60 Minutes let us know last night another way our Congress Critters game the system — they run an insider trading racket. They write the laws and make sure they’re not subject to them. They’re as guilty as all the people who have been convicted, but they wrote in their own protection and hence are above the laws.
In the Spring of 2010, a bespectacled, middle-aged policy wonk named Peter Schweizer fired up his laptop and began a months-long odyssey into a forbidding maze of public databases, hunting for the financial secrets of Washington’s most powerful politicians. Schweizer had been struck by the fact that members of Congress are free to buy and sell stocks in companies whose fate can be profoundly influenced, or even determined, by Washington policy, and he wondered, do these ultimate insiders act on what they know? Yes, Schweizer found, they certainly seem to. Schweizer’s research revealed that some of Congress’s most prominent members are in a position to routinely engage in what amounts to a legal form of insider trading, profiting from investment activity that, he says, “would send the rest of us to prison.”
Boehner’s defense is that he does not personally make the stock trades. But I noticed Boehner never said that it is not true that he benefits from such stock trades.
Then we have Nancy Pelosi (which I personally like) that seemed to get very defensive when asked about her trades – and then pressed to know the details of any of these trades.
I am disappointed in both of these – especially Nancy – but am I shocked?
I like Nancy too, and think she is a very influential woman, and the most effective Speaker in my lifetime. I’m thankful every day that Boehner isn’t as effective at his job as Nancy was in that same position.
But obviously greed knows no bounds, and Nancy has benefitted from being above the law.
This revelation of congress critters inside trading convinces me —
Wall Street is the correct place for the occupiers. Some have suggested Congress should be occupied. As long as there is money in elections the congress critters will continue to make laws they don’t have to follow.
Do they have to depend on the same kinds of health care plans average Americans do? No.
Do they have to depend on the same kinds of retirement plans average Americans do? No
Are they subject to the same laws as average Americans? No
It’s because of the money. We already knew the greed of the big banks and corporations crashed our economy, now we know congress critters benefitted from that crash.
Until money is out of elections we won’t have solved these problems. Congress critters must be subject to all laws they write — that would include health care, retirement, investing…
I wonder what Public Relations expert is telling Republicans to push for another war – and especially one with Iran?
Seriously, do these Republicans ever think before they open their mouths and spout such nonsense?
But, hey, I came up with a good way to reduce the unemployment numbers in America.
Let’s ship all those folks who want to go to war with Iran over to Iran (one-way ticket) and drop them off in any desert of their choosing.
With all those fine godly, moral, holier-than-thou Republican Christians ready to kill all Muslims out of the country, there will be plenty of jobs in America for those folks who truly love America.
I can’t understand or find any logic to any one of these ‘wanna-be-pres’ candidates telling us they want to go to war with Iran. But I heard them say it with my own ears. If it’s not true, why would they tell that lie? The majority of Americans want our soldiers home, want to concentrate on our country instead of nation building. So they would be going against the will of the majority of voters from both parties! What’s the payoff for these people to push to go to war with Iran? What good does campaign money do you if you’ve alienated all the voters?
Unfortunately, the GOP’s base is made up of Evangelical Christians and these are the folks that want that war with Iran.
These follks see this as some Holy War and that God has somehow blessed them to go fill as many Muslims as they can.
Then when Israel gets total control of the Middle East, then Jesus will return and all those godly moral holier-than-thou people will get to go to Heaven.
I know, it’s a twisted theory……but we are talking about people who have twisted the Christianity faith into one too many pretzels over the years.
This is the man they count on for their ‘news,’ They believe him. When people start saying the ‘facts’ in his book are wrong won’t they treat that like they do when hearing the ‘facts’ in his news reporting are wrong and blame the messenger? They believe made up ‘facts’ every day!
This is another good read on the economy of today —
THE DELEVERAGING MYTH
..the core problems are weak demand and the fact that our monetary and fiscal policies haven’t done enough to strengthen it. People are simply much less rich than they were—or thought they were. The average American household lost almost twenty-five per cent of its wealth during the crash. And incomes are not rising briskly enough to offset this. In fact, during the past decade median income fell in real terms.
This doesn’t mean that the piles of debt accumulated during the bubble aren’t a serious problem and incredibly onerous to the people who are struggling under them. But it does suggest that dealing with the debt problem, or the housing crisis, is not the panacea for the economy that many have made it out to be, especially as debt-servicing costs are already near a twenty-year low. Indeed, even if you could overcome the political obstacles to wiping out all of homeowners’ negative equity, the impact on consumer spending would be surprisingly small. The important lesson is that, if, after all, consumers aren’t keeping their spending unnaturally low, we can’t look to them to jump-start this recovery, even though they’ve been the engines of recovery in the past. This time around, business, export markets, and, especially, the government need to do what consumers can’t. ♦
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care reform law, the court announced Monday.
Oral arguments will likely be held in late February or March, with a ruling by June.
A key issue to be considered by the high court’s nine justices is whether the “individual mandate” section of the law — requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties — is an improper exercise of federal authority. Various states have argued that if that linchpin provision is found unconstitutional, the entire law will have to be scrapped.
I just heard some man talking about that Penn State scandal and this man blamed Jerry Sandusky (the man charged with molestation) as the one that ruined Penn State.
Uh, excuse me, but there were obviously others at Penn State that knew about this man as far back as 2002 and there seems to have been some sort of cover up.
Just ask the Catholic Church how that cover up of their child molesting priests played out.
I’ve often wondered in cases like this – would this have happened if a woman had been in charge at Penn State? Are women more inclined to take swift action and get rid of the child molester within their midst?
After viewing that video of Herman Cain and his fellow Neanderthals laughing about Anita Hill – I guess Mrs. Cain and I use different definitions of ‘respect’ for women.
More so than the accusations, his actions, like the one you mention with regard to Anita Hill, and that picture of him with the woman where he has his hand in an inappropriate place were the line in the sand for me. He crossed the line! I saw and heard those incidents for myself, there was no ‘he said / they said’ to wonder about. The man isn’t qualified to be an adult human, let alone an adult human in a position of power.
Here is the rest of the story about Pelosi and Boehner and the CBS report on the way Congress Critters apparently do not have to follow the same insider-trading laws the rest of us ‘peasants’ would have to follow.
Interesting little tidbit on Republican Eric Cantor towards the end of this story.
(Reuters) – The European debt crisis is raising the odds of a U.S. recession, with economic contraction more likely than not by early 2012, according to research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.
While it is difficult to gauge the odds precisely, an analysis of leading U.S. economic indicators suggests a rising chance of a recession through the end of the year and into early next year, researchers at the regional Fed bank wrote on Monday. The risk of recession recedes after the second half of 2012, they found.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
60 Minutes let us know last night another way our Congress Critters game the system — they run an insider trading racket. They write the laws and make sure they’re not subject to them. They’re as guilty as all the people who have been convicted, but they wrote in their own protection and hence are above the laws.
If you missed 60 Minutes report —
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/
Boehner’s defense is that he does not personally make the stock trades. But I noticed Boehner never said that it is not true that he benefits from such stock trades.
Then we have Nancy Pelosi (which I personally like) that seemed to get very defensive when asked about her trades – and then pressed to know the details of any of these trades.
I am disappointed in both of these – especially Nancy – but am I shocked?
Hell No…..
I like Nancy too, and think she is a very influential woman, and the most effective Speaker in my lifetime. I’m thankful every day that Boehner isn’t as effective at his job as Nancy was in that same position.
But obviously greed knows no bounds, and Nancy has benefitted from being above the law.
This revelation of congress critters inside trading convinces me —
Wall Street is the correct place for the occupiers. Some have suggested Congress should be occupied. As long as there is money in elections the congress critters will continue to make laws they don’t have to follow.
Do they have to depend on the same kinds of health care plans average Americans do? No.
Do they have to depend on the same kinds of retirement plans average Americans do? No
Are they subject to the same laws as average Americans? No
It’s because of the money. We already knew the greed of the big banks and corporations crashed our economy, now we know congress critters benefitted from that crash.
Until money is out of elections we won’t have solved these problems. Congress critters must be subject to all laws they write — that would include health care, retirement, investing…
I wonder what Public Relations expert is telling Republicans to push for another war – and especially one with Iran?
Seriously, do these Republicans ever think before they open their mouths and spout such nonsense?
But, hey, I came up with a good way to reduce the unemployment numbers in America.
Let’s ship all those folks who want to go to war with Iran over to Iran (one-way ticket) and drop them off in any desert of their choosing.
With all those fine godly, moral, holier-than-thou Republican Christians ready to kill all Muslims out of the country, there will be plenty of jobs in America for those folks who truly love America.
I can’t understand or find any logic to any one of these ‘wanna-be-pres’ candidates telling us they want to go to war with Iran. But I heard them say it with my own ears. If it’s not true, why would they tell that lie? The majority of Americans want our soldiers home, want to concentrate on our country instead of nation building. So they would be going against the will of the majority of voters from both parties! What’s the payoff for these people to push to go to war with Iran? What good does campaign money do you if you’ve alienated all the voters?
Unfortunately, the GOP’s base is made up of Evangelical Christians and these are the folks that want that war with Iran.
These follks see this as some Holy War and that God has somehow blessed them to go fill as many Muslims as they can.
Then when Israel gets total control of the Middle East, then Jesus will return and all those godly moral holier-than-thou people will get to go to Heaven.
I know, it’s a twisted theory……but we are talking about people who have twisted the Christianity faith into one too many pretzels over the years.
fill = kill
GOP talking point #_______ shot down in flames..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/13/gop-uncertain-economy-debunked_n_1088448.html?ref=politics
Who needs stinkin facts? Can you imagine the hell fire and brimstone if this was Obama’s book?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/13/bill-oreilly-killing-lincoln-errors_n_1091168.html
This is the man they count on for their ‘news,’ They believe him. When people start saying the ‘facts’ in his book are wrong won’t they treat that like they do when hearing the ‘facts’ in his news reporting are wrong and blame the messenger? They believe made up ‘facts’ every day!
Or these folks simply rewrite whatevery history book they choose.
Hey, these are also the people who are rewriting the Bible to justify their narrow, self-absorbed, money comes before people agenda.
Nothing this group of bufoons surprises me anymore. It saddens me – but does not surprise me.
This is another good read on the economy of today —
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/11/14/111114ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz1dgtNJCc5
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care reform law, the court announced Monday.
Oral arguments will likely be held in late February or March, with a ruling by June.
A key issue to be considered by the high court’s nine justices is whether the “individual mandate” section of the law — requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties — is an improper exercise of federal authority. Various states have argued that if that linchpin provision is found unconstitutional, the entire law will have to be scrapped.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/politics/health-care/
Just for fun type the word askew in a Google search bar. 🙂
I just heard some man talking about that Penn State scandal and this man blamed Jerry Sandusky (the man charged with molestation) as the one that ruined Penn State.
Uh, excuse me, but there were obviously others at Penn State that knew about this man as far back as 2002 and there seems to have been some sort of cover up.
Just ask the Catholic Church how that cover up of their child molesting priests played out.
I’ve often wondered in cases like this – would this have happened if a woman had been in charge at Penn State? Are women more inclined to take swift action and get rid of the child molester within their midst?
My 1-yr-old grandson loves to get the remote control box for the televison and start pushing buttons.
Well, this morning, he landed on the old Hee Haw t.v. shows. Does anyone else remember these?
Anyway – it was the part of the show where different people get up in the cornfield and deliver some corny joke.
There was the bit with the old doctor and the beautiful nurse dressed in a short, tight and low-cut uniform.
The doctor said – You must have been born beautiful and dumb.
To which the nurse replied – that’s a good thing, because I am beautiful for a man to love and dumb enough to love him back.
This was in 1972……..I miss those days when humor was clean – corny – but clean.
I don’t remember any of these child molesting scandals from that time period or from my childhood during the 50’s and 60’s.
is it because they did not happen or the public was not aware of it?
After viewing that video of Herman Cain and his fellow Neanderthals laughing about Anita Hill – I guess Mrs. Cain and I use different definitions of ‘respect’ for women.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45283678/ns/us_news/
More so than the accusations, his actions, like the one you mention with regard to Anita Hill, and that picture of him with the woman where he has his hand in an inappropriate place were the line in the sand for me. He crossed the line! I saw and heard those incidents for myself, there was no ‘he said / they said’ to wonder about. The man isn’t qualified to be an adult human, let alone an adult human in a position of power.
Here is the rest of the story about Pelosi and Boehner and the CBS report on the way Congress Critters apparently do not have to follow the same insider-trading laws the rest of us ‘peasants’ would have to follow.
Interesting little tidbit on Republican Eric Cantor towards the end of this story.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/14/60-minutes-pelosi-boehner_n_1091656.html
I think I might paint this. 🙂
Chance of 2012 U.S. recession tops 50 percent
(Reuters) – The European debt crisis is raising the odds of a U.S. recession, with economic contraction more likely than not by early 2012, according to research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.
While it is difficult to gauge the odds precisely, an analysis of leading U.S. economic indicators suggests a rising chance of a recession through the end of the year and into early next year, researchers at the regional Fed bank wrote on Monday. The risk of recession recedes after the second half of 2012, they found.