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Russ Feingold Votes With His Conscience, Against The "Regulation" Farce, And Denies Passage Of The Frank-Dodd Fin-Reg Mutant Love Child
In 1999, only 8 senators voted Nay on the Glass Steagall-repealing proposition S.900, better known as the Gramm Leach Bliley, that nearly destroyed the financial system as we know it and elevated moral hazard to the pedestal of supreme American communist-capitalism. Out of the 100 corrupt statesmen 11 years ago, these are the only 8 people who deserve to be in the Senate currently (where, oddly, we find such Yay-voters as Carl Levin who recently was browbeating Goldman Sachs for doing precisely what his legislation allowed it to do). One of the 8 was Senator Russ Feingold. Tonight, the Senator once again has the guts to stand up against the latest and greatest failure of a "reform" bill - the mutated and malevolent Frank-Dodd love child known as the Fin Reg "reform" which is nothing but a farce with lipstick on it. Reuters reports that Feingold "said on Monday that he will not vote to advance the
financial-reform bill." With this decision the senator is denying "his fellow Democrats the 60th vote they
need to clear a final hurdle in Congress."
"My test for the financial regulatory reform bill
is whether it will prevent another crisis," Feingold said in a prepared
statement. The bill "fails that test and for that reason I will not
vote to advance it."
Senator, we salute you for standing up for what is right.
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Feingold also voted against the Wall Street bailout in 2008. As far as I am concerned, he's a hero. I guess there aren't any big banks in Wisconsin trying to buy his vote. Now if we could only get 59 more senators not owned by the banks, we could get some REAL financial reform.
And the Patriot Act I believe.
Bravo! Unless the Regulatory Reform Bill (Which is Neither) Changes the Wall Street Business Model, it is Naught But Pablum and Sophistry. Good on Ya', Sir.
Thank you, Sen. Feingold, from a paleo-conservative.
It is unfortunate that going against party lines to vote for what you believe is best for the country is so praised in today's "us vs. them" political world, but nonetheless, I also praise you Senator Feingold for voting against this baseless piece of crap bill. Of course, if the Republicans would do the same and actually try to help this country rather than simply doing whatever is anti-Obama, maybe we could actually get somewhere. Unfortunately, the Republican representatives (as well as most democrats) are spineless vote-chasing pussies who don't give a crap about this country's future and would rather please the minority of their consituent who pay the largest amount of their budget. Ugh, sorry to rant... Time to organize protests, block the city streets and create some chaos.
If only Bill Gates would help establish a third party that had the financial backing to compete with the two monopoly parties maybe we could actually get somewhere with this country...whatcha say Mr. Gates?
*channels the voice of Bill Gates*
I say that I'm too busy playing with my giant Voltron like robot on my island to care about your stupid political parties.
Besides... didn't you investigate me for anti-trust violations in the 1990s for doing a fraction of what Apple is currently doing?
Screw your politics. I'm rich biatch!
I'm too busy distributing Monsanto into Africa so we can terminate both the seeds and the people at the same time and then Warren and I can exploit the hell out of the whole continent.
Next up Windows 666.
Let them all fail,
"If only Bill Gates would help establish a third party that had the financial backing to compete with the two monopoly parties maybe we could actually get somewhere with this country...whatcha say Mr. Gates?"
He's in bed with the CREW in power......typical,uber rich SOB, that when "I GOT MINE CLUB", it's time to play Philanthropist,and spend some of your $, and LOT's of other folks money.He & SOROS are in bed w/ "O".
I salute this man. The Obamacrats are a farce of epic distortions.
Every Dog...:
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/06/their-masters-voice.html
As opposed to the party that shit on the constitution for eight years, got us into two wars that nobody wants, and drove the economy from prosperous to depression?
Funny the Rethuglicans care about deficits now that the money might help Americans, instead of build schools in Iraq.
They had no problem borrowing money to help Iraqis get an education.
Fuck the people that they hurt with their economic policies though.
Johnny,
They may have shit on it 8yrs, but that beats a LIFETIME achievement Award to the Progressives."O", was going to get rid of the Patriot Act, sure he did...........Patriot of what country?.
Majority of Dems are Spawn of Hell.
Now comes the relevant question: What will be the price of changing Feingold's (or some other twisted Republican's) vote to "YEA"???
A one way airplane ride? Like Wellstone?
one wonders.
Would that plane be headed towards the Katyn Forest.
It took a day, but... Scott Brown to the rescue. We can't have the pesky bank tax in that heap of 2,456 pages of rotting crapola.
By the way, Russ Feingold lives.
Nice finally one of my senators votes right for a change.
well played senator, well played.
The current crop of the Berkeley mafia salute senator Feingold.
Kleptocrats caught in the act of being themselves!!!!...:-)
That fucking fuck Naomi and her fucking fucked up attempt to fucking equate Chicago & Berkeley... and the absurd fucking suggestion that I will be a fucking part of the fucking shock that will spawn a fucking new paradigm. I am THE fuckingist fuck that wheels & deals and can be the only catalyst behind the coming fucking crisis and its solution, you fucking fucked up motherfuckers !!!
- Love Rahm :-[~
P.S. Don't fucking pay any attention to the fucking history of Berkeley in Indonesia. Fuckin' Ford Foundation! I am the only fuckin' change you need to believe in!!! (So, what's with you waving that pinky finger at me Sqworl while Miles is nodding his head in agreement with you.. and what the fuck is with that fucking secret pinky hand shake anyway?) - Rahm
lol..I cannot foching believe it...lol
HAHAHAHHAA!!!
Miles, you sound just like the Ballet Dancer............LOL
This is more my speed... after learning how to dance while on the receiving end of what your avatar is seeking to deliver.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_0wPYFp9A
Too bad the Rahmster can't dance, sing, paint, sculpt, write, truly instigate or simply converse in either the verbal or nonverbal forms of modern communications...
FinReg on = Bank stocks rally Friday
FinReg off = Bank stocks rally Tuesday
Yup. Heads we win, tails you lose.
That's exactly why I unloaded my SP500 short positions heading into last weekend. Any news regarding fin-reg will equal good news to SKYNET. I'll be back later this week or next, though. Too tempting to not short at these extremely high (and artificially produced via SKYNET) valuations...
not a good time to close out your shorts homer. this is just getting started
Hedge,
You got that right, that SOB is going down like the Titanic soon,hard,and fast.
The easiest way to address TBTF is to raise the reserve requirements on a sliding scale the larger the institution. Of course the large institutions would squeal like stuck squids. I would also apply this to all government operations. I am still steaming that Fannie and Freddie ran 50:1 leverage and Bawney Fwank ran interference for them.
Pro, while I concur heartily, raising reserve requirements, lowering gearing ratios, they're too easy, too direct and do not require hearings, consultations, visits, fact finding missions, testimony or campaign contributions and the like.
Viz, every single tool needed to have averted the Great Crisis was already in place prior thereto, but simply unused.
Let us all, go figure.
Yes there are a few good men!!!
Bless his heart! This is probably the first time in the man's career I've agreed with him and I doff my hat in my new-found respect. Well done, sir. Well done.
I'm pretty much with you on this. I've never much liked the guy but I'll take a lefty with *some* integrity over the Dodd/Frank sorts who really only love power.
Yeah, sure.
Anyone recall McCain/Feingold bill that eliminates me or you from publishing the voting records of congreff in the 60 days prior to the "election"?
Feingold is a statist of the priesthood. Luckily for him his Republican party opponents are even bigger statists for the war machine.
It isn't a hero that vomits on this bill.
We need a four or six year break from any fedgoomint. After a break from worrying about just how they are going to gut us we will have a collectively clearer mind in order to weigh these usurpations.
And you were doing what, exaclty, when the (UN)PATRIOT ACT was being deliberated? The one in which Feingold was the only senator voting against it?
My Senator, Wellstone, would have voted against it, but unfortunately he died. I've adopted Russ as my senator and might sneak over to Wisconsin to vote for him. Franken has disappointed me on several votes. Klobuchar seems to be playing the game.
I would give Senator Feingold a salute and free drinks on the house.
"that nearly destroyed the financial system as we know it and elevated moral hazard to the pedestal of supreme American communist-capitalism..." Oh yeah - THAT'S what did it! Why don't you turn your anger on those who passed the TARP?? That's the vote that "elevated moral hazard!"
See, if I go bankrupt from gambling, but the government keeps paying my debts - it isn't the politician who didn't prevent me from gambling that is to blame, it's the one who keeps bailing me out.
But I agree with you regarding Feingold. "Nay" on TARP - well done.
Unless someone in the Aughties had a time machine, TARP isn't responsible for the housing bubble.
Okay... and...?
Gramm Leach Bliley was.
You know, named after Phil Gramm?
You know, McCain's economic advisor?
You know, the Rethuglicans?
And Larry Summers (Clinton's treasury secretary; oh yeah, Clinton the "democrat" who also pushed through NAFTA) had nothing to do with it? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/larry-summers-brilliant...) Yeah, That Larry Summers, the one who is whispering in Obama's ear.
Party loyalty causes blindness...
Yes. I don't understand why people feel so emotionally involved with their parties. Both parties have lied to their constituents and both are responsible for today's state of affairs. For example, people like to blame the Republicans for TARP, but the roll call vote was Yeas (172 D, 91 R) and Nays (63 D, 108 R). Bush was responsible for signing it, rather than vetoing it, but the Democrats are the ones who pushed this bill through to passage. Also, the seeds of this financial crisis were sewn when Andrew Cuomo was the HUD Secretary, so even though it blew up under Republican watch, the Democrats had their hands in it.
Johnny Bravo and the rest need to wake up and stop with the name calling. Their emotional reactions only show that they are unable to accept the failings of their own party. Hence, the need to lash out at the other "side". Both parties are responsible as are we for taking our politicians at their word rather than watching closely to make sure they follow up with their votes and for failing to remove them when they violate our Constituional rights.
We need to elect people who will be true to their oaths of office to uphold the Constitution -- no matter their party. We need to look at the individual candidates and their positions on the issues, not just the party. We also need to be vigilant and do our civic duty to ensure that our "representatives" follow up their campaign promises with their votes. If they vote in accordance with special interests rather than with the Constitution, they must go. Don't let them pit us against each other. United we stand, divided we fall.
Well said LauraB.
sometimes i feel like i'm watching "Star Wars Episode III" as our government hands over "plenty potentiary" powers to the only man "no one really dislikes" named General Petraeus. And to think this was done "because there was no respect for civilian control by the military"!!! The corruption of the Senate is so pervasive its amazing anyone even wishes to be called by the name. will they even have the courage to ask "Caeser" if he has any idea why Karzai and company have loaded 3 billion in actual pallatized cash (according to the WSJ no less!) and sent it "to the great beyond"? this whole "supercycle of fraud" is not mere profligacy. it's pornography! and needless to say "it's all about winning the war." this thousand page "bank regulation" is the biggest COA ever. it doesn't do anything to stop the fraud.
If the Fed can no longer provide free money to Congress then its role and purpose are finished.
...to Congress and it's financial enabling benefactors...
Exactly how did the repeal of Glass Steagal lead to Goldman's excesses?
IB's like GS were not allowed to use as much leverage as I understand it. The banks went completely nuts after Glass Steagall was repealed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act
In a way, couldn't you argue that the real problem wasn't just the repeal of Glass Steagall but also Greenspan stepping in the year before, in 1998 and making sure that the implosion of Long Term Capital Management didn't hurt the economy more.
The lesson the banksters drew from that was that there was a Too Big to Fail policy at the highest echelons of the gov't and with the freedom to go into new markets plus this implicit get out of moral hazard free card, they, of course, overleveraged themselves.
And the bailout of the S&Ls before that.
Paying taxes is starting to feel like a sucker play, to me.
I concurr, refusing to pay citing 'civil disobedience' will only work if large percentage jump straight on .... you'll get hammered by the system otherwise.
Or.... You could refuse to pay taxes but actually keep the money you owe in a savings account instead so that when they came to collect you'd actually have it. I suspect there may be ulterior motives for this 'civil disobedience.'
I'd be happy to pay the IRS a little late--after the purchasing power plummets via inflation. Withholding is for chumps--smartest thing the socialists ever did.
One can argue that allowing banks to compete with investment banks puts pressure on investment banks to behave even more recklessly.
Allowing the IB portion of the bank to use depository funds created a massive reserve of funds on to pyramid off of. Goldman was one of the direct benefitaries by being a market maker in dervatives. Then when the SHTF, Goldman was made into depository even though they had never functioned a depository (and I think still don't). There's a direct link to the expansion of the dervatives market and the repeal of Glass-Steagel.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JY-rIL8plNM/SNJqgUFUXII/AAAAAAAAALQ/1-lyCN7hhc...
and the moral hazard of FDIC lets them get away with this. But Shiela is bk now--so the "Ad Council" is running PSAs on how no one has lost a penny in FDIC institutions.
- Ned
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) also voting no for the same reason
Need to point out support for bill is waning because of 19bil one time tax that wasn't in orginal bill...they are all buyable
I'll believe Feingold after he has voted no.
Here is a good analysis of the bill: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/rotten_reform_LOEzv2...
Like losing Russ is going to stop them... Listen for their conversation about Byrd:
Rahm: Uh, yeah, sure, no I'd be happy to, yeah you, uh, you you just produce a corpse, and uh, I'll help you get a vote. I wanna see this dead KKK member first hand.
Reid: I'm sorry, Rahm, did you say you wanted to see a body?
Rahm: Yeah, that's right, just, uh, roll his old bones on over here, and I'll dig up your extra vote. You know that's Obama policy.
If they open the casket, my guess is he'll be adorned in his KKK costume.
Feingold is one of the least financially well-off Senators. He is not one who bought (or had his spouse buy) his or her seat, nor is he beholden to any wealthy machine. He has always voted with integrity and principle. Utterly amazing in this day and age.
Change to public-finded elections in the USA and you might start seeing some changes.
A poor (relatively speaking), honest Jew! Good to see there's one such . . .
Take your racist trolling comments over to CNBC.
Grow up! always using the racist word.
Jews aren't the most honest kind of creatures, they are weird and can't adopt to other cultures.
Voila, said it. Am I also a racist now?
Nop, but I do say stuff like that, because I can and want to and because it's true.
creatures, eh?
I wonder how calling people "creatures" isn't racist.
Johnny, what are you doing in a non-gold thread? Trying to prove you're not a troll?
There are many good Jewish people, don't mistake them for Zionists.
wow, way to go Russ! Will have to see if this matters...Its funny, there are many bank lobbyists who HATED this bill, but it may not make it because liberals like Russ don't like it....Talk about an insult to Dodd.
I'm not counting votes yet, but I wonder what this means for Brown, Collins and Olympia? Isn't politics wild?
I saw an article yesterday on CNBC that said Brown was going to vote against the bill.
"Mutant love-child." Good one Tyler. Next time, try "Test tube baby or Aborted fetus."
I am hoping that this bill does in fact die. When does the term, "A clear and present danger" enter into the picture of defining risk to the future of this country? I think a vote for this bill borders on treason.
Tyler, you're one of the funniest (as well as best) writers on the intertubes:
"Frank-Dodd Fin-Reg Mutant Love Child"
He's very popular over here on the interweb, too. When he uses word play such as this, we spiders unwrap a tasty, formented fly and have a very satisfying snack.
America's back. Real man with real balls
Send him a note on his official website thanking him for doing the right thing. If we want these guys to do the right thing more often, we can't just chastise them for doing wrong, we also have to praise them for being right.
That hardens their resolve. Send him a note!
"The bill fails the test"
Massive PR blow for the administration and captured Senators especially coming from a democrat. The veil has been pulled away for all to see and now none can claim nobody spoke out. It also places a huge whole in any presidential attempts to have touted this bill come campaign time. Congratulations Senator because if this bill had passed on July 4th it would have been akin to a reverse declaration of independence and the thought of that was sickening me since it was announced. I hope a few follow me and send kind reassuring words to Feingold's email in support along with a few bullet points of what is needed in the bill.
My Email to the Senator:
Many of your colleagues believe we are naive and foolish and that we will continue to permit banks to becoming incredibly larger while taking 0% interest rates from banks and buying 3% T-bills for free. They also believe we do not know that they caused the May 6th flash crash to influence legislation by threatening the markets unless the Sanders audit was watered down. We are well aware of the manipulation and this is a slap in the face to permit Chris Dodd to lead the writing of this bill who has taken more money from the financial industry, gift loans and the Irish cottage games. Americans want:
* Glass-Steagall return
*Spin off of the derivatives desks now
* Breaking up of these monstrous monopolistic banks.If we can break up Ma Bell we have to break up these monopolies.
* No hedge fund ownership since this allows for the banks to control market directions even more
* Complete Fed Audit
*HFT Algo trading ban
* Ban on ALL naked CDO creations.
*True Volcker rule with no trading with their own money if they want access to Fed window.
Thank you for being courageous. Most Americans wants Glass-Steagall with a vengeance. Only Wall Street is not enduring a depression like the rest of America. They made us broke,took the profits and left us with all the debt and punishment. For this bill to have been signed on July 4th would have broken my heart.I am a 20 something full time student/worker and do not want to wake up to have this nation owned by bankers where politicians are sterilized with donation money. I applaud you and you should appear on the Dylan Ratigan show. He is becoming immensely popular on these issues.
http://feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html
OT: What is with these captcha questions Tyler are they becoming self aware as well?
_times (-38) equals -1330
Just sent one too.
and then the captcha thingie bitches because your answer is > 5 digits (must include the sign in the count). - Ned
I would like to believe that he's voting nay because he really does see it as a farce, then again others have paraded out the "no" vote only because they wished to exact some special financial treatment in exchange for the yes vote.
Let us pray that this is not the case.
Glass-Steagall restricted banks to a conservative approach to the use of the depositors money.
Repeal of it, thru the corrupt Senator Graham, Bliley, leach made it legal for banks to use depositors' money to gamble in Las Vegas.