Come on Bill Moyers, Olbermann or Rachel

[malaise]

Interview Eliot Spitzer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html
<snip>
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.

In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.

But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.
----
And then in March we heard about the Emperor's Club. Time to expose Bushco and his Wall Street cronies. Was Paulsen in on this? Who else?

[Submariner]

1. Are you ever right on

This story needs a lot of exposure, and it should be used to stick a poker in the eye of any repuke touting their Limbaugh talking points. Spitzer saw it coming, but no one listened. We need to bury Bush's legacy with this year old story.

[malaise]

4. We should post it every day until we force M$Greedia to

discuss it. Conyers, Leahy, Obama. Holder, pay attention. Not one charge was filed. They silenced him, took the money and ran and taxpayers will pay for decades to come.

Democratic Governors address this issue.

[navarth]

2. Wow. That is dynamite. Thank you.

And Eliot Spitzer got busted for what, messing with an escort service? Yeah, that was really hurting the country.

I wonder how much good he might have done if he hadn't been pulled down because of that.

[malaise]

5. Meanwhile Vitter's Jebus forgave him;

his prostitute is dead and he is discussing 'values' in the Senate.
Fugging madness!! Spitzer must get a chance to speak. I don't give a flying fugg what he did in his spare time. That's between him and his wife.

[spanone]

3. the greatest robbery in history....

[malaise]

6. Spot on

and Spitzer saw it coming.

[G_j]

7. wow

now THAT is "organized crime" for ya!

[malaise]

8. The only word for Spitzer is prescient

More...
Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on predatory and unfair lending would have in no way jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position.

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.
----------------
That was Valentine's Day, February 14th 2008 - Happy Birthday to the Truth.

[Frustratedlady]

11. So Spitzer was exposed on March 10th?

Great article.

[malaise]

12. 9th I think

Let me check the precise date.

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=7a0669a7Q2FQ7ConlQ7CE_8gQ7B__KQ26Q7CQ26JJfQ7CJ(Q7CkJQ7CV-Q7BnvQ22_VQ7CkJ8VEQ23gaQ22KZnQ7BQ51mKQ2FX

Yep 10th March.

add.

[Frustratedlady]

15. Didn't take long to make a decision to shut him up.

[Gregorian]

9. Typical Bush maladministration.

It almost sounds like how they ignored the entire world marching in the streets in protest of an Iraq invasion.

We may not have enough attorneys and time to convict all of the criminals that just got voted out.

[malaise]

10. Orchestrated criminality

in every fugging instance.

[leftstreet]

13. "predatory lending crisis"

Exactly!

[malaise]

14. Note

In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

These criminals should be in jail.

[leftstreet]

16. The OCC just started pulling 'rules' out of its ass

This kills me:


{snips}
Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.

In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.

But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.


:mad:

[malaise]

17. Yep Obama better deal with that and quick

Eight years of criminality gone mad

[DCKit]

18. Geez, reading the OP and responses....

you'd almost think BushCo was complicit in all of this. Damn tinfoilers. :sarcasm:

Those motherfookers didn't miss an angle between the domestic and international criminal possibilities. No wonder the heist(s) took thirty years of planning.

We can't let them walk away without severe consequences. It's the least we could do.

[malaise]

19. And in the process

they destroyed any notion of state's rights - financial and national guard.

[DCKit]

22. Only until we take it back.

They lost and we have to take back what they stole.

[Kurovski]

20. K&R. (nt)

[annabanana]

21. YIKES

I knew that Spitzer was a bulldog against wall street shenanigans. I did not know about the OCC.

[malaise]

23. I only discovered the OCC the first time this was posted on DU

a while back. Someone should also ask Krugman about this.

[SpiralHawk]

24. The k and the r

for sure