Please check this out...from Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren thinks the economic crisis started with lenders tricking families. Woeful misunderstanding or willing deception?

You will have to copy and paste onto your browser. I could not get the link to work. Sorry. You can highlight it and then press ctrl and c, then to paste press ctrl and v.
http://www.momsrising.org/blog/elizabeth-warrens-letter-to-you-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-moms-to-take-on-wall-street/

How can ONE MAN stop something the country so badly needs, and why is Senator Dodd allowing this?

Okay, I know. I have been furiously writing about Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama, the NO guy on finance reform. Or at least, true financial reform. I am angry that he does not want an independent consumer protection agency overseeing the banks. He instead would like it to be under some other federal agency, not an independent agency. In other words, he wants to pass milk-toast reform. Just so that he can say that he passed financial reform. What he doesn't say is WHY.

I think he is clearly on the bank's side. In a Washington Post article from December, a few things were revealed about this man to make me think that way:

1. Shelby is a legendary fundraiser. He currently has more than $15.3 million in his campaign account and personal political action committee, more of it from the employees and political action committees of the financial industry than from any other source. Shelby has declared his intention to run for reelection next year but says he won't spend all his money, and politicians in Alabama say he doesn't have to. "He'll be a U.S. senator as long as he wants to be," Fine said.

2. "He can raise enough money to sink a battleship!" said Joe L. Reed of the Alabama Education Association, a leading black political operative in Alabama. "Every time he sneezes, he raises some money."
Washington lobbyists recount stories of Shelby's relentless fundraising with grudging admiration. "I think it's the way he keeps score," said one regular recipient of the senator's blunt pleas for money.

3. Shelby keeps score in another way that helps him politically, by bringing home a huge quantity of bacon. Alabama gets about $1.50 back from Washington for every $1 it sends to the U.S. Treasury, much of it in earmarks written and promoted by Richard Shelby.

4. Nor have the Shelbys neglected the accumulation of personal wealth. They are multimillionaires whose two personal homes, one in Georgetown and another in Tuscaloosa, are each valued at more than $1 million. The steelworker's son born across the tracks moved uptown long ago.

5. For months the staffs working for Dodd and Shelby have been sharing proposals, asking questions, discussing the issues of regulatory reform. Then in October, Shelby surprised Dodd by telling him that he could proceed with discussions only if Dodd agreed to drop a proposal for a consumer financial products agency. Dodd had announced months earlier that he considered this -- a sort of consumer product safety commission for financial products, from home mortgages to credit cards -- as a centerpiece of reform. President Obama does, too. The House approved it last week.

6. Shelby trashed Dodd's draft. It was an uncharacteristic performance, harsh and sarcastic. "This committee has not done the necessary work to even begin discussing changes of this magnitude," he said, reading from a prepared text. Shelby slammed one provision after another in the Dodd draft, and announced, "I will be opposing this legislation."


Need I say more. We know that Shelby does not want any teeth in this bill. The question is WHY? Is he simply protecting his number one campaign funding source?

If you look at any banking industry blogs, you will see why. They don't want a real independent person, such as Elizabeth Warren, to watch over them. Period. They don't want it. So Shelby doesn't want it.

And we don't want another lame federal bureaucracy to fail miserably at protecting us.

That is why I don't like Senator Shelby. It is not personal. I am sure he is a fine man. I just don't like this.

And neither should you.

The 23 people that are making a decision that will effect the other 308,623, 617 of us.

These 23 people are making a decision on Finance Reform that will effect the other 308,623,617 people that live in the USA. The people that do not want Finance Reform are the BANKS.

Here are the 23 people:

Christopher J. Dodd Chairman (D-CT)
Richard C. Shelby Ranking Member (R-AL)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Robert F. Bennett (R-UT)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI)
David Vitter (R-LA)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)

Warning to Scott Brown, dangerous water ahead.

The voters of Massachusetts recently elected Senator Scott Brown and he has now been elevated by his supporters to the top of a beautiful, golden pedestal. The "people's pedestal".

Nice for a while, all the attention. Admiring faces smiling at him, clamoring for his autograph. All the media glare. Even an SNL skit. Nothing like an SNL skit to say you have made it and made it big.

And that is where the trouble begins. We are simply restless and fickle. We want change and we want it now. We have become a society that is used to instant this and instant that. And when we don't get it, we can turn ugly.

I remember sitting with a friend who was screaming at her computer because it took almost 30 seconds for it to boot up. Thirty seconds!! "This thing is a piece of crap", she said. This "piece of crap" was the top of the line Apple MacBook that she had been wanting forever. But now she had it and it just wasn't living up to her expectations. So now she hated it. It was, to her, crap.

Have we really become that impossible to please? When is the last time I heard someone say, "Let's just wait and see. Things take time. Give them a chance." I think the last person to say that to me was my own Mom, and she died in 1996.

No, we are an instant society now. We expect things to happen quickly. We are impatient with everything.

And so this brings me back to Scott Brown, our newly elected Senator from Massachusetts. Forty-one. The man who will set Washington straight. The "People's choice".

We have placed him high on that pedestal. But beware. Gloria Steinem once said, "A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space."

He is, in fact, a prisoner to that pedestal as we speak. He is a prisoner to expectations that even he does not know exist. And we are watching him. If he is not careful, he will soon be knocked off of that pedestal. If he does not show us any real change, real soon, we will become restless again. And how do we define change? We don't really know. We just want it. And we want it now.

So, here is some advice to Mr. Brown. Keep driving your truck, no black cars with drivers for you. Keep wearing your barn jacket. Do not vote along with Republicans on everything. Do not ignore a call from a Massachusetts's voter, like your partner, Senator John Kerry does.

Try to step off that pedestal yourself by keeping yourself human and admitting to any mistakes you make. And for goodness sakes, do not use the excuse that you are new or that you need more time. No one will grant you that. No one.

Just be straightforward and tell us the plain truth. That Washington is a maze of madness and that common sense is in short supply. That each and every Senator and Congressman is looking out for his own state, his own district, so that they can be re-elected. That you are honestly shocked by what you see and will stay true to your ideals as long as you can. That you will not become part of the machine.

But be ready for it. The ocean is constantly restless and unpredictable. That same wave of change that placed you on that pedestal is already being reborn to try to knock you off. So, don't try to hold on to it. Just ride the wave, swim with the current and keep your head above water. You cannot bring real change if you are spending all of your time simply trying to stay afloat.

How a Squeaky Wheel becomes a Roar....but first you must be the squeaky wheel.

As you know, I work as a home visit hospice nurse on weekends. I love my job and I love seeing and helping my patients. But we have many, many patients and family caregivers on service. And many times, just a few nurses are available. So I remind them that if we do not hear from them, we are left to assume that everything is going okay. Or at least as well as it can be under the circumstances. That the plan of care that we outlined is working. They do have scheduled visits, but these patients have issues on an ongoing basis. So they should not wait for a scheduled visit if they think things are not going well. They need to be the squeaky wheel. They need to call and tell us. And then we can respond and take care of the issue. We cannot call every patient every day and sometimes things change within hours. They really need to keep us informed. That is what we are there for, to respond to their needs. We want them to call. Some say that they do not want to bother us. I remind them that that is what we are there for and our sole purpose is to take care of them. And we do. When we know.

The same logic should hold true for our elected representatives. Whoever they are. They could be the President, a School Board member, a Senator or the small-town Town Clerk. All of them serve one purpose; to respond to the people that they govern. For their entire term.

However, they seem to only want to reach out and listen to us at election time. They offer many promises; they try to be "just like the everyman". They drive trucks and wear jeans and forgo ties to mirror what they see in us. Regular folk. Most times, they are simply pandering for votes. And it is simply a facade. Because once elected, they many times refuse to listen to the very same people they purported to hold in such high regard. So much for being "one of us". Suddenly, they are way above us. Beyond our reach. It shouldn't happen. And the reason that it does happen? Because we allow it to happen.

It seems that we tend to vote for candidates that are in keeping with some of our core beliefs and we assume, many times wrongly, that they will continue to fight for us and do the job they said they would. But as soon as we turn our backs, and they see that we are no longer looking, they start to do what is best for them. And that isn't always in our best interests. And unless they are caught in the eye of the media, we may never know.

Some say, yes, I know. But I do not have the time to call and complain. I am too busy. And it does so little anyway. So why bother.

True, it does seem that way. But small drops fill buckets. If each of us took the 5 minutes that it actually takes to write an email or to call an office, it would add up. One call, yes, they can ignore that. 25 calls or emails, well, it gets their attention. And so on.

I hear a lot of moms complain about a lot things. Things that local government does or what big government doesn't do. Complaining to each other is fine; but the message dies there. So take just one moment before you go to bed and write that email. Most people have iphones or blackberrys so they can do it while stuck in traffic, or while you are sitting at one of the several activities your children are involved in.

I know that we need to focus on our families and our jobs. And we should. And kids come first and we have to feed them and read to them and snuggle with them. All are top priorities. It is all good. But someday those kids will grow up to be young adults. And they will pay more attention to social issues, like we all did when we were in college. And they will look at you and ask, "what did you do about this?" And wouldn't it be nice to say, yes, I called, I emailed, I paid attention.

I think that actively being involved and paying attention to something that is happening in our community, our towns or our country, even if that is simply sending a 5 minute email to an elected official, is a great civics lesson for our kids. And who better to teach this lesson than their own parents. Us. What a great example we would be setting.

I know there are so many issues out there and I know it seems so overwhelming that we all just turn off the TV because we just don't want to see it. We cannot help everyone. But if you notice that something that you have heard is really bothering you, and it is important to you, you should call or write. Many of us make the mistake that someone else will do it. And they usually don't. I often say this to myself, one of my favorite quotes, "If not now, when, if not me, who".

I know that we also witness a lot of crazy, ranting people. I do not advocate that. A simple, polite inquiry is all you need to send. It sends the message that I am out here. I am seeing this. I am paying attention. I don't like this.

They hate that. Trust me.

Right now, I am angry that one man, one man, can hold up important legislation. So I am going out on a limb and calling him out. That would be Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama and the Consumer Protection Bill. But I digress.

Anyway, remember that we women would not even have the right to vote if some other brave women did not go out and make a fuss about it.

They were a squeaky wheel that eventually became a roar that no one could ignore.

And now that we have the right to vote and we should go beyond that and demand the right to be heard.

This is the one man that stands in the way of protecting all consumers---ONE MAN! He is protecting the BANKS instead

This is him. The man that is trying and succeeding to unravel all of the work on the Consumer Protection Bill that Elizabeth Warren, one of THE smartest women around, describes in her letter in my last post.

This man, a Senator from Alabama, who wrote this really important Bill:

4. S.RES.389 : A resolution commending The University of Alabama Crimson Tide for being unanimously declared the 2009 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision National Champions.
Sponsor: Sen Shelby, Richard C. [AL] (introduced 1/20/2010) Cosponsors (1)
Committees: Senate Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 1/20/2010 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Is now standing in the way of the most important piece of legislation in recent history.

Please, please, please pay attention to this. Do not let him, this ONE MAN, get away with this.

I may be just a simple minivan mom, and I have one lonely voice, but this is so important for all of us!

Contact Senator Dodd, tell him to not back down to him.

A Letter From Elizabeth Warren

Friends,

The story of the financial crisis has a thousand twists and turns, but the basic narrative is easy to follow. The financial industry wrote rules that allowed it to act recklessly. The industry captured agencies that were supposed to regulate it, taking cops off the beat and funneling enormous resources into the political process to make sure there wouldn't be any new cops.

Then, with no laws to hold them back, the banks made hundreds of billions of dollars on the sales of deceptive products.

That went on for years, and the industry's tricks-and-traps pricing got more and more out of control. Eventually, the sale and re-sale of deceptive mortgages and other dangerous products made trillions of dollars for Wall Street while bringing down the American economy. When the industry's recklessness brought the biggest banks to the brink of collapse, Wall Street turned to the taxpayers for bailouts and guarantees, which put it right back into big profits and big bonuses. The industry got whatever it wanted.

Now we are coming to the final chapter of this story.

The final chapter will show whether we are going to let the industry continue to write the rules -- to keep the cops off the beat -- or whether the financial crisis actually changed something.

The fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency will be the best way to follow the story moving forward because consumer products were the most abusive and because the CFPA has real muscle to stop those abuses. The CFPA would hire new cops and change the way big banks do business.

We have all worked hard to make the CFPA into a reality, and the next few weeks will determine whether our hard work will make a difference for families or whether families will lose once again. The next few weeks will determine whether families will have to play by rules written by the banks and for the banks -- rules that let the industry get away with anything. In my view, we cannot let families lose again.

Like you, I read last week that the consumer agency is dead. I also read the same thing last spring, last summer, last fall, and last month. And I've been warned about the power of the banks since I first developed this idea in 2007. We always knew this was a David v. Goliath fight, but I don't believe that Washington can or will let Wall Street act like nothing has changed.

I am writing to ask you to make an extra effort these next few weeks to organize calls and emails into the Senate Banking Committee about CFPA, to organize op-ed and letter to the editor campaigns across the country, and to create visible, public support for CFPA. If everyone on this list called key Senators on the Senate Banking Committee, that would send a loud message -- and if your members will do the same, the message will get louder.

This is not the last important moment in the fight for the CFPA, but it is a critical one. You can count on me to do my part. Please help.

Elizabeth

When Outrage goes Nowhere

All politics is local. We have heard that quote time and time again. But what does it really mean?

In his 1987 autobiography, Man of the House, Tip O'Neill told us that this is what his dad told him after his only election loss--a run for the Cambridge City Council.

"This was the only race I ever lost in my life, but in the process, I learned two extremely valuable lessons. During the campaign, my father had left me to my own devices, but when it was over, he pointed out that I had taken my own neighborhood for granted. He was right: I had received a tremendous vote in the other sections of the city, but I hadn't worked hard enough in my own backyard. 'Let me tell you something I learned years ago,' he said. 'All politics is local.'"

So, what does this have to do with my outrage today?

I won't go into a lot of boring detail, but there is some growing controversy in a town north of Boston called Lawrence. One problem is with the new Mayor, who also happens to be the State Rep as well. Two salaries, two pensions, two offices. I would think that would be illegal. But that is not bad enough. On top of that, our Governor is looking to give them $35 million dollars. $35 million is a lot of money for a Commonwealth that appears to be on the brink of disaster. I am not saying that Lawrence doesn't need it, but what are they going to do with it? Seems like a straightforward question. We want some transparency to see where that money is going. That's all. But here is the kicker, no one will tell us.

I went to the Commonwealth's website to look up the bill myself. Here is what I found. I have copied it from the website in its entirety:

"House, No. 4421
Presented by: Governor
Message from His Excellency the Governor (under Section 8 of Article LXXXIX of the Amendments to the Constitution) recommending legislation relative to providing for the financial stability of the city of Lawrence"

Huh? So, I called the Speaker of the House, Robert A. DeLeo. I wanted to know what this was all about.

Now comes the outrage part.

They placed me on hold at least 4 times, transferred my call to 3 other areas and clicked me off once. I kept calling back. I finally reached a person who actually talked to me. I had to actually beg her to listen.

Her name was Sandy. She was very nice.

She finally let me ask my questions without sending my call to the Hinterlands. She took my number but said that it was unlikely that I would ever get a call back. Nice.

I finally said to her, as politely as I could, that we have all pretty much had it with this type of government representation, the kind where it appears that we do not seem to matter unless it is election time. I further mentioned that I work hard for my money and that I should have some type of say as to where my tax dollars go or at least some understanding as to how it is being used. That I at least should receive an honest answer to a direct question. Didn't I deserve that? It is like I am a shareholder in a company that will not let me know where my investment stands. They demand the money. I have penalties imposed upon me if I do not pay the money, yet, I have no say. No say at all. I am told, essentially, to pay up and shut up. And there also does not seem to be any accountability for anything that happens up on Beacon Hill. I did, after all, elect these guys to represent my best interests. And now they just want me to go away?

We all talk a lot about wanting a lot more transparency in government. But the fact is, we really don't want to have to watch what our government is doing. We feel, however, that we must.

We are all so busy doing our jobs, taking care of our families, busy with the everyday flow of life. We really don't have time to babysit our elected officials and most times, we don't. We just just hope and pray that they are doing the right things. Sadly, they are not. And outrage is building. And so we feel we must use some of our very precious time and pay attention. And we are outraged that we must do so.

So to all of the guys and gals in my backyard, my elected representatives, the ones that took an oath and swore they would do the right thing; you better start paying attention. Because we sure are. And we don't like what we are seeing. And what we are seeing, is you. And our outrage is not going nowhere anymore. It is headed your way.

Take cover.

The President, Scott Brown and Marketing 101

A few years back, I had left clinical nursing to take on a new role as the Marketing Director for a small hospital. It was a referral based hospital and we were selling our services in hopes of getting new admissions. It was an intangible product; you could not taste, feel, touch or really see our product. You wouldn't know if you liked the product, our services, until you experienced them. It is a tough sell because you promise all sorts of things but those promises could be broken by one person who did not do their job or by expectations of care that could not possibly be met.

I was thinking back to marketing last night while I was thinking about this whole uproar over Scott Brown's win and the Obama camp's reaction to it. They sold us a product and we have not been happy with it. In President Obama's case, his product did not meet our expectations in a variety of ways. As for Scott Brown, we have bought his product for now, so we will see.

What do I mean by product? When an intangible service is sold to us, we know that we cannot see what we have actually purchased. We have to trust it, trust it to perform as it said it would. So when we hear, from say, an insurance company that, "you are in good hands", we think, that sounds good. We have no idea if that is true or not, but we respond to the message.

President Obama's message to us was change. Real change. We liked that. Yes, it resonated with us. We hated the war, we hated Bush/Cheney, we hated the path that America was on. We were ripe for change. And that is what we voted for.

A year later, we are still mired in war. People still are not working. He handed a few some money, but it was not enough. Where was the change we so desperately wanted? We see new faces in the White House, but it seems like business as usual. He broke his promise and we became increasingly restless. And mad.

Then came a new hope. Scott Brown. He is not running for President, but he was running for something equally as sacred, Ted Kennedy's seat in the senate. Love him or hate him, Ted Kennedy was a legend. And here we have this no name state senator seeking to replace him. Quite a task. Not to mention that Scott Brown was a republican, and that seat had been held by democrats for decades.

But something amazing happened. People rallied around him. And why? Because he changed the game. It was no longer Ted's seat. It was "The People's Seat." Yes, our seat. People loved that slogan. We wanted to be represented. We didn't like what was happening in Washington, so we wanted to be heard. And so Scott Brown won. Or rather, we won, the people. And the world took note.

So now we will see. Is it really the people's seat? Did we really get what was promised?

Are we in good hands? Did we get a piece of the rock? Are we under a blanket of protection? Will the metaphor that we purchased really meet our expectations?

Perhaps President Obama could learn a lesson here. You can promise all that you want, just make sure you are managing the relationship with the people that bought your product. We have heard you say a lot of things, mostly that you inherited the problem that we face. We know that already. That is why we hired you. To fix it. Not complain about it and offer excuses. So tell us all about that change you promised. Go on TV and list the changes, the benefits that we have received by virtue of those changes. We are waiting.

And perhaps now would be a good time to change your message. Change got you elected, but it will also be your downfall. So I suggest that you ask us to trust you, to trust that you really are going to make things better over time. Trust can be your new slogan. We feel it is too late to hope anymore.

And in the meantime, here is the people's slogan, "What have you done for me lately?" So, far, we do not see much. You still have time to show us. Please don't let us down.

Spin is dead; start telling us the truth. Plus, I have laundry to do, so make it brief. Please.

Every morning, I start my day sitting on the sofa with a very good pot of tea, watching the Today Show with my 11 year old daughter. Sometimes the news is grim, sometimes entertaining. But when politics are on, it can be mind-numbing. The democrats and republicans, or their surrogates, come on and try to spin whatever the topic is, typically to their favor, sometimes against the perceived foe. If there has been some type of uproar over an issue, they try to spin that as well. And we are left to try to figure out who is telling us the truth. Typically, we all just tune out.

We are busy. We juggle jobs and kids and household chores and bills and we try to find some time to have some fun and to sleep, too. Oh, and we also try to eat, although we usually do that simultaneously with the other things mentioned previously. Anyway, my point is this, our time is limited. And that has been to your advantage. Because if we do catch the news, we catch a sound bite that you have spun perfectly and we have little time to really dissect it much. Or react. And you like that. We know.

One of the more refreshing statements that our newly elected Senator Brown has said is that the people are not stupid. And that is very much true. We can see through lies and we know that lobbyists and personal agendas and even vendettas drive a lot of decisions made by our government. It is a shame and a pity that it happens, but it does. We know that. And we sometimes get outraged, but, with so little time to spare, that outrage sometimes goes nowhere. I think that the government counts on that. A little too much.

But things are beginning to change. New social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and You Tube make it virtually impossible for truth to be somehow buried by lies anymore. We can find the truth if we dig enough. And we don't have to dig very deep. Many times a simple google search can answer a question that a politician is reluctant to tell us.

So, here is some advice to politicians and their spin doctors. Just stop it. Stop it right now. Just cut to the chase and tell us the truth. We can take it. We will actually like you better and we may even let you keep your job if you just level with us.

Look, we are not expecting miracles like common sense to take over government, but starting with the facts would be great. Your bold faced lies will only sink you deeper. Can't you see that already?

William E. Simon once said, "Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote." Well, I think we showed, at least in Massachusetts this past month, that we do vote.

So, tell us the truth. You may not like it much and we may not like what we hear, but at least you will have won our respect.