Thanks, Chuck.

Yes, thanks John Steward for all the hard work you put in on this. We really couldn’t have done this with out you.

Really.

I’d also like to thank Jon Stewart. That other awesome guy.

I also wish that the national press, especially those of you who are my fellow city dwellers, will take a more careful look at Bloomberg in the future as well. There’s no doubt that both Bloomberg and Schumer are very competent at what they do, but they have some a real blind spot for Wall Street. You’re right that you need to watch Schumer more carefully but you should also be more careful with any coverage of Bloomberg’s supposed “independence” because he is not indedpendent too far south of Tribeca.

If you want to take on the banking/government corporatocracy, this would be an extremely relevant and timely matter for a watchdog in the mainstream corporate press to report on:

Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/21/federal-blocks-new-forecl_n_800010.html

Jon Stewart brought attention to an issue mostly ignored by the traditional media. The internet spread the word. Thank you Jon would be appropriate.
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Also a big thank you is due to Senator Gillibrand who has worked for a long time on this issue. And, Hillary Clinton who was a strong advocate when she was a Senator.

I have to agree. Stewart FTW.

Not to be dismissive of the cultural center of the universe, but isn’t 9/11 and Wall St. pretty much the epicenter of the cultural center nowadays?

No offense to anybody in LA, but after all, this started, “As a New Yorker…”. We all know where it’s really at.

I have known Chuck Schumer for a long time – he was my congressman – and I both admire him and also deplore his slavish service to the financial community. But, hey it is the hometown industry, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands, and it is as hard to blame him for carrying water for Wall Street as it would be to expect Tom Harkin bobby Byrd to clamp down on the pork industry. The weird truth of America is that the portions of the country most dependent on the finance industry are, in general, the ones that are the most “blue”. The result is that regulation of our financial industry is going to be a tenuous process at best.

(The) watchdog in the mainstream corporate press.
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I leave out milk and biscuits for the watchdog. Every year he somehow gets into my house and leaves holiday gifts of scandals, double talk and pejoratives under my tree.. all in well wrapped video clips..
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Merry Media to all..

If Bloomberg were free of local influence, and work for the Fed, do you think that he’d evolve (revert?) to be more independent?

“But, hey it is the hometown industry, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands, and it is as hard to blame him for carrying water for Wall Street as it would be to expect Tom Harkin bobby Byrd to clamp down on the pork industry.”
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That’s a fair point. What Schumer is doing for the Financial Services industry, no matter how despicably at odds with what the country needs, it probably does less harm than what corn-state Senators have been doing for years in service to Archer Daniels Midland. The issues are corporate control of government policy and lobbying and campaign finance reform. When Klein gets religion on those problems, I’ll take him seriously on Wall Street reform.

“the 9/11 First Responders health care bill”
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Passing this was the absolute right thing to do. I just wonder where all the fiscal deficits hawks from the Democratic party was in abiding by PAYGO? Or is that only brought out on special occasions when Republicans want to pass something?
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We heard screeching from the extreme left over “paying for ” tax cuts” which were neither spending nor cuts. But uninterrupted silence here> hmmm…….

free, the health care for first responders is being paid for. The cost has been covered by closing a loop hole in the tax code. So it is Paygo.
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But dems have never claimed to be fiscal hawks. that’s all for you guys on the right. claim fiscal conservatancy at election time, then run the deficit up and up and up. You’ve been doing it since Reagan, and it took a Dem (Clinton) to balance the budget. Not certain is going to accomplish since a feat or if he even wants to try given the track record of republicans immedicately erasing budget surplauses the first chance they get.

“But dems have never claimed to be fiscal hawks. that’s all for you guys on the right.”
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When the right claims to be fiscal hawks, think Paris Hilton claiming the coke in her purse wasn’t hers. We know it wasn’t true. She knew it wasn’t true. It’s just something she felt she had to say. It’s the same with the republicans. When Bush was President they had the house and senate for 6 years and spent money like drunken sailors. They best they could do was to whine that they were spending money like democrats. It didn’t stop them, they just cried and carried on like it was our fault.

Yes, thank you so much Chucky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Schumer
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Financial industry regulation
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Then-congressman Schumer in 1987, in opposition to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, wrote in a New York Times op-ed: Don’t Let Banks Become Casinos, wrote “Citing the pressures of rigorous worldwide competition in financial services, large American banks are pleading for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a law that keeps banks out of the more volatile and risky world of securities transactions. Their entreaties should be resisted…”[78]
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Senator Schumer in 1999, in support of Congress’s repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, commented: “There are many reasons for this bill, but first and foremost is to ensure that U.S. financial firms remain competitive.”[79]
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The Securities and Investment industry is the largest donor to Schumer’s senatorial campaigns.[80]
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On December 14, 2008 the New York Times published an article on Schumer’s role in the Wall Street meltdown. The article stated that Schumer:[81]
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embraced the industry’s free-market, deregulatory agenda more than any other Democrat in Congress, even backing measures now blamed for contributing to the financial crisis… Schumer took steps to protect industry players from government oversight and tougher rules, a review of his record shows. Over the years, he has also helped save financial institutions billions of dollars in higher taxes or fees. He succeeded in limiting efforts to regulate credit-rating agencies.
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This article also charged that Schumer blocked ratings agencies reforms proposed by the Bush Administration and the Cox SEC.

Nothing says loser quit like someone that has nothing better to do than post here all day on Christmas.
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Why don’t you take some time to actually study economics like you claim that you have.
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Oh and shut the F up.

AS a former volunteer firefighter and first responder, I’m 100% for helping first responders and people who were injured. As a resident of the Gulf Coast, I have seen first hand how well our government administers these wonderful projects. After Katrina, they government handed out debit cards to help all those who were in dire need. Many ended up being used at liquir stores, strip clubs, and to buy gold “grills”. After the oil spill, business have been going belly up on a regular basis, but the city of Dauphin Island got BP to pay to repair “Katrina Cut” the cut that split the island when Katrina hit. I’m not sure why BP is responsible for doing that, but that’s our wonderful ,”make those nasty ol corporations” pay mentality. Even if they are not responsible. You can be sure that some 911 first responders will suffer and die without ever seeing one red cent from the government, and others who weren’t even within 500 miles of ground zero will collect and buy booze, strippers, and gold grills. And the democrats can chalk up another entitlement they have created and can count on thier vote and Jon Stewart can trust them to boost his ratings.

As best I can tell, no one posted on Christmas day at all…. unless there’s some secret code in the dates.