We consumers let ourselves be lead, now as a nation and as individuals we must learn to double check everyone’s facts and figures, especially when they have their hand in our pocket.

Please forgive, but I always resented use of the editorial “We”. Especially in cases such as that which you revive as retrospective evidence.

Maybe the Molly Ivins’ and Ann Richards’ et al were overshadowed and unfortunately ignored, but warnings were out and about for all to examine.

Negligence was surely exhibited by some, but not by all involved in leadership positions.

Thank you for your comments, notwithstanding my lingering resentment that more did not join in to put on the brakes before we reached the current circumstances which will bedevil us and our brethren for many years to come.

selise did well, but there are a lot of details to this scam which make it work and make it nigh on impossible to undo. Enquiring minds want to know specifically who did each piece of this puzzle. If selise wants to measure up to emptywheel then there’s more work to be done.

LOL! measuring up to emptywheel is probably the furthest thing from my mind. just trying to contribute a bit as i am able.

that said, i agree that there is a lot missing from the story. i hope to add a series of diaries (and add lots more to the timeline) – but only on the legislative history. so, i don’t think i will ever be able to give you what you are looking for… but hopefully i can a few pieces to the puzzle.

But, when he refers to the “haves and have-mores” as his “base”, then I start thinking he means they’re his base, the base, his al qaeda.

Then when Al Qaeda says we’d better do what they want or they’ll kill our economy and stock market…and then the market crashes…and then AQ says they did it, despite the fact we have looked at it and can pinpoint precisely what caused it.

Well, all that makes me think Wall Street IS Al Qaeda and they’ve been blackmailing all politicians for over a decade to do what they want or else they’ll kill the economy. Zawahiri? Who knows, maybe they fund that organization and feed them lines to say.

But, now that the cat is out of the bag and we laugh at Zawahiri because we know it was changes to law instigated by Wall Street lobbyists, then what do we do? Obviously we fix the economy, but how do we provide proper justice to the guilty?

Does this mean we can connect the dots between Wall Street and AQ? At that point would AQ vanish into the mist as though they had never existed? bin Laden? Gone forever or was he just a hired hand who shaved his beard and melted back into the crowd of his home country?

I can’t help but think the recent attack in Mumbai is nothing more than a fancy distraction. Find the link between that and Wall Street, not Lashkar-e-taiba, and the whole charade vanishes. Pull back the curtain on those little men!

Naw, he was blaming Clinton. He just can’t count. Gramm-Leach-Bliley repealing Glass-Steagall was in 1999 and the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) was in 2000. As selise showed in her recent oxdown diary, although the Congress was controlled by the Republicans, these moves were pushed by both sides with no real objection or thought.

I read the timeline and almost all of the quotes. selise did a good job and picked some amazing quotes to tell the story. It’s hard to condemn those people when their own words tell the story.

I don’t know the contents of those deregulating laws and I wonder if the bad mortgage lending became possible because of those laws. Who wrote the law which allowed mortgages to be bundled and sold into the market as a mortgage-based collateralized debt obligation (CDO)? Which law allowed a mortgage to be split up and resold in a dozen CDOs? Who wrote the laws which bind mortgage servicers from reworking mortgages to fix them? Who specifically created the credit default swap, as opposed to other equity trade swaps?

selise did well, but there are a lot of details to this scam which make it work and make it nigh on impossible to undo. Enquiring minds want to know specifically who did each piece of this puzzle. If selise wants to measure up to emptywheel then there’s more work to be done.

It would all make a great scandal tell-all book, wouldn’t it?

What I think will happen in FL: Martinez will step down, Crist will appoint Jeb to finish out the term. Jeb will run again 2010, then shoot for Repub candidate for pres 2012.

God Forbid!!! I hope I’m wrong.

I think we can all exist on the same planet, pretty much.

Jane has done something wonderful in creating this Lake community.