should american tax payer dollars go to financing facebook

facebook, the unprofitable company with 265 million users and the flimiest of business plans is in search of $100 million dollar to finance it’s growth over revenue business strategy. apparently the 100 million dollar infusion it got last year wasn’t enough. the company run by a 24 year old with zero business experience is looking at bank of america (which has borrowed money from the federal government) for assistance, according to business week.

do americans think their money is being tossed down one big black hole? you betcha.

senators who voted to deregulate banks

it was november 1999 and the following shows how senators voted to deregulate the u.s. banking industry (see below). this 90 u.s. senators voted yes to deregulating the banking industry. this list includes the following names: nancy pelosi, joe biden, chris dodd, evan byah, kit bond, and diane fienstein. the act is called the bank modernization act.

Alphabetical by Senator Name
Abraham (R-MI), Yea
Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Ashcroft (R-MO), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Nay
Breaux (D-LA), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Yea
Bryan (D-NV), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Yea
Burns (R-MT), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Campbell (R-CO), Yea
Chafee, L. (R-RI), Yea
Cleland (D-GA), Yea
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Coverdell (R-GA), Yea
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea
Daschle (D-SD), Yea
DeWine (R-OH), Yea
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Edwards (D-NC), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Yea
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Fitzgerald (R-IL), Present
Frist (R-TN), Yea
Gorton (R-WA), Yea
Graham (D-FL), Yea
Gramm (R-TX), Yea
Grams (R-MN), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Helms (R-NC), Yea
Hollings (D-SC), Yea
Hutchinson (R-AR), Yea
Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Jeffords (R-VT), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kennedy (D-MA), Yea
Kerrey (D-NE), Yea
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (D-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Mack (R-FL), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Nay
Moynihan (D-NY), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nickles (R-OK), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Robb (D-VA), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Roth (R-DE), Yea
Santorum (R-PA), Yea
Sarbanes (D-MD), Yea
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-NH), Yea
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Thomas (R-WY), Yea
Thompson (R-TN), Yea
Thurmond (R-SC), Yea
Torricelli (D-NJ), Yea
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea
Wellstone (D-MN), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Yea

here are the Nays teased out. there are only 8 of them. plus one ‘Not Voting’ (john mccain). and one present (fitzgerald, who is no longer an illinois senator).

NAYs —8
Boxer (D-CA)
Bryan (D-NV)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Shelby (R-AL)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Present – 1
Fitzgerald (R-IL)

Not Voting – 1
McCain (R-AZ)

this has been posted twice before. but only with a link. the link tends to mysteriously change on the senate voting page. curious that.

bill clinton repeal of glass steagall and the financial crisis

this was originally posted spetember 2008.

the glass steagall act passed during the depression era, tightly regulated the u.s. banking system. it stood the country in good stead for about 70 years –until bill clinton signed the bill in 1999 which repealed the glass steagall act.

according to an article in the new york times, from 1995, robert rubin, treasury secretary at the time, is on record as saying the clinton ‘administration continues to favor allowing banks to merge with insurance companies as well as securitites firms.’

the 1999 financial services modernization act, written by phil gramm, who had been advising john mccain up until this past july, was passed by both houses of congress and signed by bill clinton in the same year, the new law effectively repealed glass steagall and the bank holding act of 1956 which prohibited financial companies from owning banks and insurance companies.

glass steagall prohibited the merging of banks, securities firms, and insurance companies, while the financial services modernization act allowed for huge financial conglomerates.

both nancy pelosi and joe biden voted yes on repealling glass stegall on november 4, 1999 as did chris dodd and and bill clinton signed the bill into law one week later. barack obama was in the state senate at the time, so his hands are clean. and john mccain abstained from voting.

the gramm-leach-bliley act, also known as the financial services modernization act of 1999, passed the senate 90-8 and the house 362-57 on november 4, 1999.

i will continue to post variations of this post every few days or at least every few weeks. it is important for people to know where the blame lies. and it is squarely on the shoulders of congressional members from the 90s and especially bill clinton.

celebs admit they can't write, need help with twitter

twitter is all about expressing oneself in 140 characters or less. it’s like the motorola pagers that americans (and nobody else around the globe) embraced during the 1990s. this online version of the pager at least doesn’t charge you by the character. celebs like 50 cent, who doesn’t even know how to spell his own name, confess to using ghost writers to compose their tweets.

brazil president blames blue-eyed white people for global crisis

president luiz inácio lula da silva apparently failed to clarify the role of green-eyed white people. but it is believed that his message got across to uk prime minister gordon brown, who was standing next to the brazil president when he made his comments in portugese. although he did not directly agree with the president it should be noted that prime minister brown did not 100% dismiss this assertion. the financial times quotes the president of the largest country (population-wise) in south america, and an economic powerhouse in its own right, as saying, ‘This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.’

worst james bond film ever now on dvd

in honor of ‘quantum of solce’ (aka, the worst james bond film ever) having been released on dvd worldwide this month. we would like to post some of the reviews of this film and refer you to the comment sections where time and time again fans say, that this is by far the worst james bond film ever, with ‘casino royale’ (the daniel craig version) being the second worst and daniel craig himself being the worst.

about a decade ago, there was a documentary on the bond films that was basically about the late cubby broccoli. and his offspring who took over from him said the only instructions he ever gave them was, “don’t fuck it up.” and well, it looks like they have.

the last two films have abandoned all that made bond the film that bond fans loved to see opening weekend. bond is like a rugged wolverine type. there’s no ‘shaken not stirred’ martini, Q is gone, money penny ist weg, the gadgets have disappeared, and bond no longer utters the phrase ‘bond, james bond.’ all the fun has been completely sucked out of the films as the producers go in search of the jason bourne fans.

the independent says it best. “macho bond is fun free.” the daily mail calls this sad excuse for a bond film, the quantum of nonesense. this london times interview actually is an okay interview. but you need to scroll down to the bottom to read the scathing fan reviews.

frank rich writes angry obama editorial

generally rich’s opinion pieces in the new york times are pro-democrat left-tilting screeds. today he seems a little like an angry democrat given to populism. impressively, he takes a page from this blog and goes out of the way to point out that timothy geithner, while at the fed, was one of 3 people who let lehman brothers fail yet saved bears stern and so on and so forth. that he was president of the new york federal reserve means that geithner deserve a considerable bit of blame.

it’s also great that someone with a major newspaper has finally fingered the clinton administration (bill clinton, larry summers, and robert rubin) as haven been complicit in deregulating the banking industry in the 1990s. but what about all the others who voted for it including joe (i live in delaware where most corporations are incorporated to avoid paying state taxes) biden, and nancy pelosi.

jade goody dies of cervical cancer

there’s a lot of stories about this uk reality t.v. star turned celebutante who died today. she was the much despised ‘star’ of the uk version of big brother. and then celebrity big brother.

in the endless reams of articles that have poured out over the past few months since jade goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer, there seem to be a big hole in the coverage. yes, her situation has pushed the NHS in the uk to consider screening women under 20 for this disease. this disease as seen, can be fatal, and is generally contacted by highly sexually active women. if you read this bit in the guardian, it explains how the disease is contacted. with the most important lines being “The evidence shows, however, that the more often somebody picks up the virus (picked up via a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer), particularly if they have many sexual partners, the higher their risk that HPV will trigger cervical cancer.” there’s no conversation about abstinence. or questions about teen sex. how many sex partners did ms. goody have? is it unfeeling to ask? could be good information. as she lived and died in public, it doesn’t seem to be a question that should be put off limits. we know that the whole abstinence thing didn’t really work with bristol palin. but for someone to die at 27, it could’ve been a good question for the british media to have asked.

meredith kercher tried to phone mother

according to a news report on fox news. meredith kercher, the british coed who was murdered almost 2 years ago while studying in italy. may have tried to ring her mothere while she was being attacked. american, amanda knox (aka, foxy knoxy) and her boyfriend italian raffaele sollecito, are on trial for murder. a third suspect was found guilty last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

mfa for celeb at columbia; fingerpointing in natascha richardson accident about to start

does one need an mfa to write? and how uncouth are columbia students that they feel the need to stalk a a guy who just wants to get a degree.