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Capuano To CEOs: "America Doesn't Trust You."
Here's a great tirade from Massachusetts Democratic congressman Michael Capuano, form today's hearings with eight banks CEOs...
Some highlights:
America doesn't trust you anymore.
and:
Who was the brilliant person who came and said: Let's do credit default swaps? Find 'em. Fire 'em. Tell me you fired them.
But maybe the best part is when Capuano addresses the common refrain heard form banks that the money they gave out in bonuses was different from the bailout money they got.
Says Capuano:
Don't say: Oh, well we're not using that money for bonuses. C'mon! Money is all of a sudden not fungible in your entity. It's fungible everywhere else, but not in your entities.
Watch:
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Josh
Zachary
I wish with all my heart Capuano were my Rep. instead of the dead ender Dan Lungren who is. If we had a few more like Capuano, we'd actually have a Congress! Kudos to Mr. Capuano!!
February 11, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, but it gets worse-- much worse. Go back to the Fresno Bee/Sacramento Bee archives for the mid to late 1990's McClatchy features on the connections between then CA Attorney General Dan Lungren and the mafia ridden grease pumpers operating as Thrifty Best.
February 11, 2009 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish with all my heart Capuano were my Rep. instead of the dead ender Dan Lungren who is. If we had a few more like Capuano, we'd actually have a Congress! Kudos to Mr. Capuano!!
February 11, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does anyone remember the term WHITE COLLAR CRIME?
It was a category of crime I learned in my poli sci class in 1978 in college. My poli sci prog when on and on about it...I think the FBI, CIA, DEA and other gov't organizations even had a whole divisions devoted to it? Remember? We called WHITE COLLAR CRIME?
And remember that people were PROSECUTED FOR IT UNDER THE LAW?
DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER THIS? White collar criminals were prosected UNDER THE LAW for their crimes?
But as of 2000, no more. No one in jail for election manipulation/theft. The traders are not in jail for orchestrating ENRON black outs which killed people in hospitals when the power went out, a Speaker of a House takes impeachment off the table when it clearly needs to be there,
and now, we are going add "more oversight" to the problems on Wall Street and cap salaries. Can someone explain to me why the Democrats pee in their pants at the idea of actually CRIMINALS TO JAIL?
Without enforcement, without full accountability,
with prison sentences and THIS is what the American people want (along with heads probably), NOTHING the Obama presidency does is going to
stem the white collar crime/Mafia what has essentially run our country for the past 8 years and will try again. SEND THE BASTARDS TO PRISON AND START WITH BUSH, CHENEY AND RUMSFELD. In the meantime, I would like to an answer why Democrats are so afraid of law enforcement and criminal justice.
February 11, 2009 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does anyone remember the term WHITE COLLAR CRIME?
It was a category of crime I learned in my poli sci class in 1978 in college. My poli sci prof when on and on about it...I think the FBI, CIA, DEA and other gov't agencies even had whole divisions devoted to it? Remember? We called it WHITE COLLAR CRIME?
And remember that people were PROSECUTED FOR IT UNDER THE LAW? But according to my poli sci prof, not enough?
DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER THIS? White collar criminals were prosected UNDER THE LAW for their crimes?
But as of 2000, no more. No one in jail for election manipulation/theft. The traders are not in jail for orchestrating ENRON black outs which killed people in hospitals when the power went out, a Speaker of a House takes impeachment off the table when it clearly needs to be there,
and now, we are going add "more oversight" to the problems on Wall Street and cap salaries. Can someone explain to me why the Democrats pee in their pants at the idea of actually sending CRIMINALS TO JAIL?
Without enforcement, without full accountability,
with prison sentences and THIS is what the American people want (along with heads probably), NOTHING the Obama presidency does is going to
stem the white collar crime/Mafia what has essentially run our country for the past 8 years and will try again. SEND THE BASTARDS TO PRISON AND START WITH BUSH, CHENEY AND RUMSFELD. In the meantime, I would like to an answer why Democrats are so afraid of law enforcement and criminal justice.
February 11, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's time to inundate Leahy and call bullshit on his so-called "truth commission" and call for a couple of special prosecutors: one for the war criminals, the other for the banksters. Without such prosecutions this behavior will never end.
Also, very funny Connie comparing these swine to bank robbers in his constituency.
February 11, 2009 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry. Read: Cappie not Connie.
February 11, 2009 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Somerville Baby!! Give 'em hell Cappy! :)
February 11, 2009 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you're robbed by a black man you'll lose your wallet, robbed by a white man you'll lose your life savings. If caught only one goes to jail.
February 11, 2009 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm serious here. Can someone tell me why the Democrats shy away from criminal prosecution of constitutional (Bush and Co) and financial crimes? Answers anyone? Is what I think is going on going on? No criminal prosecutions of the majority of these people is EVER in the offing?
Why not?
February 11, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because Dems do it too, and Cheney has had top secret clearance and the NSA at his beck and call for the last eight years and he'd take everybody down with him.
February 11, 2009 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dead on. The warrantless wiretapping began in March, 2001, six months before 9/11. A Richard Poindexter brainchild originally under the moniker "Knowledge is power".
Am I pissed? You betcha. My family lived in CA at the time and had every land line phone call, cell phone call and email scrubbed for key words, foreign contacts, whatever, with the full collaboration of the major telecoms. We were among millions of American citizens whose telecom traffic routed through the switching center in San Francisco and who unknowingly were exposed to the American equivalent of the KGB.
I am an American citizen. I have a claim to due process, the right to privacy and protection from unlawful search and seizure under the Constitution. My rights were violated at a level of treason. I am not naive about terrorism or threats from abroad. But I and my family were threatened by enemies domestic. They are real.
February 11, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the moniker was "Total Awareness." According to Wiki: It was run by the Information Awareness Office (IAO) which was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ... program started in 2002. (They have a wonderful logo, by the way. Truly warm and fuzzy.) AT&T SF started its program in 2002 as well; there are 15 to 20 such sites across the country doing the same thing.
I believe you are talking about a different program. One started by BushCo, perhaps on Jan. 20, 2001 at 10:01 a.m. EDT. Perhaps?
And since we're all being monitored, why not give them what they want? Key words, in plain English -- none of that code stuff. You know, "They blared ANTHRAX at the WHITE HOUSE Wednesday night cocktail party but, alas, it was still a BOMB to most of the CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS present. The buzz-KILL to the festivities, it seems, was the PRESIDENT invoking a one-drink-max-and-GTFO rule."
I jest. But to make your day even better, sunnysteve, view this heartwarming clip from Rachel Maddow (2/10: "State Secrets"):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#29129616
Rights? Well, not so much anymore. Sorry.
February 11, 2009 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
capuano is my rep and after lambasting him for voting for the original bailout bill without questioning its efficacy he responded with a 2 page letter defending his position.
Now that peoples' outrage has become mainstream, he 'got religion'...
how disingenuous of him to be so angry now; of course, he's trying to get noticed so he can run for Kennedy's seat in MA...
politics!!!
February 12, 2009 8:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Got hypocrisy?
February 12, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rep. Capuano hits on a valid follow-up questions:
Is the bailout money fungible or not? If the CEOs seem to suggest that bailout money was not used to pay bonuses then they can track money and it is not fungible. But that is not what they said back in Jan. when pressure was on to figure out where the money went. Banks said they don't track the money because its capital dollars are fungible.
So, which is it?
February 12, 2009 9:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
GOOD ON YOU Mr. Capuano...
We need more of you in all branches of government!
Loved the video.
February 13, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink