where's al gore? bill clinton plays hero for gore's journalists in north korea

hats off to the new york post for being basically one of the only newsgathering organizations that includes that these female 2 journalists, laura ling and euna leenabbed, who were nabbed by the north korean army and thrown into prison, work for al gore’s TV studio, current TV.

why didn’t al gore go to meet kim jong il? afraid? looks like bill clinton is still hard at work trying to rescue his badly worn image.

bill clinton pelosi and biden repealled bank regulation law in 1999

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 it stood the country in good stead for about 70 years –until bill clinton signed the bill in 1999 which repealed the glass steagall act.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past july, was passed by both houses of congress and signed by bill clinton in the same year, the new law effectively repealed glass steagall and the bank holding act of 1956 which prohibited financial companies from owning banks and insurance companies.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 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 199, 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.

joe the plumber saves the mccain campaign

over the weekend, both barack obama and john mccain sent themselves and each other up (as well as billary clinton) at a white tie affair in manhattan (see below).

peggy noonan of the wall street journal stepped up to give both mccain, and his much maligned running mate sarah palin, a backhanded compliment saying joe the plumber has done a better job of laying out the republican platform than the republican party.

the so-called joe factor. should not be overlooked. that mccain has been able to attach a visual image to barack obama’s taxation proposal has probably helped as well. reuters/cspan/zogby now show john mccain as being only 2.7 percentage points behind barack obama. which is a statistical tie. these numbers are reflected on gallup.com as well, for likely voters.

hillary clinton, failed DC bar, wants supreme court appointment

is this even possible? according to the ever reliable new york post, billary clinton are doing the bare minimum to get obama in the white house because mr. obama won’t guarantee that he’ll nominate hill to the supreme court. given that she has never served as a judge and failed the dc bar. what are the clintons thinking?

nancy pelosi voted for bank deregulation

nancy pelosi took the time to bash george w. bush prior to the vote on the $700B wall street bailout plan that was before the u.s. house of representatives today. in the video linked to above, she rails against ‘no regulation, no supervision, no discipline,’ presumably of the u.s. banking system and not the iraq war.

but the reality is this, nancy pelosi voted to repeal the glass-steagall act in 1999, which regulated the u.s. banking system as a response to the financial fallout of the great depression. glass-steagall stood the country in good stead for over 70 years.

the move toward bank deregulation and less supervision in the 1990s is believed by many to be at the heart of this global financial crisis. pelosi’s beloved bill clinton, whom she praised in her ill-timed speech, signed the damn thing. click here to see how pelosi voted on the financial modernization act which is described in the summary of the bill as: ‘an act to enhance competition in the financial services industry by providing a prudential framework for the affiliation of banks, securities firms, and other financial service providers, and for other purposes.’ written by republican phil gramm, the bill got a lot of yeas. only a handful of democratic senators voted against it, including california’s barbara boxer and only one republican senator voted against it. while john mccain didn’t vote. joe biden voted yes. barack obama had the fortune of being in the illinois state senate at the time.

obama attacks bill clinton's economic legacy

according to the financial times, during the presidential primaries, barack obama clearly laid the blame on the financial crisis that was unfolding on banking deregulation in the 1990s.

u.s. financial meltdown clinton greenspan

at the moment loads of people are fingering alan greenspan. but a lot of the press has failed to point the finger at the 1999 repeal of the glass-steagal act. according to pbs “in 1933, senator carter glass (D-Va.) and congressman he enry steagall (D-Ala.) introduce the historic legislation that bears their name, seeking to limit the conflicts of interest created when commercial banks are permitted to underwrite stocks or bonds.” it stood in good stead (albeit with a bit of tinkering) for 75 years until congress and bill clinton repealed it in 1999 following hundreds of millions of dollars worth of lobbying efforts by banks. under the gise of making the u.s. banking industry more competitive, the financial services modernization act passed by an overwhelmingly majority in congress and was signed by bill clinton.

joe biden voted yes and john mccain did not vote. barack obama was somewhere in illinois. house speaker nancy pelosi voted to repeal glass-steagal as well.

but the sponsor of the bill, phil gramm was advising john mccain at some point during his campaign.

democrats only crossed 50% mark 2 times since FDR

is it any wonder that barack obama is struggling? the democratic party, on the national level has only crossed the 50% threshold 2 times since 1944. in 1992, bill clinton only got 43% of the vote. and in 1996, he took home but 49%.

these county by county maps of 1992 and 1996 show the voting patterns of the u.s., county by county, favors the republicans. the democrats dominate the cities while the republican party dominates the rural areas. unfortunately for the democrats, far more americans live in the burbs and countryside than live in the cities these days. the the bar graphs for 1996 show that the margin of difference between bob dole and clinton was ross perot, the third party candidate who peeled votes away from the republican party in 1992 as well.

bill clinton, fade to grey

billary clinton just won’t go away. bill clinton has just nabbed a prime-time speaking spot on day 3 of this year’s democratic national convention. he follows hillary who will speak on day 2. and more notably, speaks before whomever will ultimately be obama’s running mate (aka, vp). are the clintons relevant? will they cause obama problems over the next 90 days? is machavellian bill willing to fade to black like previous presidents (see richard nixon)? bill clinton makes george bush the elder look like the dali lama every time he opens his big mouth.

john mccain leaves no email trail

although the headline for the uk paper, the daily telegraph screams, ‘john mccain technology illiterate,’ they fail to explore the finer points of mccain’s decision to remain partially in a digital black hole. as mccain prefers to rely on the phone, just like george w. bush, so unlike bill clinton and richard nixon, there will be no paper trail when (or if) john mccain gets into and leaves the white house.