sophiaserpentia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophiaserpentia) wrote2009-04-09 01:33 pm
sophiaserpentia) wrote2009-04-09 01:33 pm
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i am becoming increasingly frustrated with and mistrustful of the obama administration
This week alone, the Obama Administration has:
Actively fought efforts to undo telecom immunity and hold the government accountable for past and present spying on private citizens. This is of course the opposite of what Obama promised when he campaigned: he vowed to make government more transparent, more accountable, and more respecting of civil liberties, and as time passes, this is turning out to have been an out-and-out lie.
Actively sought to forever immunize the government from ever being held accountable for wrongdoing, whether for torture or domestic surveillance. On these issues the Obama administration has so far been to the right of Dick Cheney.
Extended Wall Street's plunder of the American people to the FDIC. The FDIC is a relatively small fund (capped by law at $30B) which is now tasked by the PPIP (the federal program buying up toxic assets from flailing banks) with insuring over $1T in toxic asset purchases. If they lose money, they plan to assess fees from the banks they're insuring... unless those banks are bankrupt, in which case they'll simply ask the Treasury Department to print them the money. Put another way, the Treasury is holding its door wide open for bankers to take as much money as they want, keeping whatever profits they make and not having to worry about any losses they incur. Said bankers will also never have to worry about sleeping under a bridge or living in a tent or applying for food stamps. Meanwhile, if the FDIC becomes defunct because of this latest bizarre development, who's going to cover our measly little bank accounts in the event of a sector-wide banking breakdown?
Actively fought efforts to undo telecom immunity and hold the government accountable for past and present spying on private citizens. This is of course the opposite of what Obama promised when he campaigned: he vowed to make government more transparent, more accountable, and more respecting of civil liberties, and as time passes, this is turning out to have been an out-and-out lie.
Actively sought to forever immunize the government from ever being held accountable for wrongdoing, whether for torture or domestic surveillance. On these issues the Obama administration has so far been to the right of Dick Cheney.
Extended Wall Street's plunder of the American people to the FDIC. The FDIC is a relatively small fund (capped by law at $30B) which is now tasked by the PPIP (the federal program buying up toxic assets from flailing banks) with insuring over $1T in toxic asset purchases. If they lose money, they plan to assess fees from the banks they're insuring... unless those banks are bankrupt, in which case they'll simply ask the Treasury Department to print them the money. Put another way, the Treasury is holding its door wide open for bankers to take as much money as they want, keeping whatever profits they make and not having to worry about any losses they incur. Said bankers will also never have to worry about sleeping under a bridge or living in a tent or applying for food stamps. Meanwhile, if the FDIC becomes defunct because of this latest bizarre development, who's going to cover our measly little bank accounts in the event of a sector-wide banking breakdown?
Re: Two Things...
I think Obama is probably being misled. Or if he may now be thinking, "in for a penny, in for a pound."
You have not said, however, what you'd have him do
I'm not really an expert on finance. However i do think, based on what i know and understand about the situation, that it would probably be cheaper and in the long run more effective to nationalize insolvent banks, or let them go bankrupt, and then house and feed out of work bank employees, than what we're doing now. Then turn around and invest the $1T in Main Street instead. With that kind of money we could have the best infrastructure in the world, the best educational system, total conversion to clean & renewable energy, the best mass transit system in the world, you name it.
Obama's real position regarding governmental violation of citizens' rights and of war crimes statutes won't be fully on display until then.
Actually we already have on record his votes in the Senate to renew the USAPATRIOT Act, with mild civil liberties improvements the Democrats added.
It's actually a brillinat way of dealing with the problem.
We'll see what happens on that. My gut feeling is that AG Holder will balk at giving any assistance to European prosecutors whatsoever. I certainly don't expect him to direct the FBI to arrest any Bush Admin people indicted in Europe for war crimes.
It may be a brilliantly pragmatic way to solve the problem, *if* he quietly allows it to go forward. Time will tell. I think tho that it is not a particularly satisfying way to handle the issue. The US should be seen as standing by its stated commitments against torture.