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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (127320)	4/20/2011 5:36:02 PM
From: Alex MG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Clinton signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall yes he did and he later admitted it was a mistake but who were the ones who pushed it, and by the way EVERY single democrat voted against it it was pushed by three republican ass-hats Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act Phil Gramm... John McCain's Terrorist In Pinstripes kikoshouse.blogspot.com Saturday, April 05, 2008 There is a ticking time bomb in the John McCain campaign and the sooner that Barack Obama can turn his full attention to exploiting it the bigger and consequential the explosion should be for this phony maverick. The presumptive Republican nominee supposedly swore off lobbyists after the Keating Five scandal nearly destroyed his political career, but they continue to have him by the short and curlies. Phil Gramm, who is co-chair of McCain's campaign, is not just another lobbyist. He is the man most responsible for the repeal of Depression-era banking regulations that have led directly and inextricably to much of today's economic turmoil, and parlayed that classic example of legislative legerdemain into a lucrative lobbying career for the very people who scratched the smug Texan's back -- as well as McCain's -- on Capitol Hill. Gramm was the biggest of the big guns behind the 1999 repeal of the banking regulations -- the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act -- which was officially called The Financial Services Modernization Act. (Don't you just love the name!) One of many consequences of the repeal was that a year later the Swiss bank UBS gobbled up brokerage house Paine Weber. A year after that, Gramm settled in as a vice chairman of UBS's new investment banking arm and has since energetically lobbied Congress, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department on banking and mortgage issues. This has included rolling back state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers that led directly to the subprime mortrage meltdown, which cost USB more than $19 billion in writedowns this week and the prospect of massive job cuts. McCain and Gramm go way back. In 1992, the two worked closely as senators to defeat Hillary Clinton's 1993 health care plan, and in 1996 McCain was national chairman of Gramm's unsuccessful presidential run. In 2002, as the full extent of the Enron scandal was emerging, The New York Times called Gramm "a demon for deregulation" as one of the chief engineers of the stealthy approval of a bill that exempted energy commodity trading from government regulation and public disclosure. Meanwhile, Gramm's wife Wendy was paid over $1 million in salary, stock options, dividends and other goodies from 1993 to 2001 as an Enron board member, but of course was deaf, dumb and blind to the energy company's rampant cooking its books with the acquiescence of the late unlamented Arthur Andersen accounting company. The result was economic ruin for thousands of families. We can be certain that even more wrack and ruin will be in the offing with a McCain presidency. This includes more of the Rich Come First economic voodoo that the Bush administration has visited upon Main Street while Wall Street investment banks got fat and happy until their greed bit them in their collective ass and they had to come begging for taxpayer bailouts. Which of course they are getting, no (serious) questions asked. Considering the pain and suffering that Gramm's masterwork has caused ordinary Americans, it is not hyperbolic to say that he is a terrorist, he just doesn't wear funny looking headgear and carry a Kalashikov. McCain acknowledges that he's "no expert" and "doesn't understand" the economy. That is worrisome enough, but that he is relying on a terrorist in pinstripes to figure things out for him is . . . well, terrifying.

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (127320)	4/20/2011 5:45:54 PM
From: Alex MG	Respond to of 132070

repeal of Glass-Steagall all rethugs voted yea... dems voted nay govtrack.us

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (127320)	4/20/2011 6:08:44 PM
From: Alex MG	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

oh also, Phil Gramm's wife was on the board of Enron good god what a bunch of crooks i'm not saying there aren't Dems who suck up to the corporate crooks but without a doubt the majority of douchebags reside in the repugnut party and it's even worse now with the teaparty crowd who are also bringing in the religious extremists... the American Taliban Enron And the Gramms By BOB HERBERT Published: January 17, 2002 When Senator Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy danced, it was most often to Enron's tune. Mr. Gramm, a Texas Republican, is one of the top recipients of Enron largess in the Senate. And he is a demon for deregulation. In December 2000 Mr. Gramm was one of the ringleaders who engineered the stealthlike approval of a bill that exempted energy commodity trading from government regulation and public disclosure. It was a gift tied with a bright ribbon for Enron. Wendy Gramm has been influential in her own right. She, too, is a demon for deregulation. She headed the presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief in the Reagan administration. And she was chairwoman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1988 until 1993. In her final days with the commission she helped push through a ruling that exempted many energy futures contracts from regulation, a move that had been sought by Enron. Five weeks later, after resigning from the commission, Wendy Gramm was appointed to Enron's board of directors.