BREAKING: Wall Street investigation launched
MoveOn members in action:
Dear MoveOn member,
Did you watch the State of the Union tonight? President Obama did exactly what hundreds of thousands of us have been calling on him to do—he announced a federal investigation into Wall Street. Here's what he said:
"I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans."
The best part is, progressive champion New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is co-chairing the investigation and will make sure it stays on track.
Just weeks ago, this investigation wasn't even on the table, and the big banks were pushing for a broad settlement that would have made it impossible. Your work changed all that.
This is truly a huge victory for the 99% movement. Hundreds of thousands of us signed petitions, made calls, and held signs outside in the cold to make this issue something that President Obama couldn't ignore. Here's some of what MoveOn members and our allies did to bring about this victory:
Over 360,000 of us signed a petition calling on President Obama to fully investigate the banks.
We delivered that petition at over 150 events last Thursday around the country at Obama for America campaign offices.
Our pressure on state attorneys general stopped the rush to a sweetheart deal that would have precluded this investigation.
And we've called, Facebooked, and tweeted at the White House repeatedly to ask the president to launch this investigation.
Great news
= new reply since forum marked as read
and to think Republican Steve Cooley could've won the position in last midterms since he was district attorney for L.A. and had deep pockets. It was close, but she ultimately won - yeeeaaaaah!
From January 2008 to the present, the SFDA High-tech Crime and ID Theft Unit has charged almost 75 new cases. The SFDA Elder Abuse and Real Estate Fraud Unit has filed twice as many felony cases from 2007 to 2008. Additionally, DA Harris has expanded the SFDA Consumer Protection Unit which handled over 450 consumer complaints in 2009.
Kamala Harris also formed the first stand-alone Mortgage and Investment Fraud Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office to investigate and prosecute financial predators. The United States Department of Justice awarded the SFDA a $1.06 million grant to establish the unit and intensify local efforts to protect consumers from mortgage and investment fraud.
http://www.kamalaharris.org/issues/594
I believe the president has been listening all along, and it was his intention to go after Wall Street considering how the DOJ awarded Kamala Harris a $1.06 million grant to establish the fraud unit back in 2008.
Kamala Harris, CA AGof going after fraud in the financial industry so even though I was contacted by various groups to call and e-mail her and sign a petition, I'm pretty sure she had no intention of "settling".
I heard the president mention something like that, too, but I know he's got a LOT of enemies in Congress. He, most likely and very vaguely, mentioned he might not go after the industry because he probably needed to find out who in Congress is on the take. You don't show your hand until the very last moment and you don't begin serous investigations unless you're certain laws have been broken and cases are prosecutable.
So, I was happy he made it clear he would focus on going after the banksters because that means he has enough evidence.
If this sounds kind of weird, it's because it's 2:30 in the morning here in CA and I'm waiting for my daughter to come home from work. I'm yawning like a sonofagun and am longing for my comfortable, warm bed, but I hate to think my daughter comes home to a dark house. 
to get some sleep 
Since he made the statement about there being more immorality than crime involved, he may have met with some of the Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, who were on the Committee for two years investigating the causes and who agreed that there is 'evidence of criminal activity'.
True which is why it was important that he mentioned this in the SOTU. I imagine he does have more information now. Maybe from some of those US Attorneys who have been looking into the crimes.
There are also the revelations about insider trading in Congress. I would have thought that was automatically a crime, it is for everyone else. I was surprised he mentioned it in the SOTU. But today I see there is a bi-partisan effort to make it illegal.
Pack your bags, you Wall Street scum.
It's off to prison with you.
BHN
