About
The Albany Project seeks to return New York State Government to its rightful owners - the people.

Getting Started at the Albany Project

New York Blogwire



This belongs to you. Take it back...

Rolling Stone: Scheiderman vs. Obanker

by: Soundpolitic

Fri Aug 26, 2011 at 10:59:58 AM EDT


Has Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi been keeping tabs on our very own Phillip Anderson's  continuing TAP coverage of Attorney General Scheiderman's refusal to cave in to Obama's bank cartel settlement deal?

I would assume both citizen journalists came to it themselves, but the new RS  blog by Taibbi is a welcome addition to the voices bringing this issue up.  I recieved it from former State Senate candidate David Weiss in an e-mail, and I hope this gets more attention.  Fat chance it will break through Very Important Nonstop Hurricane Updates, but I implore you, check out Taibbi's full article if these choice quotes mean anything to you:

Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Deal
::
The idea behind this federally-guided "settlement" is to concentrate and centralize all the legal exposure accrued by this generation of grotesque banker corruption in one place, put one single price tag on it that everyone can live with, and then stuff the details into a titanium canister before shooting it into deep space.

This is all about protecting the banks from future enforcement actions on both the civil and criminal sides. The plan is to provide year-after-year, repeat-offending banks like Bank of America with cost certainty, so that they know exactly how much they'll have to pay in fines (trust me, it will end up being a tiny fraction of what they made off the fraudulent practices) and will also get to know for sure that there are no more criminal investigations in the pipeline.
::
So this deal being cooked up is the ultimate Papal indulgence. By the time that $20 billion (if it even ends up being that high) gets divvied up between all the major players, the broadest and most destructive fraud scheme in American history, one that makes the S&L crisis look like a cheap liquor store holdup, will be safely reduced to a single painful but eminently survivable one-time line item for all the major perpetrators.
::
Why? My theory is that the Obama administration is trying to secure its 2012 campaign war chest with this settlement deal. If Barry can make this foreclosure thing go away for the banks, you can bet he'll win the contributions battle against the Republicans next summer.

Which is good for him, I guess. But it seems to me that it might be time to wonder if is this the most disappointing president we've ever had.

Emphasis mine - SP

The same fellow who e-mailed this to me began calling him Obummer a couple years back.  Now, with this, it's worth it to add "Obanker" to the list of worthy aliases attributable to this mockery of a president.

Soundpolitic :: Rolling Stone: Scheiderman vs. Obanker
Tags: , , , , , (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email

Tip Jar & Cross-Post (0.00 / 0)
Tips for Phillip and Matt, who still say it better than I do.

Cross-posted on Soundpolitic on Blogspot.


I am not by any stretch of the imagination defending Obama on this issue (0.00 / 0)
However, I can't help but get annoyed by broad-based attacks on him that dismiss his accomplishments apparently in their entirety.

Yes. He has made several poor choices, and this sad affair would certainly be one of them. But he also has more progressive accomplishments to his name than any President since LBJ.

If you had told me on January 20, 2009 that Obama would accomplish providing health insurance to 30 million Americans, increasing auto-efficiency standards, ending Don't Ask Don't Tell, Lily Ledbetter, banning recissions, banning discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, limiting derivatives trading, funding embryonic stem cell research, expanding S-CHIP, the Matthew Shephard Protection Act, New START, the Zadgroda bill, Credit Card reform, and killing Osama bin Laden, I would have been very happy with that.  And there's a lot more he's done, too: http://whattheheckhasobamadone...

Sorry if this is a bit of a tangent from the original subject, as I really am annoyed with him on THIS particular issue. However, I think it's important to look at the forest through the trees, even if some of the trees are pretty ugly.  


Back up a step (4.00 / 1)
President Obama should not get credit for all of this.

Some, such as "limiting derivatives trading," was far less than we needed (so, for that matter, was the "stimulus," which is part of why we're still in an economic rut).

Most of the rest was passed without his help, or would have passed with any Democratic President and Democratic Congress. About the only stuff he can claim any credit for getting done is killing Osama bin Laden and some progress in the healthcare insurance field. And in the latter we have no way of knowing how much more he could have accomplished if he had only tried; instead, he gave away an enormous amount before beginning negotiations.

The only reason he might qualify for a nomination as "most disappointing" is that he raised such high hopes during the campaign with his "change you can believe in" mantra. We still have almost as many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan combined as we did when he took office, Guantanamo Bay prison is still open, we're still allowing torture, bankers and brokers are still making a fortune for nothing, and the economy still sucks.

Meanwhile, the tea party and its backers are gaining strength every day. That, while being change I can believe in, is not the kind of change I voted for.


[ Parent ]
Why shouldn't Obama get credit for this? (0.00 / 0)
Yes, they are what we would have wanted and expected out of a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress....but wasn't that the point of electing them to begin with?

If they're elected to do things, and they do them, they should get credit for that.  


[ Parent ]
Because (4.00 / 1)
Would the things for which I'm not giving President Obama credit have happened if we had a President Clinton or President Biden? You betcha! That's why I'm not giving President Obama credit.

Eric Schneiderman knows what he stands for and why, and he has made that clear to all who have watched and listened to him over the years. Even better, he follows his value system into whatever office he gets. Would the same could be said of Barack Obama -- or, for that matter, of Andrew Cuomo!


[ Parent ]
But that doesn't make sense. (0.00 / 0)
Most Democrats agree on most things.

Yes, Obama has done a lot of things you would want a Democrat to do. But isn't that the point of electing him to begin with? If he's accomplished progressive goals, why shouldn't he get credit for it?  Because you would expect other Democrats to do the same? I really don't follow the logic at all.  


[ Parent ]
It's not the fights you lose (4.00 / 2)
It's the ones you don't suit up for.

Who is leading the pushback against budget cuts?
What will happen to the children deprived of education, the elderly deprived of services, etc.?
When will we see a plan to create new jobs?
Where is the desperately needed followup to ARRA?
Why settle with banks, allowing them to get away with so much?
How are we going to recover from the Great Recession?

President Obama is nowhere on these issues, and others, such as closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, actually ending torture (excuse me, "enhanced interrogation"), pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq, restoring civil rights -- in part by allowing most of the so-called "USA PATRIOT Act" to expire -- the list goes on and on.

What's worse, Obama is taking our votes for granted. He is showing no sign of any willingness to take on the teabaggers on anything. He is supposed to be a leader; it's long past time for him to show some serious leadership.

Back in 2006 Howard Dean said that we must first elect Democrats and then elect good Democrats. Well, we managed the first part; now it's time to work on Part II.

Eric Schneiderman for President? Maybe not yet, but we need someone in the White House who will stand up for the right things.


[ Parent ]
Part Two... (0.00 / 0)
...has been tried.  And it's not working.

I won't disagree with anything else you said except that point.  You're absolutely right that any other Democrat would have gotten those little things done.

Thing is, they only do that to keep us voting for Democrats.

Democrats don't help, man.  They are one half of a one-party system in this country.  "More and better Democrats" sure sounds good, but it's gotten too old for me.  I know too much now about how things really work.

There is no Democratic Party.  There is no Republican Party.  It is a false dichotomy both "parties" use to simply stay in power and keep capitalism running smoothly for their own purposes and the purposes of their corporate donors.

There is only a Democratic-Republican Capitalist Party in Washington and all 50 states right now.  There is one exception in the U.S. Senate.  That's where building a new party should start.

That's why I used such strong criticism of the President.  As far as I'm concerned, getting him elected was a good thing because of what he looks like.  But after that, he's just as bad as all the rest of them.  He's concerned with staying in power and doing that in a capitalist country means maintaining the destructive status quo.

I highly encourage all readers of this site to check out the World Socialist Website.  The news there is very close to what the news is here, but is grounded in a far superior philosophy: Marxism.  Part three, if you will.


[ Parent ]
At the very least.... (4.00 / 1)
.... I am willing to say that Schneiderman is the real deal and I am proud to have supported him.

Other than that, I just am not saying.


The federal government *can't* stop this. (0.00 / 0)
The foreclosure fraud scandals, the root of the banking crimes, are a matter of massive, rampant violation of state laws.  Laws based on 700 years of real property law dating back to England.

There is no "settlement" which can stop judges in state courts from following their own state laws.  There is no "settlement" which can stop individual homeowners and investors from filing suit to get their rights, and there is no "settlement" which can stop the local county clerks from filing suit for the same violations of law (which deprived them of recording fees).

It will be hard even to do so at the state level (as the villainous Rick Scott is trying to do), because it involves throwing away the entire rules of evidence used by the court system, as well as the entire basis of real property law.  And without that, why should anyone respect "ownership" of land, or the "court" system?


The Albany Project

Please take my Blog Reader Project survey.

Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?


Search




Advanced Search


NY blogs

Politics

Adirondack Almanack
Buffalo Geek
Buffalo Pundit
Capitol Confidential
Daily Gotham
Daily Politics
DMI Blog
DragonFlyEye
Empire Page
Empire Zone
Gothamist
Gotham Gazette
Group News Blog
Jason Gooljar
Left of the Hudson
Living In Dryden
Lost In The Ozone
McHugh Watch
Nassau GOP Watch
Planet Albany
Politicker NY
Politics on the Hudson
Reform NY
Rochester Turning
Room 8
Simply Left Behind
Take19
The Community Alliance

Think Tanks

Brennan Center for Justice
Citizens Budget Commission
Citizens Union
Drum Major Institute
Fiscal Policy Institute
New Democracy Project
Progressive States

Organizations

Citizen Action
Citizens for Better Government in New York
Common Cause
New York Citizens for Clean Elections
Progressive States Network
>
National Blogs

Politics

AmericaBlog
Crooks and Liars
DailyKos
Digby
Eschaton
Firedoglake
MyDD
Political Cortex
Senate Guru
Skippy
Swing State Project
Talk Left
Talking Points Memo
The Right's Field

LBAN Network

Agonist
All Spin Zone
AlterNet
AMERICAblog
American Street
ArchPundit
BAGNewsnotes
BartCop
Big Head DC
Blogging of the Pres
BlogACTIVE
Bluegrass Report
Bluegrass Roots
Blue Indiana
BlueJersey
Blue Mass. Group
BlueOregon
BlueNC
Bob Geiger
Booman
BRAD Blog
Brendan Calling
Buckeye State Blog
Burnt Orange Report
Calitics
Capitol Annex
Carpetbagger Report
Chris Floyd
Clay Cane
Cliff Schecter
Comments from Left Field
Confined Space
Corrente
Cotton Mouth
Crooks and Liars
culture kitchen
Cursor
Daily Gotham
Daily Kos
David Corn
Democrats.com
Dem Bloggers
Deride and Conquer
Democratic Underground
Digby
DovBear
Drudge Retort
Ed Cone
ePluribus Media
Eschaton
Ezra Klein
Feministe
Feministing
Firedoglake
Fired Up
First Draft
Frameshop
Greatscat!
Green Mountain Daily
Greg Palast
Hoffmania
Horse's Ass
Hughes for America
In Search of Utopia
Is That Legal?
Jesus' General
Jon Swift
Juan Cole
Keystone Politics
Kick!
KnoxViews
Las Vegas Gleaner
Latino Pundit
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Left Coaster
Left in the West
Liberal Avenger
Liberal Oasis
Loaded Orygun
Mahablog
Majikthise
Make Them Accountable
Matthew Yglesias
MaxSpeak
Media Girl
Michigan Liberal
Minnesota Campaign Report
Minnesota Monitor
MyDD
My Left Nutmeg
My Left Wing
My Two Sense
Nathan Newman
Needlenose
Nevada Today
News Corpse
News Dissector
Newshoggers
News Hounds
Nitpicker
Oliver Willis
onegoodmove
OpenLeft
PageOneQ
Pam's House Blend
Pandagon
People's Rep. of Seabrook
PinkDome
Politics1
Political Animal
Political Wire
Poor Man Institute
Prairie State Blue
Progressive Historians
Raising Kaine
Raw Story
Reno Discontent
Republic of T
Rhode Island's Future
Rochester Turning
Rocky Mountain Report
Rod 2.0
Rox Populi
Rude Pundit
Sadly, No!
Satirical Political Report
Seeing The Forest
Shakesville
SirotaBlog
SistersTalk
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Slacktivist
Smirking Chimp
SquareState
Suburban Guerrilla
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
Talk Left
Tapped
Taylor Marsh
Tattered Coat
Texas Kaos
The Albany Project
The Blue State
The Democratic Daily
The Hollywood Liberal
The Reaction
The Talent Show
This Modern World
Town Called Dobson
Turn Maine Blue
Uppity Wisconsin
Wampum
War and Piece
WashBlog
Watching the Watchers
West Virginia Blue
Young Philly Politics
Young Turks

Register to Vote: Rock the Vote, powered by Working Assets Wireless

blog radio

Get the albany project in your inbox! Just enter your email address

Delivered by FeedBurner

____________________


Active Users
Currently 0 user(s) logged on.

Powered by: SoapBlox