Here's an Idea, Sen. Hagan: Get Our Money Back From the Banksters Who Stole It!

Sen. Kay Hagan's banker genes reassert themselves.

News, North Carolina: "You little people are going to have to sacrifice even more to 'pay down the national debt,' because we corporatist Democrats will never ever call the billionaires who stole all the money and brought on the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression to account for their crimes."

Charge 'em, prosecute 'em, and get the money back.

McHenry Wants to Investigate Why the Bush Admin. Didn't Bail Out Wachovia

Congressional Oompa Loompa Patrick McHenry of the NC-10 has been appointed chair of a (self-) important Congressional subcommittee to investigate the government's bank bailout, which happened, O my brethren, during the last gasps of the Bush administration.

One of the top priorities for investigation, McHenry sez, is why the Bush administration did NOT bail out Wachovia too.

McHenry's not about to lift the scummy skirts on the Bush administration's decision to give all the money to the banks. No, he wants to know why in the hell they didn't give MORE money to the banks, particularly one located in Charlotte.

Another top priority for McHenry is to "re-examine" the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, which imposed strict new rules on the banks and which McHenry happily voted against. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, two of McHenry's biggest donors are the political action committees of Bank of America and the American Bankers Association.

Evidently, this is what the Tea Party meant when they screamed about the bailouts -- give Wachovia some of that loot too and don't make the banks follows any rules.

The Anti-Avatar

The chain-smoking former LAPD cop, investigative journalist, and deep economic thinker Michael Ruppert ... the acerbic antidote to all the dreamy romanticism of James Cameron's Pandora.

Going from "Avatar" to "Collapse" on the ole DVD is enough to give one psychological whiplash, if not a complete, raging case of the willies.

Aside from predicting, accurately and pretty much to the year, the current financial collapse, Ruppert has exposed a goodly pile of what he calls the utter "bullshit" that the American public gulps by the spoonful. In this film, well before the Tea Party was a gleam in Sarah Palin's eye, he also 'splains the confused rage that gave rise to that movement and what the future holds.

Can't do better than quote Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly about how this film will work on your head: "You may want to dispute [Ruppert], but more than that you'll want to hear him, because what he says -- right or wrong, prophecy or paranoia -- takes up residence in your mind."

Questions for the Tea Party Folks

Guest Blogging: Matt Robinson

Barack Obama's election and relentless pursuit of health care reform led to the emergence of a new political movement -- the "Tea Party" -- which claims the Obama presidency is reckless and irresponsible in its spending. Their evidence is quite limited and includes the new health care law, priced at $940 billion over 10 years, or $94 billion per year. Never mind the fact that the costs of the health care law are paid for without adding a penny to the national debt.

What I'd like to know from any "Tea Party" member is ... where were you during the Bush administration? The costs of the war in Iraq are now $721 billion over seven years, or $103 billion per year, more than the health care law. And all of the war costs under President Bush were paid for using emergency appropriations outside of the normal budget process. Thus every penny spent on the Iraq war is added to the national debt!

Perhaps "Tea Party" members see war and health care reform as apples and oranges. I agree. The health care bill pays for itself and helps people, while the war adds to the debt and kills people! Assuming we just ignore the war, though, what about President Bush's Medicare expansion in 2003? This law costs $720 billion over 10 years, or $72 billion per year, and every penny of the costs were added on to the national debt. Yet this did not upset you enough to form a "Tea Party" movement.

And what about the $700 billion bailout of big business by Bush? No "Tea Party" movement for that either (in fact, you guys seem to think it was Obama that organized the bailout!). Yet you attack Obama for the 2009 stimulus plan, priced at $787 billion. Criticisms of the stimulus aside, many economists say it did save our economy from a major depression, and it is even helping expand Highway 421 here in Boone!

Your lack of criticism of President Bush is clear proof that your criticism of President Obama is not rooted in principles such as small government or fiscal responsibility but instead in partisan ideology. In other words, you are out in the streets because Obama is a Democratic president, plain and simple. So spare us the "devotion to the Constitution."

Analysis of White house budget data shows that the three presidents who most added to the national debt were all Republicans, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. Yet neither of the Bush administrations prompted a "Tea Party" movement, and you hold President Reagan up to be this godlike figure who supposedly stood for conservative values such as small government and fiscal responsibility. It is just not true.

Almost nothing the "Tea Party" members say can be taken seriously. I'd laugh out loud if it were not so scary and dangerous. There are thousands of angry and uninformed people who actually believe Obama is a socialist, a communist, a Muslim, a totalitarian dictator, a foreign citizen, and even the anti-Christ who wants the terrorists to win! And they're generating societal unease based on these absurd beliefs.

So I ask you again: Where were you during the Bush administration? And the other Bush administration? And the Reagan administration? And why do you believe these ridiculous things?

Additionally I am curious if you know that your movement is led by lobbyist-run think tanks including "Americans for Prosperity" and "FreedomWorks"? These groups are not about fiscal responsibility or small government. They are for getting Republicans elected, no matter what. It's just politics, plain and simple. Finally, why do you even call yourselves the "Tea Party"? You are citizens, and you have representation! So there's no need to dump tea in the harbor!

Is Harry Reid Educable?

Looks like the threat of making the Republicans in the U.S. Senate actually filibuster, rather than merely say they'll filibuster, plus their public tarring for being so solidly aligned with Wall Street bankers, has been enough to break Republican obstructionism on the financial reform bill.

Maybe -- though we ain't holding our breath -- the Majority Leader will learn a valuable lesson here: make 'em talk, make 'em flap their gums all night long, let the American people see the full extent of their obstruction.

"We Don't Need No Stinkin' Debate!"

Go ahead, Republicans, protect Wall Street bankers from reform and see if we care! And you, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, go ahead and vote with your fine-feathered friends because Warren Buffett has an investment company based in your state.

Just see if any of this coddling of Wall Street bankers makes any impact whatsoever outside the bubble you well-heeled Senate types live in!

Nobody out here in the hinterlands knows anything about banking, so we think you guys are totally safe in maneuvering to shield your Wall Street buddies from accountability.

Don't worry. Cash those checks. We're all too addled by Fox News to pay any attention.

Jon Stewart Strafes CNBC

Man, oh man. Did you see Jon Stewart last night on The Daily Show rip into those nimrods over at CNBC? Starting with Rick Santelli, but hardly stopping there. In fact, Stewart's whole show might be dubbed "Wall Street (and Those Who Enable It) Are Dicks," and it's worth watching all three segments, including his interview with Joe Nocera, business columnist for the NYTimes. The videos are all here, labeled "CNBC Gives Financial Advice," "The DOW Knows All," and "Joe Nocera."

Best line: "If I'd only followed CNBC's advice, I'd have a million dollars today, provided I started with a hundred million dollars."

Billmon Explains It All

In a piece titled "Chocolate Covered Cotton," Billmon, of the late lamented Whiskey Bar blog, takes a deep breath and with electrifying clarity and razor wit explains the history of the financial bubble that is still bursting all over the American economy -- and the world's house of cards. As a former financial services journalist and a regular at the Davos World Economic Forums, Billmon has more reserves of knowledge and insight than your average Fox News bimbo (and more than your average MSNBC gasbag, as well).

Might want to pour yourself a stiff drink before you start reading.

Madam Foxx Sees Red

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx has issued a statement. It's a dense congregation of nouns and verbs harassed by numerous adjectives and adverbs, but someone had to read it:

What She Said
Amidst the credit crunch and housing crisis too many Washington policy-makers have decided that the federal government must not only bail out teetering banks, but also credit card companies, automakers, life insurance companies and any other company that looks like it might benefit from a billion-dollar infusion of government cash.

What She Meant
This dip-shit running the government – what's his name? I met him once, I think, but didn't really catch his name – why, my housekeeper could do a better job of managing the economy than him, and she doesn’t even read English.

What She Said
As the Washington Post reported, the Bush administration is almost finished doling out the first $350 billion in bailout money.

What She Meant
That's his name! Bush. What a dork. I mean. Couldn't find his ass with both hands and a head start! Whoever put him in charge needs prescription drugs. Muy pronto.

What She Said
The whole bailout concept is now completely different from the bailout that was sold to America back in September (a concept I didn't buy in the first place).

What She Meant
It's tiresome (I know) being so eerily correct about absolutely everything all the time, but it's my cross to bear. Well, actually your cross.

What She Said
Congress can stop the madness.

What She Meant
Obama can suck his chocolate thumb!

Out of the Loop and Irrelevant

Just hours before members of his own party sent the financial bailout legislation down in flames, Sen. John McCain was in Columbus, Ohio, taking credit for making the deal happen. It's like, uh, nobody among the Republican House leadership bothered to tell their standard-bearer that the measure was going to fail ... as they surely had to know as early as last night.

Makes it clear that McCain's rushing to Washington last week was all part of a staged event so that he could take credit for the legislation. But ... oops. His own party let him down. Only 65 Republican members of the House voted for it. Some 95 Democrats voted against it.

They'll either write a better, fairer bill, or they'll watch the smoke rise over Wall Street a day or two and come back. At least half of my brain is glad they voted it down. The other half is rigid with terror.

Crap Sandwich

That's the term House Minority Leader John Boehner used to describe the financial rescue package, but he could have been speaking of any number of meals served up in the waning days of the failed Bush presidency.

Just this a.m. are headlines that would have attracted major fainting spells in any normal universe but which, under the present circumstances, get only yawns:

Citigroup Eats Wachovia Whole; Charlotte Can't Find Its Pulse

US Congress Passes $25 Billion Loan Guarantees to Fossils in Auto Industry

While her congressional leadership all prepare to munch on Bush's failure, Madam Foxx has been signaling furiously that she'll vote against the financial industry bailout. We think we'd join her in that. We think. Hard to know, since the wrong vote could actually be crucial in sending the whole she-bang into some bottomless tank.