Clarence Darrow & Yogi Berra

Arguably America’s greatest trial lawyer, Clarence Darrow, famously once said,

"First and last, it's a question of money. Those men who own the earth make the laws to protect what they have. They fix up a sort of fence or pen around what they have, and they fix the law so the fellow on the outside cannot get in. The laws are really organized for the protection of the men who rule the world. They were never organized or enforced to do justice. We have no system for doing justice, not the slightest in the world."

Reading this morning’s headlines about A.I.G. utilizing $165 million of their $170 billion tax payer financed bailout for bonuses, reminded me of Darrow’s insight. The excuse being offered after all is that a “contract is a contract” and A.I.G. must fulfill their obligations.

Isn’t it curious how contracts are deemed sacrosanct for Wall Street beneficiaries but not blue-collar members of unions in the auto industry? Unions are expected to get “realistic” and “ renegotiate” their contracts but moneyed elites are allowed to carry on as before. Anyone who has the temerity to point out the contradiction is “unreasonable,” “angry,” “extreme,” or heaven forbid, one of those “crazy left wing bloggers.”

For what it’s worth, I personally believe all demographics must ultimately sacrifice for the greater good during this calamity. Unlike its imperial antecedents, the American empire has largely serviced the purpose of consumer excess – especially for the top. With America’s empire in decline, all hands must now be on deck to reverse our society’s cascade of ruin as we develop a new socio-economic paradigm, absent the perks and burdens of a hyper-power.

That means a tough transition for all of us as we cease to consume a quarter of the world’s resources, work to extricate ourselves from Beijing bankers and end our addiction to military conflict as a means of resolving disputes. Nonetheless, how can any president ask Americans to accept their health benefits being taxed, when A.I.G. is permitted to distribute unseemly bonuses after their conduct precipitated the current crisis? Bottom line, the worst insurance company in history is utilizing our tax dollars to reward their employees with bonuses, while the rest of us are treading water and being asked to shed even more skin.

I suspect most people understand we have to change in order to bring about change. That was my sense during the campaign as I canvassed and phonebanked. Indeed, as the Jon Stewart showdown with CNBC’s Jim Cramer illustrated, Americans are finally ready for hard truths after lies about WMD’s in Iraq while warning signs with respect to the current economic crisis were ignored. People are just desperate enough now to respond to hard truth if it’s backed up with a coherent strategy and the pain is absorbed fairly.

Alas, asking people who are currently teetering on the abyss to sacrifice has no credibility given the circumstances and messengers. How could it when tax-cheat Timothy Geithner and his plutocratic deregulating mentor from the Clinton Administration, Larry Summers, continue to subsidize thieves? The good people of A.I.G. are like the proverbial bank robbers holding bags of nitroglycerin. Give us your money they say or we’ll drop our nitroglycerin bags on what’s left of the global economy. So we continue to appease them.

Now in fairness to President Obama, he inherited what can only be described as a cluster fuck. And he hasn’t even been in office two months. Furthermore, much of the so-called political opposition as well as the establishment that critiques him, are simultaneously insipid and disingenuous. As I wrote a few days ago,

“Already you’re hearing voices question whether President Obama’s is pushing too much at once on the ‘system.’ These voices sound reasonable when they claim we should ‘fix the economy first’ and worry about health-care, energy and education later. They're enablers of capitalism’s dark underbelly, hoping to run out the clock on President Obama’s popularity and continue business as usual.”

Hence, I largely support the goals of President Obama’s proposed budget and have contempt for this “establishment” that failed to address the very challenges he dares to take on. Clarence Darrow would certainly recognize those that oppose Obama’s agenda as elites making laws to “protect what they have” at the expense of everyone else.

Yet each day that passes without the Obama administration implementing a credible, transparent and coherent strategy to address America’s banking and housing crisis, only serves to further tighten the Gordian knot of economic calamity. This week we're supposed to hear more from Secretary Geithner about his plans to resolve these challenges with a “public-private” partnership. I don’t have much faith in Geithner, an upwardly mobile tax-cheating plutocrat who previously served at the New York Federal Reserve Bank and engineered the TARP legislation that passed last fall.

So even though it hasn’t even been two months since Obama’s inaugural, a famous Yogi Berra quote also comes to mind:

“It gets late early around here.”

Update: The San Francisco Chronicle reports that A.I.G.'s bonus payout totals $450 million.

Thank You Chapeau!

Earlier this week, Chapeau Blog Awards nominated this blog as one of two finalists for their news category. I am both honored and appreciative of the recognition. As a blogger, it's also gratifying to know that an effort is being made to recognize and promote the art of blogging itself.

Other categories that Chapeau is acknowledging as they select their "most brilliant blog" for 2009 include Arts & Design, Entertaining, Health & Beauty, Hobbies, Marketing & Advertising, Parenting, Real Estate & Development, Technology and Travel & Leisure. Naturally, the eligible voters are bloggers. To become a voter, please click here. Voting begins on April 14th and ends on April 30th.

Needless to say, I will do a reminder post just before voting begins!

Jim Cramer Belongs In Jail

How many of you watched Jon Stewart's showdown with CNBC financial guru Jim Cramer? This video clip is exhibit A of why the Wall Street economy has ruined our country. The foundation of a healthy economy and democracy is truth and transparency. Instead, we have a sickly empire financed with phony money and the edifice is crumbling. It cannot be repaired. To suggest otherwise is delusional and criminally insane.

Alas, constructing a new socio-economic paradigmn is not like making instant coffee. The task ahead requires urgency, patience and trial and error. One absolute however is accountability for criminal behavior. Hence, we should all email the SEC (enforcement@sec.gov) and and demand an investigation of Jim Cramer. People like him have helped disintegrate the life savings of millions of people.

Change starts with justice.

Can Anyone Spare A Dime For the FDIC?

The Boston Globe reports the following:

"The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized - and that bank failures were so infrequent - that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.

Now with 25 banks having failed last year, 17 so far this year, and many more expected in the coming months, the FDIC has proposed large new premiums for banks at the very time when many can least afford to pay. The agency collected $3 billion in the fees last year and has proposed collecting up to $27 billion this year, prompting an outcry from some banks that say it will force them to raise consumer fees and curtail lending."

I hope to hell Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is asked about this during his Senate testimony today. Not that I have any confidence in anything he would have to say about it. The insipid indecency of predatory conservatism has destroyed America's financial system and taken the global economy down with it. Currently, President Obama and congressional Democrats are overly timid in addressing the cascade of ruin upon us.

Local Banks! Local Banks! Local Banks!

Readers of this blog may be tired of my repeating myself, but I'll repeat this anyway: our body politic is too consumed with the fate of mega-sized global banks. Instead we should be empowering local community sized banks that have a superior track record compared to CitiGroup or Bank of America. Hence, I was gratified when Missouri Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill, made the following observation on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos yesterday:

"And as a matter of confidence, I think it's important for us to point out that there's two kinds of banks that we're talking about here. The -- the commercial banks, the small, local banks, they're fine, and people need to realize that. Your local bank is loaning money; it is operating as it always had.

It may be suffering in its stock prices because of what's going on in the stock market, but they are doing a great job. In fact, most of the commercial banks, the local banks, have loaned more money in the fourth quarter of last year than they had the fourth quarter the previous year."

Exactly. It’s most curious to me that other Democrats haven’t figured this out. Indeed, Democrats are far more supportive of bailing out these institutional monsters than Republicans!

I realize CitiGroup may be “too big to fail” and one can argue we can’t allow that to happen. CitiGroup and the global economy are inextricably entwined, as is AIG. I understand that. And if these bailouts were part of a comprehensive strategy to buy time as we transitioned towards a more sensible financial system, I would embrace it.

To this point however, neither President Obama nor his beleaguered tax cheating Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, have articulated a plan beyond “stabilizing” these financial monstrosities and regulating them better. That is not a viable strategy. Rather it resembles a Hail Mary attempt to toss money into a hole, hope it finds a floor and promise that regulation will ensure it’s not stolen.

A better strategy might well be to discontinue appropriating billions for failures such as CitiGroup in favor of establishing a protocol that rewards healthy local banks with money instead. Set aside the billions used to bail out the mega-sized global banks and establish a grant funding process that rewards independent community banks. As Senator McCaskill sagaciously pointed out, local banks have been responsible and are proactively lending.

At least that way, both the public as well as the global market place can then have confidence that thousands of banks across the nation are meeting viability threshold standards without any “moral hazards.” Furthermore, the independent community banks are far more likely to deliver any infusion of capital onto the street.

Many would call that concept radical and perhaps it is. But the circumstances we find ourselves in are extreme. Keeping CitiGroup, the world’s worst insurance company, AIG, and Bank of America afloat is not mitigating the pain. If we must experience this pain we should at least implement a strategy that builds a healthier financial system.

President Obama is a thoughtful judicious leader that I proudly worked to help elect. I am gratified by much of what he has done already. I strongly support Obama’s efforts at reforming health-care, developing an environment friendly energy policy and investing more in public education simultaneously, rather than give in to garden variety inside the beltway myopia.

But all Obama's good intentions and plans will never come to fruition unless his administration develops a strategy that facilitates a community friendly banking system. Otherwise, the American economy will be condemned to decades of sputtering like an armless swimmer as the global economy slides off the abyss.

Evan Bayh Is A Corporatist Class Warrior

Among my least favorite Democrats is Indiana Senator, Evan Bayh. Bayh wasted no time after President Obama’s election to announce his formation of a Blue Dog caucus in the Senate.

With Republicans out of power, elites are more likely to favor Bayh and his Blue Dog friends as enablers in their ongoing crusade against wage earners, small business entrepreneurs and the poor. While liberals are expending energy on Rush Limbaugh and the insipid Republican minority, corporatist predators have shifted their focus to greasing corporate appeasers such as Evan Bayh.

Accordingly, Bayh is causing mischief with respect to the Omnibus Appropriations Act. For the record, Wisconsin Senator, Russ Feingold, a politician I have long admired has also opposed legislation to keep the government running in protest to the omnibus process itself. I am of course disappointed in Feingold for playing games during an economic calamity as well as increasingly disenchanted with Senator Harry Reid’s hapless performance as Majority Leader.

Unlike Feingold however, Bayh is continuing a pattern of using appealing moderate language such as “fiscal discipline” to support a corporatist agenda. Ironically, his father, Birch Bayh was a proud and unapologetic liberal who defended the middle class when he served in the Senate. Alas, the apple has fallen far from the tree with the son.

Bayh was among eighteen Senate Democrats to betray working people and join Republicans in support of the Bankruptcy Abuse and Prevention Act in 2005. For the record, so did Vice President Joe Biden, while he served in the Senate. At least Biden though had the excuse of representing a state with workers disproportionately employed by the banks and credit card companies. Bayh had no such excuse in supporting arguably the worst piece of domestic legislation in a generation.

A review of the online Federal Election Commission database with respect to Bayh’s contributions is especially instructive. Below is a bullet summary listing some of the donations Bayh has received over the years:

• Between 1997 and 2006, Bayh received eight contributions from the American Bankers Associations Political Action Committee (BANKPAC), totaling $20,000. No wonder Bayh supported bankruptcy legislation in 2005. It’s also noteworthy that Bayh received a $2,300 contribution from the Bank of America Corporation Federal PAC on January 8, 2008.

• Between 1998 and 2004, Bayh received 12 contributions from the General Dynamics Voluntary Political Contribution Plan (GDVPCP) totaling $17,000. General Dynamics is a notorious war profiteer and Bayh voted in favor of our disastrous war in Iraq.

• Between 1997 and 2005, Bayh received 16 contributions from the General Electric Political Action Committee (GEPAC) totaling $17,000. GE is not only a war profiteer but also the parent company of NBC.

• Between 1999 and 2005, Bayh received five contributions from the Citigroup Inc. Political Action Committee-Federal (Citigroup PAC-Federal) totaling $12,000.

• Between 2000 and 2006, Bayh received six contributions from the Capital One Financial Corp. Assoc. Political Fund, totaling $11,000. What’s in your wallet Senator Bayh?

• Between 1997 and 2005, Bayh received eleven contributions from the AFLAC Incorporated Political Action Committee (AFLACPAC), totaling $11,000. I’ve always admired the AFLAC “duck” from their commercials. AFLAC also provides helpful supplementary coverage to your garden variety HMO plan. Nonetheless, real comprehensive healthcare reform would render AFLAC irrelevant. So once the battle for healthcare reform is joined, you can be sure their duck will not be quacking on your side.

• Between 2001 and 2003, Bayh received five contributions from the Aetna Inc. Political Action Committee totaling $8,000. Aetna is an insidious component of the medical industry complex favoring profit over wellness and gouging Americans at every opportunity.

• Between 1997 and 2005, Bayh received six contributions from the Action Fund of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. totaling $5,500. No more need to be said about that.

I’m not looking to merely attack Senator Bayh. To be sure, the online FEC database also references generous contributions to him that I find less objectionable such as the AFL-CIO. Also, my home state Senator Charles Schumer is no prize either. That said, Senator Bayh illustrates why liberals must remain engaged and nurture strong counterweights to corporate influences responsible for America’s current cascade of ruin.

One such counterweight is Accountability Now founded by Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald. Accountability Now is the netroots answer to special interest lobbyists that buy politicians like Bayh to support their pro-war/pro-corporatist agenda.

Already you’re hearing voices question whether President Obama’s is pushing too much at once on the “system.” These voices sound reasonable when they claim we should “fix the economy first” and worry about health-care, energy and education later. They're enablers of capitalism’s dark underbelly, hoping to run out the clock on President Obama’s popularity and continue business as usual.

We in the reality-based community know that America’s can’t be saved until we fix health-care, implement an effective environment friendly energy policy and strengthen public education from coast to coast. America’s salvation stems from a comprehensive overhaul of our priorities and how we divide a rapidly shrinking pie. That is why I am donating to Accountability Now and I hope readers here do the same.

Nothing concentrates a politician’s mind like the prospect of a primary challenge. Accountability Now is a vehicle to obtain leverage and pressure Democrats such as Evan Bayh that opposing progressive change will put their careers in jeopardy. Delivering power to the Democratic Party in 2006 and 2008 was merely Phase One. Phase Two is transforming the Democratic Party as the people’s party rather than simply existing as the lesser corporatist evil in a two party duopoly.

This also happens to be the best way to support President Barack Obama. And we must not fail in that endeavor. At stake is nothing less than peace and prosperity.

Overhaul Healthcare Now!

This week, a close relative of mine had surgery. Hence, the escalating costs are very much on my mind today as well as the quality and access to medical care. She has health insurance but as we all know, insurance today costs more and covers less. Simply securing a room for her was ridiculously expensive.

President Obama is organizing a healthcare summit. Curious that even as our economy is suffering from a deflationary spiral, the cost of healthcare continues to spiral out of control. If our political system fails yet again to eliminate healthcare's chronic hyperinflation, most Americans are at risk of debtor's hell. Ultimately, the villains is America's "medical industrial complex" as Vice President Biden's chief economist, Jared Bernstein puts it.

We have appeased these predators for too long. The medical industrial complex is an evil empire that once and for all needs to be conquered on behalf of wage earners and small business owners. With respect to everyday living, the escalating cost of healthcare represents far more than an "existential threat" as we typically describe Iran's nuclear ambitions and imperils our national security to a much larger extent than the Taliban.

No more excuses, no more compromises and no more delays.

Uncle Michael

The Republican Party is compromised of three core constituencies:

1) Predatory corporatists who steal from wage earners and destroy the planet.

2) Religious lunatics who believe "end times" are just around the corner, proselytize that anyone who doesn't accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior is condemned to eternal damnation and don't support civil liberties for homosexuals.

3) Angry racists.

To the detriment of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh has been the face and voice of all three-core constituencies. To counteract the Limbaugh brand, Republicans recently elected Michael Steele, an African American as their party's national chairman. Mr. Steele, a shameless apologist for the GOP's predatory corporatists, is working hard to soften the party's social image and had the temerity to suggest that the hateful Rush Limbaugh was not the real leader of his party. Sadly, Mr. Steele was coerced into apologizing to Mr. Limbaugh after a resulting backlash from the GOP's xenophobic/racist/misogynistic core.

One wonders how any self-respecting and decent human being could apologize for suggesting their political party was not led by a man who once said,

"I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."

From this day forward, anyone who cowardly panders to Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Party's insipid indecency he represents, should be called an "Uncle Michael."