The Bin Laden Factor

omment: People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

omment: People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

Comment: After 9/11, the US government started rounding up Muslims without cause and without due process of law, like we did to the Japanese Americans in WWII. The Bush administration called it's main internment camp Guantanamo Bay. While there are certainly many guilty terrorists held in Guantanamo, there are also many innocent American citizens who have been held illegally for years without even being charged with any crime. They have been tortured by our government. Some of them have died.

Recently the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration in the matter of Guantanamo Bay. The Supreme Court Justices were NOT on the side of the terrorists. They were on the side of the Geneva Convention, that says you can not torture POWs, and on the side of US laws that state you can not imprison a person without charging them with a crime and bringing them to trial. I'm sure that like most Americans, the Justices who voted against the illegal, immoral doings at Guantanamo didn't feel sympathy for the terrorists. They felt sympathy for the laws of AMERICA, the land of the FREE, where even rat finks get a fair trial.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the Bush administration is busy trying to build a smokescreen to hide the CRIMES they have committed. Those pesky weapons of mass destruction. Just think, the National Debt went up over 6 trillion dollars under Bush. More than 2 TRILLION of it went directly into the pockets of Halliburton, a corporation owned by the Cheney family. Halliburton is now a DUBAI corporation and therefore is not subject to US taxes. All that money they took out of the US Treasury is going into the coffers of a MUSLIM country.

Did you hear about how the US government is being charged millions for Halliburton deliveries of sand into Iraq from Kuwait? Sand. Like there is a shortage of sand in Iraq? Another contractor shipped sand from Idaho to Iraq at our expense. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses these and other excesses of our current government's out of control spending in Iraq.

Your grandchildren will be working like slaves to pay off this debt, so that the Bushes and Cheneys can live the high life in Dubai.

Yeah, they're patriots, Bush&Co. They wear flag pins. And hide the money they stole from America in Dubai.

And they want me to believe that Obama is a socialist. Right.

In case you think McCain is any different than Bush, watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

Comment: After 9/11, the US government started rounding up Muslims without cause and without due process of law, like we did to the Japanese Americans in WWII. The Bush administration called it's main internment camp Guantanamo Bay. While there are certainly many guilty terrorists held in Guantanamo, there are also many innocent American citizens who have been held illegally for years without even being charged with any crime. They have been tortured by our government. Some of them have died.

Recently the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration in the matter of Guantanamo Bay. The Supreme Court Justices were NOT on the side of the terrorists. They were on the side of the Geneva Convention, that says you can not torture POWs, and on the side of US laws that state you can not imprison a person without charging them with a crime and bringing them to trial. I'm sure that like most Americans, the Justices who voted against the illegal, immoral doings at Guantanamo didn't feel sympathy for the terrorists. They felt sympathy for the laws of AMERICA, the land of the FREE, where even rat finks get a fair trial.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the Bush administration is busy trying to build a smokescreen to hide the CRIMES they have committed. Those pesky weapons of mass destruction. Just think, the National Debt went up over 6 trillion dollars under Bush. More than 2 TRILLION of it went directly into the pockets of Halliburton, a corporation owned by the Cheney family. Halliburton is now a DUBAI corporation and therefore is not subject to US taxes. All that money they took out of the US Treasury is going into the coffers of a MUSLIM country.

Did you hear about how the US government is being charged millions for Halliburton deliveries of sand into Iraq from Kuwait? Sand. Like there is a shortage of sand in Iraq? Another contractor shipped sand from Idaho to Iraq at our expense. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses these and other excesses of our current government's out of control spending in Iraq.

Your grandchildren will be working like slaves to pay off this debt, so that the Bushes and Cheneys can live the high life in Dubai.

Yeah, they're patriots, Bush&Co. They wear flag pins. And hide the money they stole from America in Dubai.

And they want me to believe that Obama is a socialist. Right.

In case you think McCain is any different than Bush, watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

Lets see he could get on his cell and call the man that sponsored him into Harvard law and say hey can you call your cilent the Saudi Royal Family and tell them to tell their cousin Bin Laden to back off and oh I still promise we won't drill so you guys can keep getting all the money because we won't have alternaives for like 20 years.

Bin laden does not exisit. Athe behest of Bush Musharraf of Pakistan produced Laden look alike and taped the message from Pakistan for which Mush got billions and unchecked power over his government. US citizens should atleast wake up now if they claim to be citizens of such woderful nation.

Obama supporter here. One of the reasons that I really support Obama for president, is his steady hand. I've watched him closely since the New Hampshire primary. That's when I tuned in to Obama. That speech he gave, which is the basis of the Will I am Video, Yes I Can sealed the deal with me. What I saw in him, was someone I could trust and take at their word. What I saw, was a man who felt reassuring. I believed him when he said, I won't be a perfect President. I am not a perfect man. I will make mistakes. But my promise to you is that I will always tell you the truth. I won't tell you what you want to hear, but I promise to tell you what you need to here. That sentiment has been sorely lacking in the McCain campaign. There is something very reasuring about Obama's character. There is an honesty in deep in his soul. There is an essential goodness in him. That is what I'm voting for. I don't want another president who I can't believe in. I don't like what I see in McCain. He has sold out his integrity for the white house. McCain once said that he would not want to take the low road to reach the highest office of the land. Well? We all know that every expert in foreign relations and our intelligence gathering aparatus say that its not a matter of if another terrorist attack will hit us, but a question of when. I want Barack Obama to be at the helm if and or when it does. I believe he will be a level headed, strong man. Doing the right thing. He isn't someone who is given to cowboy diplomacy. He is so calm in the middle of a crisis. He is level headed. He is unafraid of criticism, and he listens. He really listens to his supporters. Ever watch an Obama Town hall? He just talks to people, not at them. He really takes time with everyone. He tries to answer ever question. He's respectful of the media, but he also has built relationships with them. My prayers are with him and his grandmother. Please God, help him have peace, and help his grandma to rally her strength in order to see her grandson take the oath for the highest office of the land. I ask this in the name of your loving son Jesus, Amen.

Oh and God, if your listening, could you please get these two candidates talking together about how to make this country better instead of at eachother or against eachother. If they really want to prove that they can reach across the aisle. Maybe these two campaigns can give a joint message of hope to this country that really needs it right now. I love my Republican friends. I love you all, but you really should try Democrat. It feels really good.

Osama ben laden and Al Qeada is a spent force. The only threat he can muster is his videos which will typically contain threats of attacks to come, hateful rantings, fear-mongering chants, etc.etc.

Wht's new about that???.He has been ranting like Bush for the last eight years about terrorist attacks but is impotent to carry any according to most experts!!!.

Therefore, our worst enemy is our own fear. All we have to do is announce to the would be terrorists and the countries sponsoring these terrorists, like Pkistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.Any terrorist attack. we nuke and obliterate your nations/countries, period.BALANCE OF TERROR KEPT COMMUNISM AT BAY AND IT WILL KEEP THESE UNWASHED ARABS/ISLAMIC JIHADISTS AT BAY!!!.

Enter Your Comment

First and foremost, if we expect an October surprise then it won't be a surprise at all, if we been expecting it. Therefore, like any animal facing a serious threat to its survival, the natural law of self-survival dictates we prepare for any eventuality and make clear we retialate with massive force; meaning we nuke who ever dare threaten or attack us!!!.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA WOULD INVITE OSAMA BIN LADEN INTO THE WHITE HOUSE GEORGE WASHINGTON ROOM AND EXCHANGE JIHAD STORIES TOGETHER....SINCE THEY'RE BOTH MUSLIM.

JESUS CHRIST, JUST GET ON WITH THIS ELECTION. HAVEN'T AMERICANS ALLOWED OSAMA BIN LADEN ENOUGH ? I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF BIN LADEN.

So if Osma bin Laden suddenly makes an appearance then we should figure the election will go to John McCain? What - after he's wasted an entire campaign with negative ads, dirty politics, an attack dog for a running mate (who still doesn't know the duties of VP), who incites hatred, racial and ethnic slurs. Oh yeah, and don't forget John McCain knows how to win the war in Iraq and evidentally knows where Osama bin Landen is hiding. Give us a break. John McCain is nothing but a war monger and with George W and the mess he's made in the past eight years, Iraqi war and the trillions spent there - like we should elect another Republican. Don't throw this kind of scare out here - we have enough really scary things to worry about like the economy, losing our retirement savings, health care, educating our children and keeping our homes. Another scary thought - Sarah Palin - being in charge of anything.