This is new to you? Where have you been? Sarah Palin got her start fighting corruption within the Alaskan GOP. Get the DVD The Undefeated for a quick education.
HER MAIN THEME is attacking cronyism in both parties.
Posted on 11/24/2011 5:58:40 AM PST by NetLiberty
Here is a video well worth watching.
It's William Black, former lead prosecutor in the savings and loan crisis during the Reagan/Bush years, describing the background of the current financial crisis and the need for prosecution of those responsible in our banking and financial fields.
Strangely enough, he's speaking at the Occupy LA site.
In case the video is not viewable in this post, click the link below--well worth spending 15 minutes to watch it: LINK
After watching this video, I think there is little that any of us here would disagree with.
So my questions to all of us on this forum are:
• Why do we only seem to be hearing about the need to aggressively prosecute the rampant financial fraud that crashed our economy from the 'Occupy' people, and not from 'our' media sources in talk radio, etc.--Rush, Hannity, Fox, etc.?
• To my mind, there is no more authoritative figure on the subject of financial corruption than William Black. If he is allowed to speak at an Occupy demonstration, and to such an enthusiastic response, then might we not have a mistaken impression of the general goals of many in the Occupy movement?
• If you agree with what he's saying in the video (again, I urge you to spend 15 minutes watching it), then might there be one or two other major issues that 'our' side might also agree with the 'Occupy' side on?
It's just as wrong to classify ALL Occupy people as pot-smoking commies, just as it is for the left to call all of us Tea party members ignorant, toothlesss, gun-toting rednecks.
I've been a Free Republic member since 1998, and I'll put my conservative cred alongside anyone here. However, I've come to the realization that our country's problems are so deep and so grave that we must all work together to make the BIG changes required, and I think the media and the powers that be on both sides are using their power of propaganda to keep both sides fighting with each other.
Don't you see? That's how they stay in power. And that's why there is never any change for the better as we continue to head toward the cliff.
Corruption most definitely has infected both major parties. It’s naive to think only the Democrats are suffering this malady.
Taken to their logical conclusion the Occupiers are totalitarians, as are their organizers. To be sure, there are large numbers of naive and ignorant useful idiots among them who would not go that far, but they are not the ones directing the operation nor are they in the end anything but dispensible. The Tea Party has limited explicit goals of reducing the footprint of government in our lives.
The Tea Party would like nothing better than to elect a functioning majority of responsible legislators who can be trusted, and then go home. The Occupiers are outliers preparing the battlefield for widespread violent civil disruption of the elections next year. Bank on it.
Black seems to ignore the role of the government in pushing banks to make risky loans. You can’t have it both ways.
I'm saddened that you have been on this forum since 1998 and yet don't have a clue what you're talking about.
What you are suggesting would be like saying the Weimar Republic was trying to stay in power by pitting the communists versus the fascists and encouraging street battles.
Your just flat out wrong. The OWS crowd are primarily the same old leftists that are prone to show up at every liberal protest whether it be anti-capitalism, anti-war, anti-energy, etc. They are not our allies or friends, and they believe in taking this country further down the wrong path we are already on. They are our ideological foes, they believe in everything we do not. Are most of these protesters being used? Sure, but not by "the powers that be" in order to keep the people divided. They are being used by more intelligent leftist who direct their movement. The protesters and their leaders are still in ideological agreement, the only difference is the rabble at OWS camps are not bright enough to understand how best to achieve their aims.
The problems we have in this nation are that the OWS crowd have been getting their way for far too long. They call for more government spending and more regulation. That is exactly what has led us to 15 trillion in debt and the crisis we face.
The key to turning this nation around is convincing a larger majority of the American public that conservative governance is the correct path forward. That will involve defeating the OWS types, not foolishly believing they are our allies.
His argument is not about the tea party or the OWS movement. His premise is why are not some of our supposed media types citing the need to go after those responsible for that debacle.
In my mind, one reason is during the Savings and Loan crisis, the feet of a few of the Senate and Congress types were held to the fire. Senore McCain for example with his association with Keeting.
IMO, if the government were serious of doing something here there would be more bankers and congress people in jail than they could hold and precisely for that reason everything will be swept under the rug. The need to string up Johnson and Gerelick and others from Fannie and Freddie would also garner some more attention along with Dodd, Frank and Rambo.
As far as OWS goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. That movement was rapidly overtaken by the bums and lefties with zany ideas which destroyed their credibility but on this one subject they are right on the money.
Tell you something else, when Obama said he would veto any attempt to sidestep the deficit reduction requiements it was the first time I ever admired him. To me the debt is the greatest national security threat and rather than not do anything or continue adding to it I’d rather do the agreed to cuts.
You didn’t watch it did you? He excoriates everyone involved with special comments about the Reagan Admin!
The biggest difference between OWS & the Tea Party is that OWS is miseducated, misinformed, ignorant and naive.
False statement, false premise.
OWS hasn't said a single coherent thing since its inception.
Just bankers?
What about Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Ben Bernanke and all their cohorts???
The crisis was entirely political and entirely predictable as well.
Government invites corruption when it seeks to control and regulate. This is universal and inevitable, regardless of party in power or system of government. When big business, big government, big finance and big labor all jump in bed together, you know nothing good is going to come of it nine months later.
By focussing on the banksters, Black is cherry picking, ignoring the culpability of the ratings agencies for example, who made the slice and dice mortgage securities possible.
He is ignoring the SEC which raised margin levels to unjustified heights.
He is ignoring the mundane greed of the borrowers, exonerating them from responsibility for (quite legal btw) "liars loans," when they were the liars.
He is ignoring the congressional oversight committees who winked and nudged and encouraged this to go on.
There are no good guys in this whole scenario, including the so-called enforcement agencies of government. Black's failure is in thinking the government can clean up the mess by prosecuting a few CEOs, which I wouldn't mind seeing happen, at that, but the fact he ignores is that his counterparts in government today are not likely to clean up a mess they had a vital hand in creating.
Black seems to have some bitterness about the Reagan admin, probably because he was a part of it, and he seems to think corruption started when he arrived as the sheriff.
His total avoidance of the deregulation regime of Carter, which is where all this really began, is telling. Black is not objective in his own politics, as his appearences with Bill Moyers and other leftwing outlets indicates.
I think that question will be answered on election day.
Exactly.
He is not talking about prosecuting Barney Frank or Andrew “I know they will default” Cuomo.
And “liar’s loans” are only the fault of the lender, not the borrower.
I did watch it. See post 12.
“The biggest difference between OWS & the Tea Party is that OWS is miseducated, misinformed, ignorant and naive.”
Wrong. OWS bunch are not miss-educated, misinformed, ignorant and naive. OK, I’ll give you miss-educated. They are very well organized. They know what they are doing. Do not underestimate them. They speak with fork tongue.
Yes, we see the same problem, but they caused the problem. Privatize the profit, Socialize the lost.
Now that I think about it, I think it's probably both. He can't possibly be that naive.
This is new to you? Where have you been? Sarah Palin got her start fighting corruption within the Alaskan GOP. Get the DVD The Undefeated for a quick education.
HER MAIN THEME is attacking cronyism in both parties.
NetLiberty, just watched this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as5Xq4_TDos&feature=player_embedded today.
Freepers,are we squabbling amount minutia while Rome burns?
A house divided cannot stand.
We do have some common ground with some of the OWS folks. To overlook that only gives power to those that wisely see the division factor. Note the word ‘some’. It is operative here.
When any American, be it Freeper or OWS, is touting freedom from government/corporate corruption we are negligent to not take note and put out a hand for conversation to that individual. Note the word ‘individual’. It is operative here.
So, some American individuals are aware that government/corporate corruption is ruining our Nation while our freedoms are being lost and they want to do something about it all.
God bless them and Godspeed that they unite and do what is right.
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