Eric Schneiderman is finding out he sold out to the Administration for far too little. The New York state attorney general torpedoed the opposition to the mortgage settlement via joining a newly-established mortgage fraud investigation and then going silent on where he stood on the settlement.
It was easy to see this task force wasn’t a serious effort. Schneiderman was only a co-chairman. The co-chairman, Lanny Breuer, was from the heretofore-missing-in-action Department of Justice. No one on the task force was head of a Federal agency.
The idea that this effort was all for show and would at most deliver a few suits conveniently close to the election was confirmed by its staffing. Schneiderman looked foolish when he said he’d have hundreds of investigators at his disposal, when Breuer announced it would be a mere 55. Those numbers are so paltry it begged the question as to what if anything Schneiderman was getting from this deal. If he has stuck with his earlier plan of a combined state AG effort, they probably could have mustered up this level of staffing among the 15 states that were considering breaking with the Administration prior to the Schneiderman betrayal.
And in further proof of what bad judgment Schneiderman demonstrated, Dave Dayen highlighted this find in an e-mail from Credo:
And now we’re hearing from insiders in Washington DC, that the full complement of 55 promised investigators — which is already not nearly enough — haven’t even been deployed to the task force.
Credo stresses the point made here and elsewhere, that other investigations of financial fraud have had much higher staffing levels, with 1000 FBI agents tasked to the savings and loan crisis and over 100 to Enron. You might contrast this pathetic effort with the account from Bill Black posted today on his experience with the Lincoln Savings/Charles Keating investigation.
I urge readers to sign the Credo petition to demand more staffing for this task force. It won’t change outcomes, but it will let the Administration know that you aren’t fooled.
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Maam;
It might be better to let the financial perps think they have pulled yet another fast on on the people. Keep them lulled in self indulgent self congratulation. Organize something along the lines of the #Occupy movements ‘flight from the TBTF banks’ to community responsive financial institutions while ‘they’ are congratulating themselves. I believe the relevant word here is Hubris.
Thanks for all your hard work.
There may well be something to be said for leaving the entire situation…the entire kit and kaboodle…to those who are, often only alledgedly, holding the paper.
More than just a few observers said in September of 2008 that what we may be faced with is an opportunity for a jubilee event. An immediately marked to market,absolute auction.
It could be that all of this trying so hard on the part of the best people I’ve ever observed pounding away for a cause in a long, long time (primarily as exposed to us here at NC) allowed for those who have the means at their disposal to stash acorns and arguably made the eventual outcome that much worse for millions than it would have if an “everything must go” clearance sale would have been held in October, 2008.
I live in a part of the country where there are hundreds of reasonably useful residential properties that now hold, or until just recently held, the last parties who will ever live in them. Enough rural homes to hold a dozen or more small farm families where there is only one industrial farmer that needs one now, inhabited or having been inhabited by middle aged people who live a considerable commute from the population centers where what jobs there are, are. Many of those homes having been physically improved in the past 2 decades via the utilization of easily obtained home equity loans. With no buyers, or buyers on the horizon, there being no demographics to pool them from.
A generally improved cash economy wherein employment gets better where the able bodied work force lives could actually make the situation worse.
Almost appears that he was a ringer for the administration…or is that what your suggesting less obviously.
This is why I plan to vote third party. For this election it will be Obama or Romney. But on this issue as in so many others, both of them will do the same thing. They may talk differently, Obama may complain about this or try to hide it while Romney would be proud of it, but in either case what they actually DO is the same.
I wan’t a real alternative. I won’t get it this year but I can vote third party so that in future years they will be on the ballot. Then I can get a choice.
I used to think the same thing. But after two decades of consistently voting 3rd party, the only thing I notice is that the candidates of the two major parties look more and more alike. And the Libertarians, at least, look like complete frauds these days. Their Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees from 2008 have endorsed Romney and Gingrich.
You are right, the two parties are becoming indistinguishable. And the Libertarians have always been frauds; there’s no reason to vote for them. Try the Greens.
Not so sure on the party front. Let’s find one candidate running for Congress and let’s support him/her.
Oh, if I could find a candidate from a major party who would actually act as I want them to then I might support them. But as I see it the lack of real competition is what allows the two parties to be identical as the vote no longer matters only the money. As such I now view my vote for president not as a decision between Schmuck and Jerk but as a down payment for a third-party mayor, governor, or congressional rep.
I had voted for Ross Perot and hoped his 17% would help cause a shift in the thinking of the 2 dominant parties. No such luck. The 3rd party vote count seems to have shrunk every time. We need a strong third party or a ‘vote all the incumbents out’ movement to bring about real change. Get active in the primaries. Vote for anyone but the incumbent. It may lose some very good people, but the message will be sent – we do not want ‘business as usual’ once you are elected or get out. The good ones will come back in the long run if they are interested.
All it would take is a staff of say 10 in one county to do an extensive investigation. I’d suggest a county who is in … say … the Eastern District of Louisiana. Disclose the resulting information to all the local bankruptcy attorneys.
I’d love to volunteer my county … Washington County Arkansas. I pledge $2,000 for the efforts.
For some, being a betrayer has its own magnificent glory.
Great news for banksters and the Obama Administration. This is micro news, but it is quite telling. The Washington State Bar Association just had a referendum on the question of reducing license fees. Reduced license fees sound great, until you realize all of the programs to help low income and moderate means citizens that could be jeopardized.
One of the biggest programs that could be jeopardy is the Home Foreclosure Legal Aid Project.
http://www.mywsba.org/default.aspx?tabid=161
I don’t know, for sure, that the foreclosure program will be diminished by the license fee reduction, but I know that the chances are better that it will shrivel up. Yay for banks.
At what point do we make the leap in the mainstream blogosphere that because justice has been so captured, we are witnessing widespread protection of illegal activity? Didn’t the FBI first issue a warning in 2004? When the ruling class and DC power suffocate any threat to their ability to profit at the people’s expense, the first thing they do is rewrite the law so that what was once illegal ‘POOF!’ becomes legal. The think tanks that engage in ‘Come on ‘Bama, Come on ‘Bama, do the right thing, do the right thing’ petitions – are they merely prodding an illegitimate enabler?
Is the assumption just Obama is going to be President for 4 more years? Not one candidate stimulates the masses. Yet MoveZOn, DailyFloss- all of ’em – assume the President of Heritage Healthcare is the finest man for da’ job. Drone strikes of editorials from the Corporate Democrat wing of the establishment media dance with their well coiffed heads of the FAUX opposition. It’s enough to make a young man lose his eggs and coffee. We want something else! Make ‘Murica Green, Go Green!
Right. This is a criminal state. Domestic laws, institutions, ideology, all rotten. It the USA is recognizable ten years from now, that will mean disastrous failure of the american people and the civilized world.
This should be tattooed on John McCain’s back,
“The cover up entered partisan politics during the 2008 presidential campaign. Senator McCain’s first big speech on the developing crisis called for changing the accounting rules to prevent loss recognition. Bill Isaac (former FDIC Chair – and leader of the cover up of bank losses during the LDC debt crisis) was invited by the Republican and “Blue Dogs” (conservative Democrats) caucuses considering the first TARP bill to brief them on how to respond to the crisis. He opposed passage, assuring them that if they changed the accounting rules to hide the bank losses they would prevent $500 billion to $1 trillion in losses. This emboldened the Republicans and Blue Dogs to unite and defeat the first TARP bill. McCain had announced that he was suspending his campaign and returning to the Senate to secure passage of the TARP bill. ”
Seriously, imagine down with this former prisoner of war over a few beers and getting his real view of America’s future. It would probably bowl you over, the cynicism of it all.
http://www.benzinga.com/life/politics/10/08/447366/why-covering-up-fraud-losses-impairs-economic-recovery-part-one
nothing changes until the masses organize and force the politicians and corps to make the changes.
this is why i will not vote for president
first time since 1972
first time not voting for a democrat
this is on a par with Nixon and Watergate
Write someone in. Harry Truman, David Letterman, whoever. Put a vote for “none of the above” out there.
Write in “Mike Check”!
It’s a lot worse than Watergate.
True, and it has consume Two presidencies, to-date.
Sure, Obama is totally on the side of bankers and financiers, but at least he hasn’t claimed the power to order the killing of any American anywhere he wants for any reason he wants.
Schneiderman is a total disgrace and should be reminded of it daily
Something tells me he is aware of even larger order disgraces at work, as evidenced by his going silent. That’s his last benefit of a doubt.
Hey Schneiderman, about those hundreds of investigators….
These three investigators are all you should need to get the job done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLWIzZjc9_4&feature=related
I wonder what price Schneiderman got for his soul — the promise of higher office within the kleptocracy, perhaps, like Beau Biden? He may just find himself higher up on the ladder rungs that lead to the scaffold — not far behind Obama, Geithner, Holder, Bernanke, et al.
oh, i can only dream.
Clearly Schneiderman wasn’t willing to make the personal sacrifice that would be required.
Few people are.
How exactly has Schneiderman ever been anything but a “good cop”?
You’ve been had!
Everything Obama does is P.R. with the exception of preparing the country for civil war with the NDAA and his latest executive order.
Do you guys realize he can have you, an American citizen, arrested and executed on his say-so with no right to due process? Then he can confiscate all your wealth, all your property, even take the food out of the mouths of your family, and make them do forced labor?
The problem has gone way beyond letting the banksters steal your house. And I’m NOT exagerating. Hell the DHS just purchased 450 MILLION rounds of hollowpoint 40 caliber ammo and something like 10,000 bulletproof checkpoint kiosks. Think they won’t use them? Think again.