. But thanks.

[Hotler]

25. Every fucking Democrat in the......

House & Senate should have been yelling and pounding on the lectern to investigate the financial melt down of this country. Remember that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi rolled over like puppies for Henry Paulson to give in to the bailout. Paulson got down on his knees in front of Nancy and begged. She gave in. Oh! And don't forget that impeachment was off the table. Bush/Cheney should be in the Hague awaiting trial for war crimes.

[Egalitarian Thug]

43. So many people tried to speak out against the Great Robbery congressional email servers crashed.

60% of the public rejected it yet a Democratic majority (172 to 63) along with a sizable republican minority (108 to 91) pushed it through the House and the Senate likewise ignored their constituents (41 Democrats & 34 republicans) to saddle every working American with $5,000 of additional debt to pay off the bad bets of Wall Street.

[Fumesucker]

4. K&R

[Zorra]

6. The whole system is fake. nt

[forestpath]

14. +1

[just1voice]

23. +2

That's a fact.

[bread_and_roses]

8. K&R (n/t)

[mountain grammy]

10. Money talks, but it didn't elect RMoney..

we just must continue to talk louder, starting with getting the money out of politics.

[woo me with science]

16. K&R Money talks.

[bettyellen]

18. interesting parallels to DUers who are faking it.

[msanthrope]

19. You Better Believe It!! nt

[woo me with science]

22. Kick for a cold blast of ugly truth.

Keep talking about this, because the propaganda machine is working overtime to reassure and pacify and deny. People will tolerate unconscionable theft for only as long as they still believe the lies and the spin about why it is happening. Once they realize the representation is fake, their tolerance for this garbage will end.

Demand the money out of Washington, and rally your neighbors to demand it, too. Change is not coming all by itself from inside this purchased system.

[chimpymustgo]

27. K&R. We keep losing the game, even when we're holding the winning hand. Watch what happens with gun

control. You can place your bets now.

We lose EVERY time - or get something so watered down - we can hardly call it a win.

Harkin couldn't stomach it any more.

[woo me with science]

28. kick

[Egalitarian Thug]

33. There is little correlation between liberal and Democrat any longer. K&R

[Spider Jerusalem]

34. I think it's probably a mistake to assume "Democrat" = "liberal"

"somewhat to the left of the Republicans" isn't "liberal"; the Democratic members of both houses of Congress with a few exceptions are by and large moderate and centre-right.

[woo me with science]

35. kick

[woo me with science]

41. kick

[pscot]

42. Money talks,,

There's only one interest group left in Washington these days; people with money. And with the financial industry comprising almost half of GDP, nobody swings a bigger dick. Citizen groups are fobbed off with promises of jam tomorrow, but the bankers get their bread buttered on both sides evvery dogdamned day.