They --Obama and the Banksters--Are Robbing Us Blind

"Some people rob you with a pistol,
Some with a fountain pen..."
--Woody Guthrie, The Ballad Of Pretty-Boy Floyd

David Sirota on his blog at OpenLeft, has the following, most apposite, observations:

We're Being Robbed
by: David Sirota
Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 11:54
Not that we didn't know it already, but three separate stories this week tell us that taxpayers' bank bailout money A) is being stolen B) is being handed over to lobbyists and C) hasn't stopped banks from foreclosing on homeowners. Bailout critics who stood with the vast majority of Americans in opposing this bailout predicted exactly this outcome - and yet were nonetheless berated by Establishment pontificators as Not Serious Extremists Who Hate America. Now, the facts are in.

And whether Obama and Geithner and Summers and rest of the Wall-Streeters now in Govt. are accomplices or merely ineffective tools, they're either stealing everything that isn't too heavy to lift, or standing by watching the thieves abscond with the treasury...

Fact 1 - Our taxpayer money, as predicted, is being stolen:

In the first major disclosure of corruption in the $750-billion financial bailout program, federal investigators said Monday they have opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax violations, insider trading and other crimes.

The cases represent only the first wave of investigations, and the total fraud could ultimately reach into the tens of billions of dollars, according to Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the bailout program. The disclosures reinforce fears that the hastily designed and rapidly changing bailout program run by the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve is going to carry a heavy price of fraud against taxpayers -- even as questions grow about its ability to stabilize the nation's financial system.

Fact 2 - Our taxpayer money is subsidizing bank lobbyists, who are lobbying against executive pay caps and financial regulation:

Top recipients of federal bailout money spent more than $10 million on political lobbying in the first three months of this year, including aggressive efforts aimed at blocking executive pay limits and tougher financial regulations, according to newly filed disclosure records.

*Fact 3 - Our taxpayer money isn't stopping bank recipients from foreclosing on homeowners:

Some of the nation's largest mortgage companies are stepping up foreclosures on delinquent homeowners. That will likely lead to more Americans losing their homes just as the Obama administration's housing-rescue plan gets into gear.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all say they have increased foreclosure activity in recent weeks.*

This is what kleptocracy looks like - it doesn't come at the tip of a bayonet, it comes via politicians wearing designer suits and ties. We're being robbed - and stopping this theft, even if it means going up against the Obama administration, has to be a central part of the progressive movement. Because if it isn't, we'll not only cede the populist political mantle to the right, we'll see our country's assets plundered and our future flushed down the toilet.

And probably the only way to stop it is to bring out the tumbrels, and drag a few of these scum-sucking plutocrats up onto the deck of Mme. Guillotine...And St, Barry has effectively ceded "populism" to the Rightard/Fuckwitz/Flying Monkeys like O'Reilly, Hannity and Beck because to assume the Progressive mantel would have been "too divisive."

*And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.