Advertise Here
Deliver your message to thousands of readers every day.
Our readers are influential opinion makers - politicians, journalists and activists.
Our latest headlines
- Weekly Radio Address: Assembly Lead Water Negotiators Huffman, Caballero Discuss this Week’s Historic Agreement to Solve California’s Water Crisis
- Feinstein Once Again Flirts With Entering the Governor’s Race
- A Good Health Care Bill Emerging from the House
- Schwarzenegger Applauds Passage of Peripheral Canal/Dams Water Package
- "Historic" Water Deal Draws Both Praise and Criticism
- Republican State Senators Vote for Administrative Chaos, Backdoor Cuts in IHSS
- Assembly Budget Committee Follow-up Informational Hearing on Implementation on IHSS Program Changes
About Us
David Greenwald, Editor. (Contact David.)
CFC Education Foundation, Publisher. (Contact us.)
Got a news tip? Want to write a guest column?
Contact David here.
About California Progress Report.
Founded by Frank D. Russo (Publisher and Editor, 2006-08).
Sponsors
Books
Oh, No. Not Joe Biden
By Rosemary Shahan
My heart sank when I read that Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) is on Obama's short list for Veep.
Yes, he has some serious foreign policy credibility, but – let us not forget that Biden was the most active Democrat in the U.S. Senate during the battles over the federal bankruptcy bills. Battles the predatory lenders won and we lost. And now the entire national economy is paying the price.
Those laws govern who will take a hit when irresponsible lenders get carried away and lure people into loans they cannot possibly hope to pay. Sometimes by falsifying credit applications after they were signed. Those laws also determine whether people who lack medical insurance, go through a divorce, or lose a job can bounce back, or will be forever saddled with crippling debt.
Obama and Biden could hardly be more different on where they stood on this crucial legislation, which set the stage for the current financial meltdown. Biden was the Dem’s most active enabler for the predatory lenders. Obama stood up to the lenders, and voted NO. He was one of only a small group of courageous democratic senators who stood their ground, on behalf of ordinary Americans. McCain (no surprise) voted to stick it to struggling families, since apparently his heart bleeds for Countrywide and Citigroup.
To his credit, President Clinton vetoed an earlier bankruptcy bill that was sent to him by the Republican Congress, with Biden’s backing. But after Bush took office, Biden was back again, doing the bidding of his buddies in the credit card industry, who call the shots in Delaware. Biden aggressively ramrodded the bill through the Senate, despite opposition from all the major consumer groups, women’s groups, bankruptcy attorneys, and labor organizations, and warnings from bankruptcy judges.
With Biden’s blessing, the Senate also fended off amendments that would have softened the blow for victims of fraud, low-paid military troops and their families, and people whose only “sin” was getting sick or having a sick child.
Instead of leading the fight for universal medical insurance, to help the American public avoid financial pitfalls stemming from our totally dysfunctional medical care system, Biden devoted his energies into delivering for the predatory lenders. Big time.
The Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen Chris Dodd, has described the Bush-Biden bankruptcy bill as one of the worst laws EVER passed by Congress. It has been an unmitigated disaster. It shifted the risk for engaging in predatory lending practices from greedy lenders to hapless borrowers. This, it contributed mightily to the current economic meltdown.
At a time when our economy is reeling, and the nation desperately needs to restore consumer protections, not further decimate them, adding Biden to the ticket would be totally the wrong choice. It would blur the clear distinction between McCain, who sided with irresponsible lenders, and Obama, who sided with us.
Rosemary Shahan, President of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, is a nationally renowned consumer advocate who has won many victories for car buyers. She is best known for initiating California’s landmark auto “lemon law” and fighting for the installation of air bags in all cars and has repeatedly testified before Congress on auto safety issues. Shahan is a board member of the Consumer Federation of California and the Consumer Federation of America.
Comments
You raise some good points on how Biden got in bed with the GOP Bushites to tube the American middle class.
I was curious, is this a pattern of Joe the double dealer from the bottom of the deck. I found this in the Denver papers, on the eve of the convention:
By Jame M. Hargood, (Rocky Mountain News online)
We read of all the great concern over the firings of 8 U. S Attorneys, in the second George W Bush Administration. This will play out, and politics will surround the issue***. However, America should never forget the firing of Angela Wright, who had worked in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as Director of public relations.
Ex Senator Simpson(R, Wyo; Richard Cheney's master hunting best buddy) read Ms Wright's interview taken by the Senate Staff, over the phone as she was living in North Carolina.( and some in GOP side had axes to grind) She had been fired, earlier. She was a political appointee, and could be fired on the spot for any reason.
However, her ex boss was Clarence Thomas, EEOC(ex) chairman. In 1991, during the Presidency of Bush Sr. The Senate was examining his fitness to be on the U. S. Supreme Court. Angela Wright stated in the Senate staff telephone interview that; 1) the short letter firing her gave no reason, 2) she spoke to Thomas on why she was fired. 3) he told her she had not fired career government workers--who are different than political appointees 4) Then, he did not fire her because of some claimed slur toward an other, in the statement provided to the Senate.
On Oct. 13, 1991, Angela Wright flew from North Carolina to Washington D. C., and was standing by to testify under oath in open Senate sessions, and had been subpoenaed to testify by the Senate. Instead, Senator Joe Biden(then chairman of the Judiciary Committee) sent her a letter, and noted her statement could be put in the record and would not be subject to being rebutted.
Based on that representation, she consented. At the time Scooter Libby's wife had been a main Senate Staffer for Senator Biden. It turns out Ms Wright had been duped. Later on, Alan Simpson attacked Angela Wright, and then for the first time, Clarence Thomas was asked why he had fired Angela Wright. He said because she called someone(no specifics) a f****t.. Yet she was barred from testifying under oath in the Senate Hearing to give her response from the attacks of Alan Simpson, and the reasons provided by Clarence Thomas. In 1991, Simpson had been lambasted in the press as using McCarthy like tactics, designed to quash the full truth.
Alan Simpson started out, as a person who pled guilty to destroying federal property in Wyoming, and was on probation(matters of public record, Wyo).
He likes to talk about second chances, used it in his Senate races-in Wyoming. In the instance of a black women from North Carolina, Ms Wright, she was not given even a first chance, and she denies that she did what Clarence Thomas claimed, under oath. Mr Thomas was barely confirmed as a Justice of the Supreme Court, by a very narrow margin. Even today, many people around America wonder on why Angela Wright was so badly treated in the U S. Senate, were they afraid of her sworn testimony in an open session ? What does that say on seeking the truth, and the firing of political appointees. With today's growing 2007 scandal on political Bush/ Rove firings, America might recall what happened to Angela Wright, and the fear not to address the full truth--in the Senate of the USA.
Clarence Thomas' wife worked for the Chamber of Commerce, an entity devoted to fighting fair working conditions for American workers.
Ask the Senate today, its members, are they for black women from the South having the right to testify before the U. S Senate; in this matter there is no limitation on the truth-but are some afraid to really find out what that truly was. And, ask them not to go for a flawed process to avoid the full truth-for America's sake, in the latest fishy U. S. Attorney firings ?
Jame Hargood is Ex Federal Attorney who has testified before Congress on the application of some laws, and he has testified in federal court as an expert witness on federal matters. He is a graduate( advanced law degree, LL'M) of George Washington University Law School. In 1971, Jim was awarded one of the most prestigious fellowships in America from the Government of the U. S., to get an advanced law degree, and has worked with U. S. attorney's offices in at least 4 states, over a period of 16 years. He is currently a private attorney in the Denver , Colorado area.
>>>>>>>>>>>>See in NY Times on:
Justice Dept. Issues a Callback - washingtonpost.com
Where does Anglea Wright go to get justice--after the smears of AL Simpson, rigged with Joe Biden's duplicity ?
Posted by: Armando at August 20, 2008 11:52 AM
BIDEN is SO PHONEY!
BIG, UGLY HOLLYWOOD TEETH!
HAIR PLUGS - PHOOEY.
BIDEN represented big banks against working people.
This gets to the lack of heart of the corporate Democratic Party. NADER would be so much better than a shift, back-bonesless OBAMA!
Biden is a terrible choice.
Posted by: william at August 22, 2008 11:50 PM
Joe Biden is a great choice. What a tremendous wealth of foreign policy experience and just plain common sensibility he is going to bring to the ticket.
Posted by: Steve Bremner at August 24, 2008 08:52 PM
Sorry, comments are temporarily disabled. We're doing a bit of server maintenance on the commenting area. We'll be back up and running shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Get Email Updates
Want the California Progress Report by email? Once a week, we'll send you the latest and greatest headlines.
© 2008 California Progress Report Our copyright and fair use policy.
Powered by Mandate Media. Logo design by Jane Norling.
RSS 