Narcissistic , Sociopathic America

One of our current society's most salient characteristics is an absence of shame on the part of politicians, financial architects and media fulminators. No matter how scurrilous or dishonest their behavior, they exude, if not exactly respectability, an air of self-righteousness - - proud of their ability to delude the general public and do whatever it takes to get elected, get a gig on cable TV or just make as much money as possible.

At the start of the health-care debate, there was widespread support for reform. But, over the course of a tumultuous summer, disruptive town-hall meetings, raucous tea-party events and obstructionism in Congress managed to distort the process and turn support into dissent. Indeed polls showing voter dissatisfaction with the bill were a distortion themselves since some of the negative numbers were the result of people who weren’t against reform itself but felt the proposed legislation didn’t go far enough.

It is distressing now to see some of the same tactics being used by Republicans in the Senate to stall and perhaps kill legislation that would regulate the financial sector and rein in the systemic deceptions that came close to precipitating a full-blown depression. “Let’s start over” says Senate minority leader McConnell fresh from his visits to pals on Wall Street. Let’s not do anything to stifle the markets other conservative politicians and editorialists say. Like Alan Greenspan in his day they insist that unfettered markets would self-regulate and investors would be protected, all evidence to the contrary.

On Bill Moyer's Journal recently, William K. Black, Assoc. Professor of Economics and Law at the Univ. of Missouri and former bank regulator, described practices that were fraudulent in both intent and outcome. It isn’t that nobody saw danger in the casino-like activities at a number of the nation’s largest financial institutions. According to Black, people at the top had to know that shaky mortgages packaged as triple-A investment-quality instruments were likely to fail at some point which is why they ‘hedged’ their bets, notably at Goldman-Sachs. Aside from the obvious problems these questionable instruments would cause in the general markets, deceiving clients who trusted advisors he calls “financial sociopaths” was an unconscionable deception.

But it wasn't only at Goldman-Sachs that dubious transactions were occurring. In testimony before Congress, one Lehman Brothers executive told of being fired when he attempted to expose irregularities at the firm. Professor Black said most whistle blowers were intimidated from speaking out and that industry-wide fraud would be found if proper investigations were undertaken. SEC spokesmen have insisted disingenuously that they lacked the authority or the tools to detect and remedy infractions even after they had created a “deliberate black hole” by lobbying successfully for the repeal of Glass-Steagel, legislation that kept banks from engaging in securities trading.

Deceit has become a way of life in our society. Right-wing pundits repeat lies about the president and his policies with such regularity that they derive a kind of legitimacy through repetition and are discussed endlessly by the news media. Prevarigators rarely seem to suffer any consequences and are celebrated in some circles for having political smarts, or for just being amusing. Conservatives in Congress fail to disavow egregious distortions and outright lies by the more extreme members of the media or their party, so anxious are they to claim victory in the next election.

How strange it is that only a little over a year into a new administration, an impatient and frivolous electorate is poised, according to current estimates, to re-elect representatives of the very party that brought the country to near collapse. The only interesting outcome of a return to such an inglorious past would be to watch an old-time, new majority wrestle with the real world problems the country faces. No doubt lower taxes would be the most original idea a change of leadership in the House would promote.

Former vice-president Cheney provided insight into what the best and the brightest Republican minds have to offer when, guesting with comic Dennis  Miller, he said that telling Senator Leahy to “go f**k himself was “sort of the best thing I ever did.” Shameless as ever but in light of the awful policies he helped facilitate in the previous administration, his unstatesman-like remark to Leahy on the floor of the Senate may ironically have been his best thing in that it was the least reprehensible compared to his other bad acts.

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FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow

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Financial Reform Goes Full Tilt

Monday, April 19, 2010

Democrats Call Out GOP Leaders On Wall Street Dealings 

With the Senate planning to begin debate this week on the largest regulatory overhaul of the financial industry since the Great Depression, Democrats are demanding that GOP divulge details of "backroom negotiations" with Wall Street executives.

Advocates of reform, both inside and outside the Senate, are pushing the chamber to adopt the strongest possible measures to regulate banks and financial institutions so as to give consumers the most protection possible.

"With the announcement that the Senate is now scheduled to begin floor debate on a comprehensive financial regulatory reform package this week, we urge Senators to enact real reform to protect Americans and our financial system," says John Morton, managing director of the Pew Economic Policy Group, a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts that promotes policies and practices that strengthen the U.S. economy. "Senators from both sides of the aisle can and should work together to pass a final bill that: creates an early warning system; ends 'Too Big To Fail' and bailouts; increases transparency in markets; and provides meaningful consumer protections. Financial reform must significantly reduce the likelihood of future crises and ensure that, should a crisis occur, the American taxpayer is not left covering the tab."

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a left-leaning independent who led an unsuccessful campaign to deny Ben Bernanke a second term at the head of the Federal Reserve, outlined the four provisions that he thinks are needed provisions in a final financial reform bill.

Financial reform is another high priority for President Obama, and the legislation that the Senate will vote on is a package put together by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

“Disgust at Wall Street is profound. The American people want us to change in a very profound way how Wall Street functions, and Congress must deliver,” Sanders says, adding that he would offer amendments to the Dodd bill.

Although Dodd had worked with key GOP senators in crafting his reform bill, including Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on Banking, no Republicans have thus far been willing to support the Senate bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, cited public comments by Shelby who has indicated that Republicans could agree on 70 to 80 percent of the Dodd proposal.

“Holding big banks accountable for the enormous economic crisis of recent years is about more than dollars and cents. It is about fairness and justice. It’s also about learning lessons from the mistakes of the past so we are not bound to repeat them,” Reid says in remarks Monday on the Senate floor.

The Senate majority leader also notes that federal regulators last week began legal action against the firm Goldman Sachs for allegedly illegal, fraudulent dealings that contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown.

Reid and his spokesman each called out Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for "secret" meetings with Wall Street executives eager to derail the new reforms. Cornyn is chairman of the Senate GOP campaign operation. Republicans reportedly for months have been seeking campaign contributions from the financial industry in exchange for working to kill the reform legislation.

“Republicans also refuse to admit whose side they’re on,” Reid says. “Earlier this month, the Republican Leader and the head of the Republicans’ Senate campaign committee went to Wall Street. They met with the bankers and hedge-fund managers who benefited more than anyone from the broken system and are trying harder than anyone to stop us from fixing it.”

In a separate statement and citing television news interviews (video), Reid spokesman Jim Manley says McConnell and Cornyn refuse to disclose just what they have said in their talks with bankers behind closed doors. Prior to dissatisfaction due to financial reform, Wall Street executives generally gave more in recent years to Democrats.

“Senators McConnell and Cornyn should immediately reveal what they discussed earlier this month during secret, closed-door meeting with Wall Street executives in New York City,” Manley says. “Years of greed and excess on Wall Street cost 8 million jobs and trillions in wealth for middle-class families and small businesses. Since Republicans appear to be conducting backroom negotiations with these same people who took our economy to the brink of collapse, the public deserves to know what secret deals and carve-outs Republicans are offering Wall Street executives in exchange for their support.”

Let The Sun Shine In......

Is this what political discourse has come to in this country?

 

This is beyond disgusting. This is frightening beyond words. I can't wait to hear what Republicans have to say about this. Will it be a call to war? 

Vandals hit at least five Dem offices nationwide, threaten to ‘assassinate’ children of pro-reform lawmakers.

Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that several Democratic offices around the nation had been vandalized in the days surrounding the House health care vote. Vandals have struck the Tuscon office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters in upstate New York, Rep. Louise Slaughter’s (D-NY) Niagara Falls office, the Knox County Democratic headquarters in Ohio, and the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, KS. The local Rochester ABC affiliate now has more information on the upstate NY vandalism, including an assassination threat against the children of lawmakers who voted for health reform:

No one was inside when the brick was hurled through the Democratic Patry Headquarters on University Avenue. Attached was a note quoting conservative Barry Goldwater: “Exremism [sic] in defense of liberty is no vice”. [...]

[Rep. Louise] Slaughter has been at the center of the push for reform. Last Thursday she received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. “Assassinate is the word they used…toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes.”

The FBI is now investigating.

Pictures of the note attached to the brick thrown at the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters: 

Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars is taking credit for inspiring the vandalism, saying that he’s urging people to break Democratic offices’ windows. He insists that he’s not advocating violence. (HT: BruinKid)

Let The Sun Shine In......

So much for the “nuclear” Senate showdown.

GOP gears up for Senate theatrics   By: Manu Raju   March 24, 2010 05:07 AM EDT

After President Barack Obama’s showy Tuesday signing ceremony, the Senate’s cleanup work this week on health care is looking more like a political strategy session, as each party tries to cement public impressions of the bill. “It’s going to pass here,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said matter-of-factly. “It’s a matter of what amendments [Democrats] want to be for and what they’re not.” To be sure, Republicans have lined up a bundle of politically embarrassing amendments and plan to wreak all sorts of procedural havoc.    No one ever died of embarrassment. Let's get on with it. “I think there’s going to be long nights, and there’s going to be anger and demagoguery from the Republicans,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “But I think the outcome is pretty clear.” So at this point, Republicans are simply going to continue with their key themes: that the new law will drastically cut Medicare, increase taxes and expand the government’s ballooning budget deficit. And as Democrats try to downplay the bill as mere “fixes” to the law and vow to kill all GOP amendments, Republicans are inflating the measure’s importance by arguing it would make even more draconian changes to the newly enacted law. Republicans are challenging several provisions with the Senate’s parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, on the grounds that they violate the so-called Byrd rule — named after Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) — which prohibits the addition of extraneous items to budget legislation. Republicans are also pushing uncomfortable amendments, including one by Coburn that prohibits sex offenders from being prescribed drugs for erectile dysfunction. And Republicans are planning unusual procedural tricks to ensure their objections are heard; the GOP on Tuesday forced committee work in the Senate to essentially come to a halt. In other words, they've started their disinformation campaign for November. But even if the GOP is successful in delaying action in the Senate and forcing changes to the bill, House Democratic leaders may bring the chamber back to session during the upcoming spring recess to pass the reconciliation bill one last time. And that fact is not lost on some. “Obviously, the damage has been done,” said New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, who is leading the fight over the reconciliation bill. “But we have not had an opportunity to address some of the substantive policy questions which are out there that should be discussed in an amendment-type atmosphere.” Since they began the health care debate last year, Democrats had kept the reconciliation process — a filibuster-proof way to make changes in tax laws and entitlement programs — firmly on the table. Nearly every time the strategy came to the fore, Republicans likened the idea to the “nuclear option” that nearly shut down the Senate in 2005, when the GOP tried to end filibusters for George W. Bush’s judicial nominees. Gregg said the nuclear option was being referred to in the context of moving the whole health care bill through reconciliation — rather than the smaller set of items now being considered. “This bill was used to buy votes; it’s a much smaller bill,” Gregg said. In fact, it was House Democrats who pushed for the reconciliation bill to clean up some of the more politically problematic provisions in the Senate bill, including closing the doughnut hole on Medicare prescription drug coverage, delaying an excise tax on high-end insurance plans and killing the so-called Cornhusker Kickback. The Senate bill also includes a sweeping rewrite of student loan laws that most Republicans strongly oppose. Democrats, feeling confident, are making fun of Senate Republicans for actually holding up the bill that removes some of the most controversial items. “I don’t understand what they’re doing, because they’re all going to be for supporting the Nebraska cornhusker provision and will be voting against all the things this bill cleans up,” Brown said. There is one potential area that could blow up the debate. If Vice President Joe Biden uses his authority to overrule a decision by parliamentarian Frumin, it could cause chaos in the chamber because that is so rarely done. “They would be very loath to do that because it would clearly be a political act,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). “And the Democrats have already said they’re going to abide by the parliamentarian, which means they must have some confidence that whatever they said is going to work out their way.” Democrats downplay the likelihood of such a scenario, and Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), declined to comment on the possibility. Republicans aren’t sparing Frumin, who is supposed to be an impartial referee on Senate procedure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to say Tuesday whether he believes the parliamentarian has been a fair arbiter of the Senate rules. “We’ll have views about that, I suppose, as we move along,” McConnell said Tuesday. “We’ll see what the parliamentarian rules and whether he becomes a player in this exercise or truly a referee, an umpire.” The theatrics may go beyond rhetoric as well. Republicans could go to lengths to keep the Senate in session by trying to extend the freewheeling amendment process indefinitely — even though Democrats said they may push Frumin to rule such a tactic dilatory and prevent them from doing that. “Realistically, I think the answer to that question is how long can senators stay awake continuously,” said Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “We may see.” But most Senate insiders don’t think the GOP will go to such lengths, as the real battle is now on the campaign trail. “I’m not sure the public really differentiates between the [comprehensive] bill and the reconciliation bill,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “It’s all part of the machinations; it’s part of the process here.”

© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLC

Let The Sun Shine In......

WASHINGTON — Americans by 9 percentage points have a favorable view of the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, a notable turnaround from surveys before the vote that showed a plurality against it.

By 49%-40% those surveyed say it was "a good thing" rather than a bad one that Congress passed the bill. Half describe their reaction in positive terms, as "enthusiastic" or "pleased," while about four in 10 describe it in negative ways, as "disappointed" or "angry."

The largest single group, 48%, calls the bill "a good first step" that should be followed by more action on health care. An additional 4% also have a favorable view, saying the bill makes the most important changes needed in the nation's health care system.

 

LAWSUITS: 13 AGs sue over health bill

 

HEALTH BILL: How six groups will be affected

 

BUSINESS: Employers unclear on impact

To be sure, the nation remains divided about the massive legislation that narrowly passed the House late Sunday and was signed by Obama in an emotional East Room ceremony Tuesday morning. The Senate began debate Tuesday afternoon on a package of "fixes" demanded by the House.

The findings are encouraging for the White House and congressional Democrats, who get higher ratings than congressional Republicans for their work on the issue. The poll shows receptive terrain as the White House and advocacy groups launch efforts to sell the plan, including a trip by Obama to Iowa on Thursday.

No one gets overwhelmingly positive ratings on the issue, but Obama fares the best: 46% say his work has been excellent or good; 31% call it poor. Congressional Democrats get an even split: 32% call their efforts good or excellent; 33% poor.

The standing of congressional Republicans is more negative. While 26% rate their work on health care as good or excellent, a larger group, 34%, say it has been poor.

For more results and a look at the demographic breakdown of the poll findings, see Wednesday's USA TODAY.

You might be interested in:

• Obama invites Republicans to health care talks (USATODAY.com in News)
• Sunday's best: The big health care vote (USATODAY.com )
• Health care bill heads for showdown (USATODAY.com in News)
• Obama: Republican health care ideas must meet certain goals (USATODAY.com )

Let The Sun Shine In......