John McCain and His BFF Charles Keating: The Real Story

From the new Obama website KeatingEconomics.com

New Obama Ad: A Stronger Economy

Good, not great, but solid. I like the serious tone, and the lack of cutesy music. I wish it was lit a little better.

McCain and the Keating Five Loved Deregulation, Too

Democrats should be driving home McCain's record in contributing to the last great taxpayer theft/bank bailout, the S&L crisis that he was right in the middle of as a member of the Keating Five.

John McCain: The Fundamental DeRegulator

This week -- and only this week -- John McCain has suddenly converted to the religion of regulation. Don't believe a word of it. He is a lifelong deregulator. Let the free market decide! Let the free market lose the people's money! Jed Lewison put together a video of John McCain's many statements of his true position. He has always supported deregulation:

McCain's Campaign Manager Was Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac's Top Deregulation Lobbyist

NYTimes: A 2004 photograph from a report by the Homeownership Alliance, an advocacy group for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, shows John McCain with Ken Guenther, a former chairman of the group, left, and David Lereah of the National Association of Realtors.

NYTimes: Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing. He and his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, have donors and advisers who are tied to the companies.

But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.

Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.

New Obama Ad: Article

The fundamentals of our economy are strong. - John McCain, Black Monday, 9/15/08

Get Calling -- Beggars Can't Be Choosers

This is your brain on dope
John McCain on 60 Minutes last night.
"I think the [bank] deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy."

Contacting Congress

You can get the telephone numbers of your Congressperson & Senators at this link.

I just finished my calls, and didn't get one busy signal.

Get calling, people!

I made two points:

(1) No blank check for those crooks on Wall Street, and

(2) Don't include foreign banks in the bailout!

-- Foreign banks like Phil Gramm's UBS Bank -- a Swiss bank! -- have lobbied to be included in the bailout proposal, and yesterday Treasury Secretary Hank Paul[Son of a Bitch] said he would be in favor of that.

Obama On the Stump in Daytona Beach

On fire yesterday:

John McCain Wants to Bring Banking De-Regulation to the Health Insurance Market

McCain and his chief economic adviser, lobbyist Phil Gramm. In 1998 Senator Gramm wrote the bill that deregulated banking.

Yes, John McCain's chief economic adviser blew up the economy.
Heckuva job, Phil.

[A] correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. [2008] issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

Paul Krugman, NYTImes: McCain on Banking and Health

If you have been thinking about writing a letter to the editor to your local newspaper, I'd start with this quote. Let's blow up health insurance, just like Republican deregulation just blew up the banking industry.

This puts the lie to all McCain's claims that he will fix our problems. He is one of the problems. He loves deregulation. He loves the giant corporations that flood his campaign with money and lobbyists. The only Americans he has ever really cared about are the rich ones. He's their man.

"The Old Boys Network, in the McCain Campaign That's Called a Staff Meeting"

Obama delivers the best line of the campaign today:



And he's finally talking about Phil Gramm, the man who gave us the mortgage crisis. Phil Gramm cost American taxpayers $85,000,000,000 today. He's John McCain's chief economic adviser. This country cannot afford any more Republican steal from the poor, give to the rich country club economics.

Yes! We! Can!

hat tip to JedReport for the video. Jed rocks!