Meet the Bloggers: Pitchforks and Congressional Hearings
I just finished taping tomorrow’s edition of Meet the Bloggers, which shows at 1PM ET. John Cusack was on to talk about the DVD release of his movie, War Inc. We talked some about Congressional hearings–both regarding war profiteering and regarding finance companies who use their bailout money to send executives on a boondoggle.
Which got me thinking … There’s been some righteous anger directed at all the fat-cats on Wall Street since the bailout, though less so directed at the folks getting rich off our war of choice in Iraq.
How do we capitalize and focus that righteous anger?
Now that people are so fed up, how do we channel it into a positive application of pitchforks and prevent it from becoming really ugly?
The Pen is mightier than the Sword … lock them up in Pens ! *g*
Cornered rats!
When cornered, rats don’t chew their own legs off, they chew yours off!
See Roosevelt, Franklin Delano.
Use it as stick to beat those corporate Dems into supporting some actual lefty programs. Start with health care, public works infrastructure, and real regulation and oversight.
I don’t know but if things get worse in the economy Obama and those Libural democrats are where that anger will be directed.
That may be one reason why it will be important to keep some focus on the various investigations (eg. toruture, domestic spying, firing of US attorneys) that are currently going on.
I think its important to uphold the rule of law, but it might have the side benefit of deflecting some attention from the economy which will likely get worse before it gets better…. regardless of how good a job Obama does.
Seems to me we have a troyka to expose. film documentaries, either in theaters or on TV. Start with Congress as a political class, raking in money from all fronts, the Military/Industrial complex and the Banking/Investment sector. Who better to put a nice bow on this than Michael Moore. I’d contribute a bit. How ’bout you?
Given the GOP’s vision of Hell, exactly how are we supposed to protect them from pitchforks?
Boxturtle (C’mon, it’s either this world or the next))
We have to turn the neocon meme about government around — we just have to. Even in my mild-tempered country, where people are onside with all kinds of liberal programs, they respond like Pavlov’s dog to the rhetoric that casts government or public works or publicly funded anything as the enemy. And that rhetoric at the moment is coming from the government itself.
As part of an overall good government theme, a type of Truman Commission focussed on the Merchants of Death could be a way of both invigorating Congress – Obama though in picking a fight with the military would have to be careful he doesn’t get smeared as Bill Clinton did early by Colin Powell et al in the gays in the military dustup.
DOW down 678 on closing. 7.33% Worst ever.
Down 7 days in a row posting a 21% decline in that period.
If this is a confident market then frankly I’d rather not contemplate the alternative.
EW,
I think we need to lobby Congress to be more pro-active. Congress is supposed to look forward as well as backward. Perhaps there should be a new committee that is charged solely with identifying crisis warning signs anywhere, such as the current economic collapse, which should have been preventable. But this should have been done by existing committees– and by the relevant Executive Offices.
Unfortunately, the arguments are all too predictable. Any committee oversight on financial services that might have seen the looming disaster would first have been ridiculed for “Chicken Little” posturing, and any Democratic attempts to re-regulate would have been barraged with a chorus of accusations of tying up the banks with “red tape.”
You are calling into question some deep institutional issues here that need to be examined!
Bob in HI
I don’t think the repuglitards are gonna get much traction blaming the democrats for the economy
by this time next week we ain’t gonna HAVE an economy
Maybe this group can help out…
http://www.jacksonfreepress.co…..ay_092608/
and from the Yahoo news item which I can’t find now..
“Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus.”
Tonight, markets around the world will puke. Then it’s our turn tomorrow… Black Friday:
When Black Friday comes
I’ll stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I’ll collect everything I’m owed
And before my friends find out
I’ll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it’s got to be
Don’t let it fall on me
When Black Friday comes
I’ll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I’ll be on that hill
You know I will
When Black Friday comes
I’m gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it ’til
I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop’s gonna sanctify me
And if he don’t come across
I’m gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes
I’m gonna stake my claim
I’ll guess I’ll change my name
OT: I assume EW is on this:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…..ort_to.php
Probably OT, and if so then please forgive – NRCC gets $8m loan from Wachovia while the US-backed Citi takeover bid is still on the table. Wotta stinker.
There was some stuff about Wachovia and the NRCC accounts earlier this year. Funny business with funds and stuff, IIRC.
Thought about ew when I saw this one.
Citi is filing a $60 billion tortious interference claim against Wells and Walkoverya. They’ll make more profit on the settlement than they would have on the deal.
Huh. Litigation as revenue center. Dangerous direction there.
Maybe not the best thing Citi could have done. I understand the deal Wells was offering was cash on the barrelhead. (They’re in better shape than some of the bigger guys.)
Seems to me that events are conspiring to aid us in pushing for much higher tax rates at the top of the income scale.
You’ve got the guys who got us into this mess: all Fat Cats;
The guys who benefited from this mess [e.g., Hank Paulson, ex-AIG CEO, selling $18 mill of AIG stock a couple of days after the infusion of Federal cash rescued the stock price from the dumpster]: Fat Cat
The manicures & pedicures: Fat Cats with ugly feet
There’s just no way this end of the income scale can argue for its continued exemption from contributing to society’s well-being by paying taxes.
Go get ‘em.
I’d say that they ought to get their pay and benefits linked to the GDP and the cost of living: if the rest of us get hurt by their actions, they should be hurt also.
Citi is effectively insolvent. Horrible mortgage-related bets.
I wonder what the federal reserve of NY normal procedure is for insuring foreign aid. Evidently the 12.+ BBN USD which the oversight committee complained about to Bremer and IG S.Bowen during the week of February 6, 2007 at hearings, was airlifted in bundles of 4,000 hundred-dollar bills = $400,000./bundle, aggregated in pallets, shipped regularly until the entire currency shipment was completed to the provisional authority, whose website now seems to be taken offline. The committee materials I found appear to indicate volumes of evidentiary materials scrutinized. Here is Waxman’s pre-hearing document distributed as background.