Aloha Politics

I’m astounded at the behavior of the folks in our United States Senate in allowing rapists, criminals and terrorists to have access to weapons without background checks. They have ignored the bulk of the folks in America. Especially egregious are the Democrats that worked with the Republicans to deny the American people Background checks that work. Heidi Heidekamp is one of those that really didn’t have to vote the way she did since she has 5 years before reelection. This is a caricature of her this week. Each week I am going to try to feature each of those that voted against the checks starting with the Democrats.

Heidi for Criminals?

When Heidi’s office was questioned about “why” she voted the way she did, the response was that she got “so many calls” for those that didn’t want the checks and she “doesn’t believe the polls.” Just like old Mitt. He didn’t believe the polls either.

Joe Scarbourough deserves kudos for the work he and Mika are doing around this issue. Please let them know that you support their efforts for the American People. We deserve to have weapons security in our country.

Without holding a single hearing, Lieberman’s committee wants to pass the “Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act of 2012” which strips the independence of a raft of federal agencies: Everything from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and National Labor Relations Board.

Among its many provisions, the law would require each of the agencies that Congress quite deliberately established as independent to submit all proposed rules to The White House for “vetting” before they could be published. According to a report buried election day afternoon on a back page of Tuesday’s New York Times, the bill would “introduce delays to an already slow process, and would give banks and businesses yet another place to lobby for favorable treatment.”

The Times also notes correctly that bad reviews from The White House would enable industry groups to use an administration’s objections in mounting legal challenges to rules that are eventually put in place.

Lieberman’s bill to defang regulatory agencies has bi-partisan support in the committee – perhaps not entirely surprising given that its Republican members include Tom Coburn, outgoing Senator Scott Brown, John McCain and Rand Paul. But Carl Levin also is a member as is Hawaii’s Daniel Akaka, yet they are supporting the measure even though they should know better.

Go here for the full story: Joe Lieberman’s Parting “F U America!” Shot+

List of the 17 Democrats who voted to hold Holder in contempt
Jason ALTMIRE (D-PA)
John BARROW (D-GA)
Dan BOREN (D-OK)
Leonard BOSWELL (D-IA)
Ben CHANDLER (D-KY)
Mark CRITZ (D-PA)
Joe DONNELLY (D-IN)
Kathy HOCHUL (D-NY)
Ron KIND (D-WI)
Larry KISSELL (D-NC)
Jim MATHESON (D-UT)
Mike McINTYRE (D-NC)
Bill OWENS (D-NY)
Collin PETERSON (D-MN)
Nick RAHALL (D-WV)
Mike ROSS (D-AR)
Tim WALZ (D-MN)

Here are the two Republicans who voted no:

Steven LATOURETTE (R-OH)
Scott RIGELL (R-VA)

Long silent and now contradictory, President Obama needs to deliver a clarifying speech about our financial markets and the rule of law. Speaking in Kansas on December 6, he said, “Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there’s no price for being a repeat offender.” Just five days later on 60 Minutes, he said, “Some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street wasn’t illegal.” Which is it? Have there been no prosecutions because Wall Street acted legally (albeit unethically)? Or did Wall Street repeatedly violate major anti-fraud laws (and should thus find itself in the dock)?

The President is confusing “legal” with “difficult to prosecute successfully.” The Justice Department’s repeated decisions not to risk losing at trial against Wall Street executives don’t make these person’s actions legal. (If a district attorney can’t prove the actual thief stole your wallet, that doesn’t make stealing legal. It simply means that, regrettably, a malefactor goes unpunished.) As Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in Senate testimony in 2009, Wall Street perpetrators “are smart people who understand that they are crossing the line” and “are plotting their defense at the same time they’re committing their crime.”

Moreover, the President is misleading us when he says that Wall Street firms violate anti-fraud law because the penalties are too weak. Repeat financial fraudsters don’t pay relatively paltry — and therefore painless — penalties because of statutory caps on such penalties. Rather, regulatory officials, appointed by Obama, negotiated these comparatively trifling fines. This week, the F.D.I.C. settled a suit against Washington Mutual officials for just $64 million, an amount that will be covered mostly by insurance policies WaMu took out on behalf of executives, who themselves will pay just $400,000. And recently a federal judge rejected the S.E.C.’s latest settlement with Citigroup, an action even the Wall Street Journal called “a rebuke of the cozy relationship between regulators and the regulated that too often leaves justice as an orphan.”

For the full story go here:Obama and the Rule of Law

The President’s action and Congress’s inaction in this matter show that the partisan shadow-boxing that goes on in Washington is just so much kabuki for the cameras. There certainly is no “deep partisan divide” about serving the interests of elites like bankers and the military industrial complex. This matter amply demonstrates the utter failure of our election system to deliver a government that provides real checks and balances to represent the interests of the war-weary and economically damaged American public.

Go here to read the full story: Obama continues Bush’s “State of National Emergency,” Congress Abdicates Legal Responsibilities+

Go here for the full well documented and sad sad sad story!Krugman: “It’s time to start calling the current situation what it is: a depression.”

As I’ve noted in numerous, heavily-annotated posts, the truth of the matter is, today, Wall Street is receiving an EASY $200 billion per year in stealthy/obfuscated taxpayer subsidies.

As Morgenson notes in her closing comments from Sunday, Wall Street fatcats “…are being paid for taking risks that generate lush bonuses when things go well but that require taxpayer bailouts when the tide turns. Main Street understands that this is wrong and that allowing it to continue is dangerous. It’s past time that Washington did something about it.”

As Krugman reminds us, today, our near-term and future well-being relies upon responsible government action, both here and abroad, coming to pass—not just in words but in actions–NOW.

I cannot help but get a sense that we are witnessing a massive historical failure of government, not just nationally, but globally. At then end of the day, compared to the suffering it will bring, it won’t matter who’s to blame.

We are all in this together. It may be the greatest bipartisan sentiment of all. Dare I say it…even a lot of Republicans, and perhaps a few bankers, will understand that.

It is time to TAX THE RICH

It is time to end corporate personhood.

Superfraud

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a turkey!

I thought I had worked out all the worst-case scenarios for the supercommittee (there was never a best-case). But this is even worse than my worst imagining: a deal to undermine key social insurance programs in return for a promise that Congress will come up with a plan for raising revenue at some future date. If you think that promise has any credibility whatsoever – if you have any doubts that the end result would be to gut Social Security and actually cut taxes for the wealthy – I have this Nigerian bank account that can be yours if you send me $100,000 in expenses.

It’s been a dreary couple of years of elections for the good guys, but last night we finally had a really good night.

Union-busting? No thanks.

Voter suppression? No thanks.

Define birth control as murder? No thanks.

Turn the Iowa State Senate over to the GOP? No thanks.

Recall Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the Republican author of his state’s “paper’s please” law? You betcha’.
Go here for the full Story: Elections 2011: A good night for the good guys