What’s Got My Goat ?
What’s eating me?
What’s bugging me?
What’s sticking in my craw?
It is that we’ve had a solid 8 years of absolutely no accountability what-so-ever for the executive branch, congress, banks, auto-executives, military planners, or basically anybody in any position of responsibility.
Now accountability is back, but it is not retroactive.
“Now accountability is back”
Can you cite some examples, please?
Really jason? Maybe the buzzword is back, but let’s wait and see if the intent and actions are. But, I do hope it is so. Because, if not, you may be eating crow to follow up with that muskrat–you know the Delaware way.
Republicans have had plenty of political accountability. As far as seeing Republicans in the docket, just tell yourself:
“Obama is smarter than you and me.”
Repeat as needed.
Cut a very young goat (8 to 12 lbs) into serving pieces. Wash and dry pieces and place in an open pan in a 350° oven. Cook for 20 minutes using a meat thermometer, making sure internal temperature reaches 160°. Prepare barbecue sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes. Baste kid goat with sauce every 15 to 20 minutes for 2 hours or until meat is very tender.
This has been pointed out before by one of the brilliant posters on this site, and that is: accountiblity is there. The audit measures enacted into law and used since the Great Depression are there. Excess and risky lending is comprehensively governed by existing law.
The problem is that the results of application of government oversight were ignored. Bank examiners who audited banks under authority granted by the Federal government knew well of the house of cards represented by sub-prime lending. The system worked, until the results of bank audits were handed to the Federal government. Then everything disappeared like a 16-year old Muslim boy in Guantanimo.
Simple way to prove my assertion. Look at the investment accounts of Federal bank regulators and see how many invested in sub-prime mortgages or in vehicles derivative of sub-prime mortgages. I’ll bet the number was between 0% and 0.001% (there had to be a few dumb ones out there).
I assume you missed the election in November.
That event was accountability.
“I assume you missed the election in November.
That event was accountability.”
I recall November. It seemed more about hope and change. What I don’t remember is your name being on a ballot. Is that the accountability to which you refer?
Finally Mike P has gotten something right
It’s true – November was accountability. We need continuous accountability however, to make sure that things don’t get as screwed up as they did under Bush.
Reis… I don’t think financial oversight accountability is what Jason is talking about.
Are you saying the Bush administration would have been a success if it had just prevented banks from writing certain mortgages?
Bush has done serious damage to our politics and our national character with his unitary executive assumption. Which gave us torture, DOJ politicization, WMD lies, signing statements, ignoring subpoenas, and more.
In a way, the fact that Bush got away with those things simply by daring anyone to stop him, exposes flaws in our Constitution.
Those flaws were always there. But Bush was the one to take advantage of them.
“November was accountability. We need continuous accountability however, to make sure that things don’t get as screwed up as they did under Bush.”
Then, until accountability is actually demonstrated, November was merely symbolic. I suppose talking about is a good start.
Anon,
If our country was still the envy of the world in terms of wealth and financial stability, then yes, the Bush administration would have ended on a much better note.
By the single act of failing to enforce existing financial oversight laws, we, and Bush, would enjoy a future much better than what we both face now. Its like Madoff; incredible wealth seems to make a lot of other bad things much easier to bear.
Reis… you are correct, but not in the way you think: If Bush had reined in the banks in his first administation, the housing bubble would have popped sooner, the recesssion would have begun, and Bush would have lost in 2004. And then we’d all be better off.
I wonder if responsibility isn’t the right word here — what we’ve been lacking is leadership who actually gives a damn beyond his ideological imperatives. Americans handed over the reins of government to a group of people who were clear that they thought of government as a very bad thing — so they worked at shoveling money at their friends and running the ideological board and it didn’t matter that it was unsustainable and of questionable legality. So now we are paying dearly for what turned out to be structural failure. Those who are responsible for or who did cheerleading for where we are today feel no responsibility and continue with the same talking points even though that crap is how we got here in the first place.
I’m not yet sure if we have accountability yet, but am sure that we do have people who will work hard at ensuring that competence gets returned to government.
@14 — the bubble may have popped, but it would have never have gotten as huge as it got, and the massive volume of bad derivatives would not have been hanging like a sword of Damocles over all of our heads.
Accountability/Responsibility are great things, but lose their credibility when uttered by hypocrites who could have cared less about these words for the last eight years – and that’s what gets my goat.
Cassandra, I think you put way too much emphasis on ideology. When a government official, such as Cheney, keeps talking about protecting our good Christian womenfolk from evil Muslim terrorists, but at the same time is pocketing literally billions of dollars in personal wealth by means of his ‘ideology’, I begin to doubt the sincerity of his ‘beliefs’ as opposed to his interest in his, and other political insiders’ wallets.
Its like Paul Clark and Pam Scott saying they just want to give poor people a place to live because they think goverment should help the poor so if you object to them making millions on inside deals that must mean you hate poor people, you evil bastard..
Too much ideology?
Hmm.
The Iraq War was certainly ideological (and a thing that the PNAC group plumped for when Clinton was in office) and it turned out to be a handy dandy vehicle to send funds to their friends in Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and many others who could get their hands in the war business.
But the other ideological was in stuff like Terri Schiavo, and Bradley Schlotzman — trying to codify their POV into either law or into the long-term working bloodstream of government. Or even the Office of Faith Based Initiatives — they did alot of stuff to try to appease their social conservatives (and the faith Based stuff had the additional benefit of sending taxpayer funds to their fundamentalist friends) too. The social conservatives are certainly pissed that BushCo did not produce their Christian Nationalist haven, but they got some of what they wanted too.
the bubble may have popped, but it would have never have gotten as huge as it got
That is my point… Bush used the bubble to cover the huge upward transfer of wealth… Even with flat real incomes, the middle class could maintain their standard of living through housing-based credit. Without that, there would have been no second Bush administration.
Appeasing social conservatives, or any other distinct ‘block’ of constituents, for what appears to be the sole purpose of making millions personally, is not “ideology”.
My point is that ideology, bullying, torture, etc., were a means to an end: personal wealth and power. This is simple greed and avarice, not an ideology.
A perfect example: those in power to approve stem cell research object on “moral” grounds. If these same people were screaming in pain from end-stage bone cancer, would they except fruits of stem cell research to alleviate the pain, or would they undure the pain because of earlier claims to moral superiority? Furthermore, would powerful politicians in this situation not only contradict themselves by availing of this research, but use political pull and muscle to get such treatment first?
Okay, Reis has a point. I don’t think Cheney believes in anything but Cheney. I think he uses ideology to manipulate the masses.
Bush? He strikes me as a believer.
Only when it works to get votes. True believers would realize that there’s a bit of a disconnect between following the ways of Jesus and torturing people ‘unto cardiac arrest’.
We aren’t far off, reis — I do think that what passed as ideology was about finding ways to send tax money off to their friends and to appease their social conservative base by funneling some power to them to help them advance their nationalist goals. And inoculating government agencies with as many of the nationalist types as they could (with no real interest in competence or even qualifications) was certainly about making their ideological POV and approach part of the long term structure of those agencies.
Again, just like Paul and Pam, “Truth, justice, and the American way, especially if it buys us beach-front property and servants.”
accountability where? it needs to be bipartisian. ruthie and her minions are D’s shouldnt they be held accountable too? This is not a repubs are not accountable, only dems are.
arthur,
I absolutely think all politicians should be accountable. I think incumbents trying to avoid primaries is undemocratic as well.
“I wonder if responsibility isn’t the right word here — … I’m not yet sure if we have accountability yet…”
Exactly.
hey, could we have that mea culpa on Mike Castle’s CHIP vote? You know, in the good interest of accountability, our fair state, and all those children……
Trust me, in six months Hope and Change will mean very little.
Pres Obama will be in over his head.
I look forward to hearing your objective analysis of Obama’s failures.
I find your constant hoping for Obama to fail to be very unAmerican for a leatherneck.
Mike the Torturer,
You have provided no reason or record to trust you about anything, except flying an airplane.
Besides, we’re not finished with our objective analysis of your failure, Mike, in your run for Governor.