I can’t understand the arguments about leaving Mitt’s time as a vulture capitalist out of the campaign. It does not make Obama anti-business. The truth is out there about Bain’s track record and Mitt’s role in its “buy, strip and sell” practices. This campaign is a bully pulpit for helping the masses learn what goes on in private equity banking. And all of banking for that matter.
Of course, IMHO, it would help if Obama, Holder and Geitner got on the same page about bringing to justice the people who crashed the economy. I think the current administration is riddled with Wall Street “plants” embedded in government right now to protect the interests of Big Finance and Wall Street. A Rmoney administration would be waaaaay worse, of course.
This is when a good fourth estate would help. Journalists are not doing their jobs in investigating and shining a light on who did what leading up to and since the crash. There are thousands of investigative stories that could be done. Pulitzer material. Stories about how the Citizens United decision hurried us down this path of financial destruction and the egregious power Big Finance has on campaign finance and democracy itself.
But since all the media outlets with the money to finance real investigative journalism are corporately owned and many times publicly traded companies, we are not likely to see such stories. Once again it will be up to independent journalists and bloggers to do the hard work and break the stories. Too bad they are mostly self financed and many if not most don’t have the resources to do long term projects like this.
Not to mention Big Brother Finance won’t be happy and wouldn’t be above eliminating their problems with independent journalists.
Paul Wellstone anyone? Someone brave enough to take on Big Finance should not fly in small planes, if you know what I mean.
Have you tried following Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone? While some might think he’s not mainstream journalism, he’s the next best thing. Matt not only knows what he writes about, he makes things easier for some of us to understand. (us being me. 😉 )
Oops. Looks like this is the story of the day. Right after I posted that, I went to Crooks and Liars as part of my morning internet rounds. And the first story I saw? You guess it, same topic as my post. I swear I wrote the above before I read this.
My youngest granddaughter graduated 8th grade this morning so we’ve been celebrating over a leisurely lunch. I don’t know where the years went and how they went so quickly!
I agree that getting the details of Romney’s time at Bain is necessary! He is saying that is what makes him qualified for our country’s highest office so it should be aired out completely!
I also think it is imperative for all Americans to understand what happened and how our economy crashed because Romney promises to double down on Bush2 economic policies. I don’t ever want to relive that catastrophe! We must be sure voters understand what a Romney presidency would mean.
I copied this from our friend Cap’n who posted it to his Facebook. I’m sure he won’t mind sharing and, in fact, this info needs to be shared often and with as many people as possible —
A few statistics to put the whole “tax cuts raise revenue” BS into perspective:
Bush cut taxes in 2001–
Federal revenues for that year FELL 34 billion dollars
Federal revenues for the following year (2002) FELL by 138 billion dollars, despite population growth
Revenues for 2003 FELL AGAIN by another 71 billion dollars
Revenues finally started going up in 2004, but they were still lower than in 2000 by 145 billion dollars.
In short, the US lost ground for four long years before it returned to the revenues of 2000.
Meanwhile, after Clinton’s tax HIKE (“the biggest tax hike in the history of the world,” according to Bob Dole when he ran for President in 1996), revenue went up steadily between 80 and 200 billion a year.
Have you seen this? Look — women! We have them too! [eye roll]
It’s amazing that someone in the GOP imagines that showing the faces of a couple dozen women would make other women think republicans aren’t still waging war on our gender. These republican women voted against fair pay for women, voted to restrict the violence against women bill, in fact vote exactly the same way republican men vote and restrict women’s rights regularly! It doesn’t change the facts, it only shows that some women are as willing as men to restrict the rights of women!
I’m sure you’ll all notice that not once do they mention any policies, not once do they mention any manner in which any one of these women makes life better for another woman or for a family. Whoever thought this would be effective must also believe Santorum when he tells us he has a bunch of gay friends.
I also think Romney’s experience and history at Bain Capital is fair game BECAUSE Mitt made it a focal point in his qualifications to be president.
Besides – Obama can say – and I believe that he has made this point – that being a president is different than being in the business of only making profits for yourself and your partners.
Being a president requires that Big Picture thinking – you know, where EVERY
American should be considered equal.
But – what do REpublcians care about that? Have you seen the way these Republians govern every time they get into the White House?
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
I can’t understand the arguments about leaving Mitt’s time as a vulture capitalist out of the campaign. It does not make Obama anti-business. The truth is out there about Bain’s track record and Mitt’s role in its “buy, strip and sell” practices. This campaign is a bully pulpit for helping the masses learn what goes on in private equity banking. And all of banking for that matter.
Of course, IMHO, it would help if Obama, Holder and Geitner got on the same page about bringing to justice the people who crashed the economy. I think the current administration is riddled with Wall Street “plants” embedded in government right now to protect the interests of Big Finance and Wall Street. A Rmoney administration would be waaaaay worse, of course.
This is when a good fourth estate would help. Journalists are not doing their jobs in investigating and shining a light on who did what leading up to and since the crash. There are thousands of investigative stories that could be done. Pulitzer material. Stories about how the Citizens United decision hurried us down this path of financial destruction and the egregious power Big Finance has on campaign finance and democracy itself.
But since all the media outlets with the money to finance real investigative journalism are corporately owned and many times publicly traded companies, we are not likely to see such stories. Once again it will be up to independent journalists and bloggers to do the hard work and break the stories. Too bad they are mostly self financed and many if not most don’t have the resources to do long term projects like this.
Not to mention Big Brother Finance won’t be happy and wouldn’t be above eliminating their problems with independent journalists.
Paul Wellstone anyone? Someone brave enough to take on Big Finance should not fly in small planes, if you know what I mean.
Have you tried following Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone? While some might think he’s not mainstream journalism, he’s the next best thing. Matt not only knows what he writes about, he makes things easier for some of us to understand. (us being me. 😉 )
Hi Wicked. Oh yes, I love me some Matt Taibbi. He and Greg Palast are some of the best right now.
Dang! I forgot about Greg Palast.
Oops. Looks like this is the story of the day. Right after I posted that, I went to Crooks and Liars as part of my morning internet rounds. And the first story I saw? You guess it, same topic as my post. I swear I wrote the above before I read this.
http://lippmannsghost.blogspot.ca/2012/05/romney-at-bain-question-worth-exploring.html
Hmmmm, very tempting to post those quotes on FB for all my red Kansas friends. Good catch, prairie pond
Mitt just wants to be the first Prez of the United States of Business.
Hi G-Stir. Glad to see you here.
Thanks- I look in but don’t say much. How’s things in Conyer?
It’s always a good day when you do say something! 🙂
Hello Triple Ps!
My youngest granddaughter graduated 8th grade this morning so we’ve been celebrating over a leisurely lunch. I don’t know where the years went and how they went so quickly!
I agree that getting the details of Romney’s time at Bain is necessary! He is saying that is what makes him qualified for our country’s highest office so it should be aired out completely!
I also think it is imperative for all Americans to understand what happened and how our economy crashed because Romney promises to double down on Bush2 economic policies. I don’t ever want to relive that catastrophe! We must be sure voters understand what a Romney presidency would mean.
I copied this from our friend Cap’n who posted it to his Facebook. I’m sure he won’t mind sharing and, in fact, this info needs to be shared often and with as many people as possible —
A few statistics to put the whole “tax cuts raise revenue” BS into perspective:
Bush cut taxes in 2001–
Federal revenues for that year FELL 34 billion dollars
Federal revenues for the following year (2002) FELL by 138 billion dollars, despite population growth
Revenues for 2003 FELL AGAIN by another 71 billion dollars
Revenues finally started going up in 2004, but they were still lower than in 2000 by 145 billion dollars.
In short, the US lost ground for four long years before it returned to the revenues of 2000.
Meanwhile, after Clinton’s tax HIKE (“the biggest tax hike in the history of the world,” according to Bob Dole when he ran for President in 1996), revenue went up steadily between 80 and 200 billion a year.
Statistics draw from US gov’t tables at http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200
Congrat and the graduation….. Wow – high school is next , huh? Time flies so fast – doesn’t it?
Have you seen this? Look — women! We have them too! [eye roll]
It’s amazing that someone in the GOP imagines that showing the faces of a couple dozen women would make other women think republicans aren’t still waging war on our gender. These republican women voted against fair pay for women, voted to restrict the violence against women bill, in fact vote exactly the same way republican men vote and restrict women’s rights regularly! It doesn’t change the facts, it only shows that some women are as willing as men to restrict the rights of women!
I’m sure you’ll all notice that not once do they mention any policies, not once do they mention any manner in which any one of these women makes life better for another woman or for a family. Whoever thought this would be effective must also believe Santorum when he tells us he has a bunch of gay friends.
snort
I also think Romney’s experience and history at Bain Capital is fair game BECAUSE Mitt made it a focal point in his qualifications to be president.
Besides – Obama can say – and I believe that he has made this point – that being a president is different than being in the business of only making profits for yourself and your partners.
Being a president requires that Big Picture thinking – you know, where EVERY
American should be considered equal.
But – what do REpublcians care about that? Have you seen the way these Republians govern every time they get into the White House?