"If you knew what a derivative was, you wouldn't be in the Republican Party"

[jmowreader]

Yesterday I did my liberal duty and volunteered for a shift working the county Democratic Party booth at the fair. It was entertaining.

The best part was when Walt Minnick came by. Agree or disagree with his politics, that is a very nice man. And I put a big ol' smile on his face: we were talking about what he "needs," and I said we needed to get him about 50 or 60 friends on his side of the aisle in the House, and about seven more people on our side of the aisle in the Senate so there wouldn't be any more filibuster threats, and then started naming some of the Republicans who should go, like John Boehner and Michele Bachmann...he got this "I can't say it out loud but you're right" look on his face.

We only got three Republicans at the booth in my four hours.

Republican 1 wanted "Obamacare" repealed because it wasn't fair that he had to pay for his own health insurance. (Apparently he hasn't actually READ the damn thing because under the current healthcare bill, he still will.)

Republican 2 just wanted to make sure we knew Obama was a Muslim.

And Repuke 3 was the head of the Kootenai County Republican Women, who the booth organizer describes as "ooh, they're so nasty..." She wanted us to demand of Walt Minnick that he vote to repeal the HCR bill--I told her I would be sure to tell him to demand single-payer instead, and she turned a darker shade of red than she already was. Then she demanded us to tell him to close the border. I told her if we just make hiring an illegal immigrant a crime it would solve the problem. And then she starts going into this "oh, I was a schoolteacher in Arizona, I know exactly why they come across the border--for jobs, to commit crimes and to "drop their babies." (At this point I'm thinking of new ways to piss this woman off, because the other two Democrats in the booth are starting to be really entertained.) Next she goes into this shit about how every Democrat gets all his campaign funding from Goldman Sachs, and how they're the most evil bank in the world. So...I finally asked her if she knew what a derivative was. "Oh yes, I know what a derivative is." I told her, "no you don't, because if you knew what one was, you wouldn't be in the Republican Party. It would be far too embarrassing to admit you're partly responsible for destroying the American economy."

Unfortunately for us, she turned purple and left. We were having fun, man!

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R. Thanks for spreading the word...

And having such a great time doing it! Thanks for sharing... :rofl: :fistbump:

[lpbk2713]

2. I'm sorry I missed the exchange.

K&R


:kick:

[notesdev]

3. "Apparently he hasn't actually READ the damn thing"

In all fairness, neither did the actual sponsor of the bill itself... nor any of the people who voted it into law... or anybody but a handful of paid lawyers/lobbyists and a few Internet obsessives.

If you read the bill you are a remarkable exception, the chances that anyone else reading this did (all 2k+ pages, or even most of that) is close to zero.

[jmowreader]

4. I read about half of it...

On a really large bill like this one (which could have been about 50 pages long if they would have tried--one page dropping the enrollment age for Medicare to "date of birth" and 49 pages of pork because you can't pass any bill in the United States unless you throw a little pork into it) I tend to find all the really outrageous shit the right wing throws around and confirm it's not actually in there. And then I just skim the rest.

You'll love this one: there's a replacement for the infamous HR 825 (the Food Safety Modernization Act) floating around out there. This one's a Senate Bill. Someone wrote a letter to one of our papers claiming it's going to ban vegetable gardens, among other things, so I naturally went to the bill, found out it's really not going to hand our food production over to the Department of Homeland Security, and wrote a rebuttal letter. (The DHS is mentioned in one place: if there's a terror attack involving food, DHS is the designated lead agency. I assume this is to head off any turf battles between DHS and FDA if someone does a terror attack using food as a weapon.) That bill is pretty thin, so I read the whole thing.

As far as the other big bill of 2010, the financial reform bill, I read Title VII (the swaps reform bill--I think it's a decent swaps bill, but not all derivatives are swaps and the really offensive one--the CDO--remains unregulated) and the part about the consumer protection agency, but skimmed the rest.

[notesdev]

5. About that financial reform bill

Among other things that have been slipped in there, the SEC can now refuse FOIA requests. Had they been able to do this a few years ago, Bernie Madoff would still be a free man. It makes me more than a bit cynical about how effective the "good" parts of the bill are when coupled with a gutting of enforcement oversight. Especially given the integrity issues with the SEC already where it appears the common culture is to perform the SEC job as an audition for getting a job at a financial company (often enough, a job being on the other side of the regulatory relationship, and dealing directly with their successors at the SEC)... I really wonder, why? Who put this in there and what's the rationale?

I really do think the lawmaking process has degenerated into with lawyers for private interests drafting whole provisions and language, emailing that to their representatives, and expect that these things will be incorporated wholesale into some bill or other, for which they compensate their politicians with donations, perks, and who knows what else, under the table.

It's only in this kind of process where it makes that kind of "duh" sense where politicians don't even read the legislation they themselves sponsor. The lawmakers become effectively clerks rather than decision-makers; they just aggregate and insert provisions into legislation for their customers, what those provisions actually say is of no importance to them.

[Scuba]

6. We need Elizabeth Warren.

[jmowreader]

7. Yeah, you're definitely right there

The only problem with Elizabeth Warren is she'll do her job, and she doesn't think her job is covering up for the malfeasance of the financial services industry. Hence, the only way she'd get the nod is if Al Franken was acting president and slipped her in on a recess appointment.