This is a good suggestion. Your cellphone is basically a GPS locator anyway. They can monitor your travel 24/7.

This is something the Chinese activist Chen thought he was getting away from! From the frying pan into the fire. Of course, if you submit complaints, the cops will claim national security rights.

I’m not sure I understand the purview of the new CFPB. I thought this bureau also examined complaints against banks, which is why the banks had been so hysterically opposed to it. A credit card company is in many cases a banking institution.

My other question is how did this happen so effortlessly? Republicans have focused on blocking this recess appt for about a year now. Why all of a sudden did their guard drop? The lack of pushback suggests some kind of cooperation, or maybe a deal?

I’m thrilled Obama finally made a move –after all, recess appts are hardly controversial anymore — but I’m in the dark about events that made this happen. Anyone with insider info?

Totally sickens me. I’d rather risk acquittal and have a criminal trial, though I’m sure they’d have a hard time picking a jury given everyone’s house in the U.S. was devalued. So who does that money go to anyway? Will it go to we the people?

Republicans think people are stupid. If they go on TV and claim that they actually WANT a payroll tax cut for a year because they want to honor the president’s request, people will say how amazing they are. We all know that the Republicans don’t give a shit about the payroll tax cut or unemployment benefits. They want to score points and a deal for the oil company. If they cared that much about the payroll tax cut, they’d pass it.

Like you, I don’t care about the payroll tax cut. Most of it benefits people making over $50K a year anyway. And if history proves right, as soon as companies see that you have some extra money, they’ll raise prices–all of them–so you have to pay more for health insurance, or groceries, or gas, or utilities, or fees. You’ll end up worse than before.

If Dems respond to this baiting, I’ll lose even more respect for them…if that’s possible. Let the Republicans go on making shit up and outright lying–will somebody call them on it? Why does the press let them get away with that stuff? You’re right–name these job creators who say all their candidates are drug addicts. Drug testing & transcripts for unemployment benefits defines the Republican view of the unemployed–that it’s all addicts and dropouts. That’s insulting, elitist, and invasive. It’s fascist, really. Let’s demand drug testing and annual documentation for everybody taking govt money, including Congress. Look at how long oil companies have been on the dole and they don’t even pay any taxes on their profits!

It’s scary that people actually vote for these people.

I beg your pardon. I am not a troll. What have I said that makes you accuse me of that? I know very little about Buddy Roemer except that he is against money in politics, opposed to Citizens United, and only accepts $100 per person donations. I think that’s a good start. If you think Dems or Republicans are representing human constituents over corporate ones, you’re nuts. This is exactly why this govt is paralyzed.

I’m truly offended and insulted.

I realize this might be considered heretical, but the Democrats, a party as it exists that I’ve lost complete faith in, should deep six this bill as its been presented to them. Now Democrats have gotten their base believing that this payroll tax cut, which benefits the more amply paid more than it does the average worker, is absolute proof that they are thinking of the 99% and looking out for us. I want more than a lousy $75 dollars a month that will instantly trigger hikes by grocery stores, oil comps, utilities, health insurance. Giving you that extra money simply tells these companies that you have a little extra cash to put in their pockets.

People have lost more than $75 a month can cure. These legislators ought to be focusing on some real solutions not temporary quick fixes that SOLVE NOTHING. Even with a payroll tax holiday or unemployment benefits, people are still plummeting into poverty. The average unemployment benefit is a measly $200 weekly. And for that they want a urine sample and school transcript!!!

This is absolute madness and all these people need to be kicked out for mishandling public matters, fraud, self interest, and incompetence.

We might do better by taking a serious look at Buddy Roemer. He’ll take only $100 per person for a campaign donation. I’ve never voted Republican in my life, but I’ve come to realize that Labels are no longer relevant in this country that functions on legalized bribery. People really need to start throwing tomatoes at these so-called elected officials, change the rules, get them all out of office and out of govt altogether.

FDL, I object to the headline for this story. As its picked up by the wires, twitter etc., the headline suggests that WOW! the SEC/Obama is getting tough with financial fraud when the case is just the opposite. Once I read non-prosecution settlements/agreements, les jeux sont fait.

You’re right. FF did nothing that Wall St Honchos didn’t do. So where’s the roundup? I find it amazing that the govt can arrest Bradley Manning for an alleged death penalty offense for releasing embarassing information, can kill Osama bin Laden, but give a pass to Goldman Sachs while accepting their bribes for (snicker) campaign donations.

This is totally fucked up. And I think your headline is misleading and should be revised.

Ginger White said she’d be surprised if she didn’t know these things about her husband. I think Gloria Cain might have been relieved that Her Man stopped bothering her and sought relief elsewhere. “Just leave me the credit cards.”

I wonder why Cain seemed so attracted to white women? Maybe he saw all black women as Anita Hills.

I think it’s great that schools would organize a field trip to an occupation for a teach in. Civic duty should be part of every school curriculum and students should learn about how to engage their govt. Way too many lemmings in this country.

If he thinks he can offset such a travesty by touting payroll tax cuts & unemployment benefits, then he’s not as smart as anyone thinks. I don’t think I could actually vote for him again although the alternatives are a true nightmare. Perhaps voting for him and undercutting him in other ways–like cloning Bernie Sanders and running him in all states–would be effective.

Dumb & dumber. The choice seems to be Worse & Worser.

No one would have thought that candidate Obama would go along with these bank bailouts (& perpetuate the same behavior) and allow bank victims–primarily 99% of the people–to suffer all the consequences. Someone who claims to have been a community organizer. Sorry–but a payroll tax cut or puny unemployment benefits or low-wage job does not even begin to cut it.

You would think Obama would comment on the irony of police arresting over 4000 peaceful protesters yet not indicting one banker. I guess I won’t hold my breath.

I find this completely unforgivable. While I would have expected it from Bush & the right, I would never have anticipated it coming from anybody on the left.

I saw the film “The Insider” about whistleblower Jeffery Wigand who was fired by Brown & Williamson then agreed to violate his confidentiality agreement and go on 60 Minutes about how the tobacco makers manipulated the nicotine levels to get people addicted. According to the movie, he was both surveiled and threatened. When he persisted despite that, Wigand was smeared. It’s one of the best films ever made.

Corporations have always played hardball when it comes to profits. They have their own private security whose job is to torture you. Like the Pinkertons.

This is pretty funny.

I still cannot get over this. Student protests are an important rite of passage in this country and to have nonviolent students beaten with batons and sprayed chemically by Storm Troopers is appalling and obscene. Why in the heck would anybody have to form a damn committee to investigate what is so clearly documented or to suggest that brutalizing peaceful students is inappropriate? The chancellor is desperate to hold on to that $400,000 + perks paycheck, probably realizing that she won’t be duplicating that tidy sum too easily in this job market.

I wrote my letters to the principals in this shocking case the moment I saw that video. Let me tell you, the words flowed from my keyboard.

Yes. I just think it can’t be a coincidence that the president was out of the country when all this cracking down was going on. Would the president have said nothing about protesters being hosed during the civil rights era? Would he have said it’s a local matter? Racial inequality and income inequality are inextricably linked.

These protesters carry no guns, no weapons. Instead they protest wielding tents and sleeping bags and their voices, which for some reason threatens police so much that they dress in riot gear and assault protesters with pepper spray, rubber bullets, bean bags, and the like.

These cash strapped cities who are cutting funds to schools and other public services deem it a wise expenditure of taxpayer funds to amass paramilitary police on a daily basis to knock down tents and arrest a few protesters.

This just doesn’t make sense, especially considering that the protesters aren’t going anywhere and will return day after day. And if all of them are imprisoned for any length of time, then others who are twittering will put on their coats and go out there to take their places.

This memo sickens me as much as the video of police pepper spraying students. Both are emblematic of a democracy in deep trouble, co-opted by the financial services industry who wants to rule the planet.

This is exactly how ACORN was taken down, an organization whose crime was empowering poor people and registering them to vote. These financial hit men have been at work in this country since its founding, finding ways to initimidate and destroy idealistic citizens and community leaders. This 4-page memo defines the ugliness at work in this country and shows the process by which democracy is imperiled.

Funny, I don’t hear a peep from our elected officials. Do you?