This is what happens when you allow criminals to stay free and be rewarded.

(With respect to the downgrading of US debt by S&P.)

The ratings agencies were the indispensable, perhaps most important participants in the greatest financial fraud in all history: the packaging of bad mortgage debt for sale to naive investors around the world. The banksters could have never perpetrated their fraud, with losses to investors in the trillions, without relying on the ratings agencies to confer AAA ratings on their fraudulent paper. It was the magic word of Moody's and Co. that sold the shit to the patsies.

In 2008 and in 2009, the United States had a chance to round up the banksters for their fraud. Instead, they were rewarded with many trillions of dollars in bailouts from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. As a result, the same criminals remain on top of the world financial system today, now more powerful than ever. They control all of the relevant institutions of government.

One of the first moves in a prosecution of the criminal class would have been to seize Moody's, S&P and Fitch for their central role in the fraud. Instead, these particular criminals were allowed to continue sitting in judgement over the governments of the world. It didn't matter that public debts of governments, states and localities skyrocketed as a direct result of the private sector bankster fraud, and the resulting global economic disasters.

Now these monsters are allowed to give the signal to squeeze ever-higher interest rates out of the world's taxpayers, and at the same time you can be certain that they will continue to enable further bankster frauds in the future. They will call the public sector risky and give good grades to private-sector boondoggles, because the private sector pays their bills.

Why not? All they've learned is that crime pays. No one is held responsible. After the crash, bonuses go up.

And bearing the primary fault for the situation today is the Democratic chief executive and his team of advisers: banksters themselves. The Obama administration didn't create this mess, but by allowing the criminals to be rewarded, they allowed its perpetuation.

The same of course applies to the failure to prosecute the criminals of the Bush regime: the planners and wagers of wars of aggression, of torture, of the new global surveillance and police state, of incalculable taxpayer plunder and the resulting public deficits. They too have been rewarded for their crimes, both by immunity from prosecution, and by continuation of their policies by the new government.

Now, because the Democratic leadership did not show the courage to pursue justice, the Republicans will return to commit even worse crimes. However, Obama and his corporatist coterie did not blow it. Their loyalties, as with the Republican leaders, are to the corporatists and the warfare state, not the people.

Let us hope there are enough Democrats left to fight for this party's restoration to the ideals of political and economic justice. It's not about who Obama is, but what he has done, by which he must be judged -- and, if we win the damned lottery, primaried before his extremely likely 2012 general election loss.

Those who support the renomination of Obama after these awesome failures to do the right thing, and the resulting continuation of Bush's economic disasters, are precisely those who will enable the election of the Republicans in 2012.

n/t

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I'm sure third parties who read the OP and then your reply will be thoroughly persuaded.

Has it occurred to you that you must actually sell your product with arguments, that spitting won't work?

Why would I rehash what is standard procedure on too many threads daily? People know the truth.

I don't know anything about 3rd parties, I'm a Democrat. You may not remember what they are, but they support the Democratic Party and the Democratic President and they do not whine about wanting a new/different/progressive/far left party to trash that Democratic President.

You got anything else to say?

I know, it's a difficult concept to understand. And no doubt certain combinations of words may hurt your eyes, like the red flag before the bull. But I wrote in standard English, which you seem also to know, so I'm sure there's hope that you will actually understand what I wrote, rather than what you prefer to read.

However, No Sale.

10 Recs and counting so far.

after mine.

Any comment on that, Jaxx?

NT!

And as a third party observer to the conversation, Jack's meaning is very clear to me.

Sounds like you're attributing critical thinking skills to someone who's not even CLOSE. You can probably wade through the depths of his intellect without getting the tops of your toes wet...

;)

Or ladies, as the case may be...

Anarchy in the streets would surely be the result! :scared:

Great OP.
:kick:

lol

they have become meaningless road bumps to reality with neon name tags, they have become the mundane costs of searching out such truths.

No longer able to drown out those truths, as the oncoming tide rolls in; they become no more than churlish spoiled adolescent bullies, with no more to say in rebuttal than, "your mother wears army boots".

This of course, is not to imply that you of all people are a speedbump.

Also a supporter of the poor, workers, unions, the elderly, minorities, teachers, veterans, quality public education for all, civil rights, etc.

The DU poster who doesn't remember what a Democrat is looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Its you, Jaxx.

To be a Democrat means more than just calling yourself one! It's not just a designer label. It has to do with values, not a slick advertising campaign. Do you remember that old saying - if it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, maybe it is a duck? Now substitute the word "Republican"...

saluting the party's leadership.

Way to go Fey! :applause:

The lemmings who follow their leaders off a cliff are called Republicans. No values, just a noun, a verb, and 9/11!

is ever so much more important than facing facts and/or believing in principles.

The truth that the Majority of Americans are suffering while a very small percentage (2%-10%, and that is being very optimistic) control most of the wealth in America. The unemployment or underemployment rate is about 22% and

while the cost of living skyrockets, due to the banksters and financiers, (who count themselves in that 2-10%), average Americans buying power is diminishing. Hell, SS recipients do not even get COLA increases on their meager

checks because the elite refuse to admit that the cost of living has increased. I am sure that with their vastly increased cash reserves that they do not even realize that Fact.

Most of us on DU have considered ourselves Democrats for much of our lives. While (until possibly recently) Republicans have almost always put party before policy, Democrats have mostly (obviously not all) always prided

themselves on putting people first. Thus the moniker, "the peoples party." Finally, Americans from "both parties" are realizing that the difference in "parties" no longer exists. We now have a Corptocracy in which (sadly) the majority

of leaders in both, now pursue the same agenda. The concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. Fortunately we do have hope. For those who read poll results from non-political sources, the realization that the majority of

Americans want the same things; universal health care, an end to tax breaks for the wealthy, real regulations on financial institutions (like we used to have), the creation of living wage jobs through fair trade instead of free trade

actually, the majority now wants what used to be considered Democratic reforms. However, politicians from neither party (for the most part) are not paying attention. They keep voting for the benefit of the monied elite.

People who advocate for supporting "the party" despite the fact that the "party" refuses to support your ideals, are too reminiscent of the rethug party during the bush disaster. Look where that has gotten us.

It is so nice to read a well thought out post!!! If you run for office, I'll vote for you!!! Later...

Of course it doesn't mean unnecessarily trashing him either. But the OP is correct. The Obama Administration let those crooks on Wall Street off the hook, and he welcomed some of them into the highest levels of his administration. And that being the case, I am going to call Obama on it, Democratic president or not. And when I agree with Obama on other issues, which I often do, I will offer him my support.

Lol! We sure do. :rofl:

Your last paragraph says it all. Now lets draft Spitzer for 2012.

TRUNCATED! that was the word I was looking for

:applause:

While unscrupulous.... I think the flaw here is was it illegal...?? Downright bull$hit yes.. Should be illegal, perhaps. But illegal?

:shrug:

They were told not to examine the shit, because thanks to the miracle of private-sector competition, the banksters had the option of taking their shit to one of the other ratings agencies. Remember, the banksters pay the bill to receive ratings on their own shit.

Their false representations and omissions of material facts to their customers were a crime.

I think the flaw here is, if you own the government will they prosecute you?

Eventually the criminals get so rich and powerful that their able to hand pick - via campaign contributions and bribes -

the (lesser evil) politicians, the ones most voters will vote for in pretend elections.

And as the crony politicians legalize more and more crime.

The criminals will own everything, and the "law" will eventually criminalize the honest working class people who will loose everything, including respect for the law.

Mans law is not an act of nature or some imaginary god, it is a culture of well armed men imposing their will over others.

Laws come from mans conscience or the lack thereof (anti-conscience); they promote and protect liveliness (live) or they diminish and destroy liveliness (evil).

All in the name of the law.

Obama, so far, has been on the side of making crime easy for the criminals who are out to destroy the liveliness of working people everywhere.

In my opinion, he is distorting the law, so criminals can to do the work of evil.

And it's the work of evil to reverse reality and shift the blame onto those who are not to blame, onto those who have a conscience,

and almost no representation in government.

:toast:

S&L scandal's William Black on Bill Moyers:
Tim Geithner covering up massive fraud by bailed out banksters

http://www.correntewire.com/sl_scandals_william_black_bill_moyers_tim_geithner_covering_massive_fraud_bailed_out_banksters

disgusting and demoralizing that I feel sickened,frustrated and angry. It continues today and there is no end in sight.

Sometimes knowledge is not power..and ignorance is bliss.

(maybe for the sake of my own sanity)I just have to believe there is no way that this will not totally collapse of its own massive,rotten weight sooner or later. There will have to be a reckoning- I just don't want to think about the shape of it right now, because I think there will have to a lot more human suffering yet before it comes. Not nearly enough people understand yet what's been going down and how it's continuing.

They just know they are feeling they are taking it in the teeth.

Jack Riddler, saying the same thing, and all of them make more sense than anyone trying to defend what is going on right now.

The illogical can never make sense, can it? (Except for those who are corrupt enough to be bought off, and for those too stupid to comprehend.)

Thank you for bringing it up again.

bully in the class room to decide what grade you get....

"He who refuses to punish evil commands it to occur."

Aint it the truth!

I think the author is soft pedaling liberal anger; it isn't that the Pres. hasn't done enough -- he's worked actively to dismantle much of the liberal programs we fought for over the past 100 years.

are merely the bones and crumbs that have been thrown to the people when it was considered by the rich that nothing else would stop open rebellion or revolution or the development of a viable third party (see fdr, johnson).

the rich are several steps ahead of us. they see crisis coming, what with ecological disaster and end of oil resources impending. they have built plenty of prisons and holding areas, have instituted the draconian legal basis for detention, and private security forces await any disruption. they are amassing wealth as the immense buffer they will need to survive.

in addition, they believe they have sufficiently brainwashed the masses to resist resistance. they may be right, but it seems to me that in the end there is nothing that can stop the masses from fighting to preserve themselves.

now that the aggression has become so obvious (see the obama presidency), the only question now is: when will it blow. it really can't be far off.

I was born in 1952 and I just retired. I am a product of the 60s and the fight against the Viet Nam war. I saw resistance and change. While I was working we were taught about "continuous improvement" as a way of improving business practices, reducing time wasted on recurring problems and incrasing productivity and revenue. I had written a note one day to the head of security regarding a practice I considered a waste of money. To my surprise the people who were 10 years my junior warned me that I would hurt my career and they would build up charges against me and I would be fired if I persued my course of action. this kind of thinking bothers me when people say, "You can't fight cith hall." you sure can!!! We did it in the 60s and 70s and it's what's going on in Wisconsin right now. To coin a phrase, "I believe we've awakened a sleeping giant." The middle class needs to wake up and realize that no one is going to rescue us. We need to band together and start to kick ass. President Obama has tried to show that fair play in negotiations is the gentleman's way but we can't negotiate with those who will not join in the give and take. Now we need to send the President our letters and tell hin that we are pissed off and he should take no prisoners. He needs to let the congress know that their job is to make life better for the American people and if they don't start doing their jobs then we'll start by voting the GOP out of office then rebuild the unions and stop the misappropriation of funds by corporations that support the wealthy. Nobody is going to do it for us people!!!! Let's get the payola and coruption out of congress and the supreme court!!! Where the hell are our oversight committees??!!

relying on obama or the democrats is absolutely foolhardy and WILL NIOT WORK.

frankly, i have to wonder why you're responding this way to my post if not to dilute (i.e., oppose) what i wrote.

your way is wrong and will not work. for the people to see obama and the democrats as (part of) the problem and act accordingly is the only thing that will work.

the government of the united states is fucked and cannot be relied on. nothing short of radical reform is going to do anything. radical reform requires radical thinking. yours is not.

that's what i learned from the 60's...70's, 80's. 90's, etc.

The goal is peaceful Satyagraha, but I suspect we'll see blood in the streets. The Capital police are just so eager to keep the hoi polloi in check...

That just plays into the Cock Bros. agenda.

Yes Obama is a Bankster-whore/wolf in a hopey-changey/sheep's clothing.
You'll get no argument from me on that point.

However he's also a decent human being, who pointedly asked us long ago,
once elected, to hold his feet to the fire, to MAKE HIM do the right thing,
rather like the civil rights movement MADE JFK do the right thing.

He's asking for it ... so let's re-elect him, keeping the fight within
the Democratic Tent, then once he's re-elected occupy Wash. DC with a
genuine Peoples' Uprising, and stay there, like they did in Egypt,
until we get what we want. (i.e. an end to the wars, single payer,
prosecuting criminal Banksters, etc.)

I want him to know that he'd damn well better start fighting FOR us instead of AGAINST us.

I don't believe he is a decent human being. A decent human being would not dismantle the social safety net that millions of the less fortunate rely on. He plays a role, like Clinton and Reagan before him.

Bush? He was an obvious greedy unethical child of privilege. His role was cowboy war president -no imagination required.

it has come back to bite us in the butt. :(

we wouldn't have had Cheney, Rumsfield, and Kissinger around to plague us. Imagine how different the world would be today.

tricksters) might just be finishing serving a federal sentence :)

My friend told me that they just released it, or were going to shortly. He said it was Nixon's grand jury testimony about Watergate, but I don't recall Nixon giving testimony to a grand jury so I am sort of lost on that news item.

DU about it and didn't get to it in time. Apparently, Nixon testified to a grand jury in 1975 from his San Clemente home:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/judge-orders-nixon-grand-jury-testimony-unsealed/2011/07/29/gIQA5NHJhI_blog.html

Typically, grand jury testimony has been granted the highest level of secrecy in American jurisprudence. And the government can appeal this judge's ruling that the testimony be released.

I do plan to revisit all the Watergate histories soon. Last time American Constitution and judicial processes worked as designed by the founders. After Watergate came Iran Contra, Operation Shocking and Awful, and so on.

I can't wait to read it!!

I know Nixon is going to have testified that he was an innocent victim.
I just know it.

general political awareness. The events of that summer (and the 18 months preceding it) now seem larger than life to me, the various heroic figures (Sam Ervin, Tom Railsback, Archibald Cox) and the various villains (Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Colson, Dean) all seem like mythic figures from a time when the Constitution worked as designed.

To see the magesty of Watergate followed a mere 12 years later by the bloodless coup known as Iran-Contra and all subsequent coups just breaks my heart if I let myself stop to think about it too much.

I remember that time period in the early 70s like it was yesterday.
Especially when Nixon went on tv and said during a press conference --

"I welcome this kind of an examination. Because people have to go know, whether or not their President's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

And then about 18 months later, he turned and flashed the peace sign with both hands, with his arms raised high above his head, and then got on the helicopter, Air Force One, for the last time.

remember Reagan busting the PATCO strike -- days that will live forever in ignomy in the history of American labor -- and subsequent events with much more personal clarity.

My parents refused to allow a TV in the house when I was growing up, so I had to hear the various Watergate proceedings on the radio and read about them in the print media. So I don't have the tv references you have. But I remember listening glued to the radio when the House Judiciary Committee was conducting the initial impeachment hearings.

Nixon looks like a saint compared to Bush and Cheney, imho. Nixon actually looks pretty good when held up against Reagan for that matter. My opinion only. Reagan should have been impeached and removed for Iran Contra. And Bush and Cheney should be on trial for war crimes at the Hague. (Come to think of it, Nixon and Kissinger might have some war crimes charges in southeast Asia to answer for, though.)

we are still dealing with today. It also showed that a President can be above the law. Since then we find that other Presidents take advantage of that.

if we're a nation of laws, it should be the judicial system the ones prosecuting the president, he is after all nothing but a citizen. If we're to believe this really is a class less society.

Instead we have politicians self regulating themselves, for the most part. It is like letting thieves prosecute themselves and expecting anything good to come out of that.

constitutional amendment repealing his pardoning power. That is very unlikely.

:silly:

:thumbsup:

Rec

I've always felt that there was no way things are going to fundamentally change in this country until the criminals are brought to justice, and those free roaming criminals go waaaayyy back.

Welcome to DU!:hi:

:hi:

eerily prophetic with each passing day.

Foreign governments are not stupid. At some point they Will want accountability. The W administration will be uncloaked and branded.

We will know they are just jealous because they aren't the greatest nation in the world. :rofl: :sarcasm:

Nice to see your work again here on DU. The concluding statements are pure gold. Cheers. :toast:

...where he was ambassador during the Reagan era. He said he "never knew" about the goings on during Paul Wellstone's grilling for UN ambassador (and Paul himself survived an assignation attempt while visiting Columbia as a US Senator).

What Negroponte "did not know" was about the "death squads" trained in The School of the Americas who dropped nuns from airplanes, burned and raped whole villages, murdered priests ~ and perhaps the most notorious was the assassination of Archbishop Romero.

He never paid a thing for his compliance. Yet who was sent to Iraq as ambassador? Negroponte. Within 2 weeks of being assigned, Iraqi death squads began to flourish.

Coincidence? Many of those murderers above never paid a thing and went on to foment another war in Iraq ~ and reap millions in profit, and then drain our country of our own resources.

But hey as an activist in the "Sanctuary Movement" during that time, trying to tell even "progressives" as to what was happening down there was like talking to a wall. Conservatives and liberals alike all LAUGHED when we tried to tell them, "if this is not addressed WE are next..."

Goddamn idiots! Thanks a lot!

Cat in Seattle

Somewhere in the universe, a bell is ringing, and some angels are getting their wings.

I just people like you were on the ballot for local, and not so local, offices in 2012.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1675162

Same idea, nicer words.

"Those who support the renomination of Obama after these awesome failures to do the right thing, and the resulting continuation of Bush's economic disasters, are precisely those who will enable the election of the Republicans in 2012."

My support of Obama has NOTHING to do with electing Republicans.

Actually, people who oppose Obama because of his failures to deliver on his promises ALSO do not want to elect Republicans.

The accusation is frequently raised that those who want to primary Obama ARE Republicans. This is untrue.

All I'm saying is that Obama is now the weaker candidate, because of his failures to do the right and just things that history demanded, like bring justice to the financial system. Now the banksters are turning around and screwing him, and he has fewer friends thanks to this "deal."

So if you support Obama, I think you're helping to elect a Republican. NOT intentionally.

You think the inverse. But I hope that you don't assign a dishonest motive to those who don't support Obama in the primaries.

If people don't support Obama next year, they should leave DU, plain and simple.

Yours is the preference of a censor, not a persuader. Is this how you will convince people? Follow the leader, or get lost?

What is a Democrat?

Someone who makes pretty speeches then helps the Republicans taint every policy till it's worthless garbage or, worse, a clone of Republican legislation that Democrats in the past defeated?

Or is a Democrat someone who defends the rights of women, the poor, unions, teachers, firemen, police, someone who works *for* equal access to healthcare, education, and opportunities for all.

Remember: It's the Republicans who follow their leaders off a cliff like so many lemmings.

Need I say it again? 2010. Failure to lead, failure to drop his idiotic appeasement of the Rupuglicans, failure to end his moronic attempts to get "even one of our Republican friends" on his side for any legislation, failure to end a dozen BUSH policies that are anti-Democratic, etc. The Obama Presidency will go down in history as the equal to Chamberlaine in the UK or Herbert Hoover, perhaps a mix of both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain
... "The right honourable Barack Obama."

I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.

I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.

The cold sweat melted from their limbs,
Nor rot nor reek did they:
The look with which they looked on me
Had never passed away.

An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;
But oh! more horrible than that
Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.

In short, a complete waste of your time. (But not a waste of my time since I recognized it was just a cut and paste waste of space I skimmed to the bottom in 2 seconds -- you wasted zero time from me)

That's why you're soooooo yesterday.

LoL

The same of course applies to the failure to prosecute the criminals of the Bush regime: the planners and wagers of wars of aggression, of torture, of the new global surveillance and police state, of incalculable taxpayer plunder and the resulting public deficits. They too have been rewarded for their crimes, both by immunity from prosecution, and by continuation of their policies by the new government.

Corruption all the way down.

Did they let their puppets in the GOP party know yet? :eyes:

Lou

So the solution to the problem of overrated credit is more overrated credit.

That's brilliant.

No, I am not upset that S&P downgraded the United States debt. I said nothing of the sort, if you can read. I also said nothing about whether and how much the US should continue to borrow. That's your projection, sir.

I am upset that after playing a primary role in the subprime securities fraud perpetrated by the top Wall Street banks, the financial gangster organization known as S&P is still allowed to exist so as to do anything, including downgrading US debt. I am upset that there is an S&P, at all.

As recently as 2002, the large and storied accounting firm Arthur Andersen was terminated for no worse a fraud (in that case: Enron) than the one committed by the ratings agencies in the run-up to the 2008 banking crash.

The lawlessness of the financial elites has now extended to the point where the criminals are never punished, always rewarded, and always given MORE power than before. Then, laughably, they sit in judgment on the states that rescued and rewarded them. Talk about chopping off the hand that fed you!

(As for US debt, it probably deserves worse than an AA+, although if everything's relative in a chaotic world, US debt may still be the most secure of all investments.)

before Dodd-Frank.

http://swidlaw.com/Media.aspx?MediaID=11652

Your little tirade looks silly given that critical piece of information.

The ratings agencies were being paid NOT to examine the junk, just rate it AAA. They participated willingly. Subpoenas and indictments could have been brought, their business brought to a standstill. Some whistleblowers had already appeared, more would have come. Rats would have turned on the bankster sponsors. For what they did -- helping in frauds that destroyed economies -- they should have been and could have been destroyed as businesses, rendered incapable of striking again, whether or not executives and ratings writers would have ended up without prison sentences thanks to your imagined "immunity."

Did you even read it? Do you think providing a link with no quote or analysis suffices to support whatever unfounded claim you attribute to it?



In other words, there is legal opinion that you can't claim First Amendment protection for ratings delivered in exchange for payment, which are claimed to be authoritative. That is commercial speech, and fraud laws should apply when an agency intentionally fails to vet a product, but merely serves up a AAA rating in exchange for cash, thus deceiving the investors who can only buy a product that is rated AAA (such as pension funds).

Now imagine if the federal government, instead of saving and rewarding the bankster criminals for their millennial fraud with the subprime securities and derivatives, had instead thrown its considerable weight behind investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators, shutting down and liquidating the zombie banks. Going after the ratings agencies for their part in the fraud would have been an indispensable part of such a strategy.

Now we find out that S&P made its downgrade on the basis of a faulty budget assessment. They're amateurs, waging class war on the public sector, on behalf of their bankster clients and class.

.

(same link). The pertinent points are -

1- prosecuting them (as you demand) would be a waste of time until the SCOTUS rules on the CALPERS decision that the CRA's opinions
were "actionable misrepresentations" (which we would agree they were).

2- Dodd-Frank removes their immunity legislatively, but sadly, the CRA's can challenge that as well.

In either case, your demand that they be prosecuted is premature and without legal footing.

You try expecting a mere 6 cents a post and see how much you get right?

Easier to do it for free, and for idealistic reasons like stating truth, than when forced to do to so on account of no ability to get a real job.

I would think that enough banksters were not in on this that S&P will finally be taken down...if Eric Holder can be convinced to act. Which is a BIG if.

"Angkor wot" enough, or too much?

n/t

What's your problem?

Plus how could a nation survive without these credit rating agencies?

:sarcasm:

This is what happens when we reward criminal behavior. With Bush, with Wall Street and election fraud.

any consequences...they will get bolder and bolder.

:kick: and rec'd

on my FB page, citing you, of course. Thank you!

The last sentence nails it.

K&R

You've been a bright light here for years.

sw

But it doesn't trump peace sometimes - it is the be-all end-all of these greedy motherfuckers. They are like crack addicts when it comes to money - they cant get enough of it and they will stomp over anyone and anything to get it.

them. The agencies were pilot fish swing under neath the sharks. I don't think they have change any in the past 4 years.

I just saw this pic:

:kick:

https://secure.firedoglake.com/page/s/investigate-sp?source=email&subsource=v1

Sign our petition to the SEC: Revoke S&P’s authority as a credit ratings agency for their use of ratings as a political weapon and their attempt to avoid responsibility for their role in the financial crisis of 2008.

On the same day a bipartisan Senate committee found that Standard & Poors' misleading mortgage ratings fueled the financial crisis of 2008, S&P threatened to downgrade the US credit rating to discourage further inquiry.

Now S&P is threatening to downgrade the US credit rating AGAIN if lawmakers fail to agree to their ransom of no less than $4 trillion in deficit reduction - an irresponsible move that could send interest rates soaring and ravage the borrowing power of consumers, businesses and cash-strapped states.

Is S&P blackmailing the White House and SEC into absolving them of any responsibility for the 2008 crash by threatening downgrades every time there's an attempt to hold their feet to the fire? It certainly seems that way.

Sign our petition demanding the SEC strip S&P of their coveted authority as a Credit Ratings Agency for their attempts to avoid accountability and use their ratings as a political weapon.

Tell the SEC:
"Revoke Standard & Poor's NRSRO designation as a credit ratings agency for their attempts to influence the political debate over deficit reduction and to use their ratings as a weapon to avoid accountability for their role in the 2008 financial crisis."

sign and donate please

The SEC can end these bastards. make them do so. :evilgrin

Do more good by trying to enact legislation than by trying to set up a petition.

Maybe we should petition Sen. Bernie Sanders (I - VT) and Garamendi, Spears (both D - CA) in the House to create some tough legislation about this. I know it would be right up both their allies.

Garamendi and Jackie Spears usually play tag team on these matters.

eom

While I agree with most of what you have said, who do you believe would be the strongest candidate if not Barack Obama?

There are two responses: One given the now legality of the Citizen's United Mis-decision and one without it.