Alan Grayson: What a Real Accountability Free Zone Looks Like
Blue America's Alan Grayson and Florida's new rising star just keeps coming. And he hits on an important problem for our government. Do you get this? Because I really don't get this. The Federal Reserve has lent out TRILLIONS of dollars to private banks, and is keeping the recipients and the amounts a total secret. In an e-mail I received:
In a hearing yesterday, Congressman Alan Grayson asked
the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve whether she's keeping
track of the money. What money, she pretty much asks. You really have
to see this to believe it. I guess literally no one in government is overseeing what the Federal Reserve is doing with OUR money.
And it's no shock that Republicans are targeting Grayson as their public enemy # 1. He puts fear into their hearts and well he should.
I live in an adjoining district. His TV spots during his campaign were some of the best I've ever seen. Here's hoping he enjoys a long and fruitful career in Washington.
in the Senate and 435 Alan Grayson's in the House the Federal Reserve would be exposed for the criminal , private "banking" corporation it really is.
We'd have a National Single Payer Health Care System on the fast track, all troops would be coming home from abroad etc. etc. etc.
He is a national treasure. His constituents should be very proud.
As for me? My Congress person is Jane Harman.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Brilliantly calm, yet assertive and tenacious. He's seething beneath the surface at the audacity of these criminals.
it's like DC WANTS us to revolt.
You've been scammed.
Oh, yes. And we know it. And we're watching helpless as the powerful take even more from us.
The good news is, some day we die.
...the NAME of the Inspector General (Elizabeth Coleman) of the Federal Reserve. Sure I suppose one could google it, but that doesn't make it that more informative an article. Go Grayson!
Amato's email: "I guess literally no one in government is overseeing what the Federal Reserve is doing with OUR money."
And that's the crux of the problem - the banks (and the Federal Reserve is THEIRS lest you need be reminded) see it as THEIR money. To them it's a product, a commodity, like wheat or copper or oil. It most certainly is NOT OUR MONEY.
Of course I strongly disagree.
Someone defined "socialism" as the democratization of the economy. We have democratization of our politics (albeit somewhat of a sham way too much of the time) but democratization of the economy is NOT part of the "American Dream" where EVERYONE is viewed as a miniature capitalist climbing the ladder to economic success.
I would contend, however, that democratization of the economy (ie - economic socialism) is guaranteed in our Constitution.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
gonna' say that - good thing I read down the comments a bit.
In their view, it's their money., which they stoop to lend to our government at interest. We're supposed to feel privileged to work hard to pay taxes so our government can pay back the principal and interest to the banks that own the Fed.
After/if we get out of this mess, we should probably try to find a way to go back to the notion of having the US in charge of its' own currency.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
...as the Fed is a privately owned bank. The paper money we use is Fed Reserve Bank Note, which is not Treasury Dep't currency. We are just co-signers who backup the Fed Reserve's notes. The US is a part-owner, but not a majority owner. Unfortunately, in the end, we are all responsible for another privately owned business.
i wish he would follow up on everyone of her responses with:
why aren't you doing this?
are you going to do this?
why not?
if you haven't been doing this, then what have you been doing?
why can't you at least give some specifics?
do you have any sense of responsibility to the people of the united states to account for this money?
why do i feel like i am talking to george w. bush?
where is your sense of moral outrage at not knowing?
do you know what you are doing?
yeah, that is what i wish someone would ask.
...if she hadn't spent his whole time limit avoiding an answer.
knowing that, maybe he should have picked 1 or 2 key questions and just hammered the hell out of her to really show how f'd this is. sometimes a spectacle is good to rouse the people. joe mccarthy did it, but for some reason i feel this time it would be for something of importance.
let's start a blacklist of these jerks, the ones that f'd the economy. it seems to me that they are a greater threat than some card-carrying commie actor.
who is in a position to do something about this?
Our President or our Elected Representatives COULD nationalize the banks, take back OUR money from the Corporate Oligarchy.
Or .. each State could open its own bank (like North Dakota) and at least free itself and its citizens from the tyranny of the Corporate Bankers that way.
Bank On It: How Cash-Starved States Can Create Their Own Credit
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
Hmm. Repubs must be blanching over this news. How in hell do I get this started in my state?
Hell, I might even accept massive amounts of money from private banks to just stop mentioning it on blogs...
I've been wondering the same thing.
Why doesn't every state in the union start its own bank?
Obviously the Corporate Bankers would scream: "Private Enterprise can't stand the competition!!" .. after years of contending that privatization will ALWAYS beat the government for efficiency, etc.
States pay massive amounts of interest to Corporate Banks and COULD be pocketing those interest payments instead, just like North Dakota.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
You see if we actually hold the Fed to certain standards of accountability and transparency than it would in turn cause public debate/outrage and even political will into changing a system which has taken the public's money and turned it into private gain.
Consequently, for the sake of the financial institutions in which our esteemed Congressional and White House administrators feel are "too large to fail" we need to keep the public in the dark. Our nation's forefathers who were largely against such actions, seemingly would be ok with this because main-street populism in this country was kidnapped by douche-bag, right-wing reactionaries who care more about hating people with different color skin than theirs than fighting for economic justice.
This is what you need to understand Congressman Grayson. Hence if you don't obey, were gonna start calling you a Communist.
Call me a Democratic Socialist any time you want ..
It's time more left-wing Democrats and Independents own up to it!!
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
A "Michael Harrington/Democratic Socialists of America," european-style social democrat...
...of a new third party.
And it's no shock that Republicans are targeting Grayson as their public enemy # 1. He puts fear into their hearts and well he should.
Hey, aren't they always saying we shouldn't fear surveillance, unless you have something to hide...?
One of the fundamental principals of hegemonic authoritarianism is that there must always appear to be an 'opposition.' There must be what the social scientists call "lacunae." These are the empty rooms and blank hallways in which folks like Kucenich, and Shirley Chisolm, or Cynthia McKinney and now, apparently Alan Grayson--the unexpectedly dangerous ones--go to rail ineffectually into the blankness and darkness.
Probably he should avoid small, private aircraft, just to be safe...
Why, yes, it IS possible that the Intertubez are exactly such an instrument...
by these banks is working to transfer immense wealth from the public sector (taxes) to the private sector (investors).
We taxpayers are not represented at this negotiating table for a good reason: Its against our best interests because all we get is the debt.
If this keeps up and more people like Grayson are elected you can bet that the pig people will be screaming for term limits.
.
Let me get this straight. A Democratic president is in the White House. Democrats control both houses of Congress with substantial majorities. According to Naomi Klein, in an interview recently linked to at Crooks and Liars, the Treasury and the Fed are pulling off the greatest "heist" in history. And the take away from all this for the netroots is that those Republican scoundrels are targeting a freshman Democratic House member in the mid-terms in a Republican district which Bush carried by over 10 percentage points twice.
Good Lord, ditto-heads R Us.
It really indicates to me that we should be focusing far less on Republicans and their reich wing propagandists and start holding Dems feet to the fire.
I realize there are few progressives in the Dem party and that is the real problem here. The Dems are made up of a few progressives, a few corporatists and a few disgruntled Repubs. There will never be the political will to change anything with that make up. Dem majority is bullshit and doesn't mean a damn thing.
Let the fucking Repubs destroy their party, that's what they appear to be best at. Start focusing on who the Dems are that need to be replaced and encouraging progressives to challenge them.
Does anyone doubt that the vast majority of people in this country favor doing things the progressives have been pushing for?
This is where Naomi's "shock doctrine" could be put to good use if we had dems with balls in the White House and Congress.
No the take away is the lack of accountability and the theft of the treasury. You put the last part first.
The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
Who is in charge of protecting the treasury from theft? If you think that would be Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, do you know if he has a boss and whether or not that boss knows what's going on? If the responsible party is neither Geithner nor his boss, exactly who or what institution is responsible?
These days who is responsible for "the lack of accountability" you speak of? If it is not a "who" but rather an institution, what is the name of that institution. John Amato tells us Rep. Grayson puts fear in the hearts of Republicans. Sounds like he'd fit right in with the crowd on that Democratic gravy train, maybe he should run for office.
Lighten up.
I merely responded to your accusation that the netroots consists of dittoheads. Why diss the messenger(s)? This is informative stuff. Where else could you find this? We "take away" what we will. I could not care less about the republican party. This article helps point out that government incompetence still needs to be addressed aggressively, irregardless of what party is "in control".
The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
If you're asking about the video, I first saw it here. In an update Glenn Greenwald informs his readers:
As I'm sure you know Rep. Paul is a Republican from Texas. It seems to me getting behind something useful along the lines of this bill would serve the Democratic rank and file better than admiring another post about the outrageous ways of Washington which concludes by directing its fire at the out-of-power Republicans.
She is lost. Sounds like she just got back for a month long trip to Jamaica, and she didn't bother to even stop by the office to get her mail before going to this congressional hearing.
Could this possibly be why this country has it's financial head stuck up OUR ass so deeply? NOBODY is competent to watch these white collar crooks in action??
Can her ass and get somebody that speaks "finance". This bitch is toast.
...what the Federal Reserve does? It's not a federal agency, so why are they granted so much power over decisions that should be made by government?
This is an issue I am in agreement with Libertarians about; get rid of the Federal Reserve.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=70652...
It's worth watching.
Break out the tea bags!
If the angry populace on the right and the angry populace on the left and the angry populace in the middle could all stop bickering about abortion, gay rights, gun control, global warming, etc, etc, etc, and UNITE against the Corporate Crooks we could take over this nation.
THEY love having us divided against ourselves.
First Rule of the OverLords - set the peasants against themselves. And if necessary, declare a war and send your peasants into battle against each other. But whatever you do, DO NOT LET YOUR PEASANTS UNITE AGAINST YOU.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.
Jay Gould - still reputed long after his demise as the most unscrupulous of the 19th century American businessmen known as robber barons.
However, todays crooks are a setting new ethical lows.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Rep. Grayson has signed on to Ron Paul's HR 1207 to audit the Federal Reserve. It is up to 143 co-sponsors now, including a couple dozen progressive Democrats. Contact your congressmen and tell them to support this bill, we need to now what the Fed has done with $2 TRILLION in taxpayer money!
the last truly unregulated "free market"
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s[1][id]=BORROW
That's a graph of the money going out. It doesn't say to where of course.
But if you want an idea of the scale of recent borrowing, that graph starts in 1919.
........and Obama is enabling it. So much for "Hope". I voted for him, but I can see us getting shafted Bush style on Wall Street bailout, single payer health care, prosecution of our war criminals, and the ending of the wars.
I was worried about Bush-Cheney declaring themselves Pres-VP for life. This is not much different.
WTF?
Are chimpy and the shooter still in charge?
This is gross incopetence at the very least.
Why is this not all over the news networks? (As if I don't know)
...that the Federal Reserve Corporation should be abolished and it's functions returned to the government. The Fed really serves nobody but itself and the cartel of banks whose interests it exists to protect.
unfucking believable !!!
no wonder this country is in the toilet financially.
NO ONE IN WASHINGTON is accountable for anything
they do.
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