Barney Frank smacks around Fahreed Zakaria on Real Time Overtime

Run time: 06:21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc84kHRSZzI   Posted on YouTube: May 02, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 03, 2009 By DU Member: travelingtypist Views on DU: 3047

 
Barney does all of the talking, but when Fahreed disagrees with him, he complains that Fahreed won't let him talk. It was beautiful.

What kind of idiot is Fahreed? As if destruction of almost all banking/Wall Street/Insurance firm regulations put in to place since the 1930s never happened. As if these firms were not responsible for causing the current economic mess. As if we had never tried deregulation in America.

If there is no opposing viewpoint, he will play devils advocate. Its in the blood.

His kind must have gotten a blood transfusion after the Republicans lost the WH.

The press was extremely anemic while Bush was ruining this country.

He was very upset about Gitmo, Abu Gharaib, etc

His defense of the corporate rape of our country, while railing against social wrong (Gitmo, Iraq) isnt out of line for some people.

We call those folks DLC.

Socially liberal, but corrupted by the influence of corporate money.

Not sure what his political persuasion is, but his past comments seem to define him in that way.

That was the argument I got from a republican friend of mine. It blows my mind. They read from an entirely different book that ignores the consequences of everything the republicans have done over the last 30 years. As if "deregulation is good because it frees companies to make more money" is the final argument in their book. They ignore consequences and long-term effects. It's truly infuriating.

disappointing - but then again, CNN

He's rational. He doesn't believe in deregulation but does endorse "just enough" regulation to allow things from degrading.

He used to be of a leftward view particularly on issues of human rights. I've noticed this new Zakaria gradual rightward-talking-point-purveyer metamorphosis ever since he left his PBS program. Yikes. PBS and NPR really are gone to the braindead right. I stopped contributing to public radio in 2002 when they were joining the Bush propaganda machine- which dominated the programming for time-slot and duration. Public media is supposed to serve the public, but now is pro-corporate content.

Barney has no leg to stand on -- this all happened on his watch. Two years to do something, and they did nothing. He, like the Republicans before him, acts as if he were powerless but he is the one with all the power.

Get off your ass, Barney, and make it work.

While some of the departments of banks and insurance companies were adequately regulated, the departments that got our entire economy into trouble were not regulated at all. On top of the large groups of unregulated business transactions, the Bush administration did not enforce regulations that existed -- as in the case of Berney Madoff.

So, it was Frank who totally owned Zakaria. Not the other way around. The Democrats in Congress were in the minority for four of the Bush years and didn't have the votes to overcome a presidential veto the other four. That is why this is a totally Republican recession or depression depending on your view.

I concur. Zakaria statement that "AIG was heavily regulated" seems almost intentionally misleading when nobody is accusing the insurance part of their business for their meltdown.

I only wish Frank had been given more time to respond.

Frank: "I can't get three words in!"

Zakaria: "When 300 words won't suffice."

I'm pretty sure Bush, a Republican, was president until about 100 days ago.

And all of this deregulation happened in the two years the Dems had control of Congress? Really? Wow.

:eyes:

Congress has the power. They choose to not use it. Even today, Frank is more interested in bantering in front of the cameras than actually accomplishing something.

It's immaterial to the discussion of how to solve the problems. Zakaria
was reciting the same old, tired talking points that aren't true. Frank
nailed him on it.

And, by the way, the Republicans controlled Congress from 1994 until 2006
and they passed the laws -- some signed by Clinton I'll grant you -- that
put this catastrophe in motion. Not the Democrats. And you want to blame
the Democrats for not exercising their "power" in the last two years of
the Bush administration? That's absolute nonsense.

Whatever. :eyes:

Whatever, indeed.

What you're calling "facts" is ticky-tacky bullshit and immaterial to the discussion.
The discussion is how do we fix this, not how to find some backhanded way to blame the
Democrats for it.

Indeed.

Go for it.

Some of us prefer to be armed with facts and sentient thought.

You have an opinion. I have an opinion. I happen to think mine is closer to the
truth than yours.

You made some crazy assertion about how the Democrats were somehow as to blame for
this mess because they didn't do enough to stop it. I called bullshit on you.

I still think what you said is bullshit. I say again, factually speaking, that the
Dems had the House/Senate for two years under a Republican president who vetoed SCHIP
for crying out loud. Republican White House. Get it?

And you make some big deal about an insult lower in the thread, and then you insult
me by implying tnat there's no sentient thought in my posts. Kinda being a little
hypocritical, aren't you?

Nice... :eyes:

... the change he's bitching about. The fact that he's in his THIRD year as chair of that committee, and his big contribution is holding hearings and bitching about CEOs flying in corporate jets, but he does nothing.

Those facts.

Those same facts that you dismiss as ticky-tacky.

He's a failure as a leader. Accept that fact.

And he's one senator who doesn't back down to the bullying from the right. He's taken the time to really understand the banking issue and he's out there talking about it to get people's support behind him.

Zakaria didn't own Frank. Not in the least.

He was just like ALL the Dems in Congress -- he continually deferred to Bush and let him have his way.

Yeah, Zakaria exposed Frank as just another Congressional blowhard. I was sorely disappointed in Barney Frank.

do you conveniently not recall that during Bush years the Repugs changed the voting majority rules to assure that what the neocons wanted would go through? 50% majority no longer means anything. not to mention the battered-wife syndrome that we are trying to help the Dem senators out of. there are a dozen more points, but for rightwingers, it is wasted- just like the message of this post. good grief!

They were a huge embarrassment. They can hardly function even now.

Now with rushrooms.

You're now on my ignore list. Goodbye.

And, Mr. Maher, it's because we don't hear that kind of discussion on TV that I (and a lot of other smart people) don't watch TV.

I thought the same thing as I was watching, nice to hear an adult conversation. Differing views , but

with civility and a modicum of reason. Imagine if conversations like this took place in the house/senate.

Even I knew that the CDS were not regulated (nor the mortgaged backed securities). Did you really believe that or are you espousing nontruths to confuse the people?

A tip of the hat to Barney...again. Don't let these ass hats get away with tossing out little smidgets of info that may be correct, but are only PART of the picture. This is what the repugs are sooooo gooooood at. They love to toss out little "true facts" that by themselves sway the minds of the electorate and are NOT constructive to the whole picture. This, my fellow Americans, is WHY we have our collective heads up our asses in this country. We listen to these "smidgets" from these clowns and we conclude they actually have a point to make.

They are DECEIVING US!! Wake up, morons!!

is a joke! Anyone who was employed by a bank, be they a clerk, bookkeeper, cashier, manager, President, etc., etc., etc., when the banks were actually regulated, knows what has happened to the financial system.....DEREGULATION. All Banks and financial institutions were not only were audited annually by the Federals, but by either contracted auditing agencies or internal auditors, when a branch system was authorized by State regulations. These auditors delved into each and every cranny of the individual banks operation and had the authority to immediately shut down operations if a major failure was discovered. This is no longer true since de-regulation. Thus we have this
financial disaster within our financial system and the housing market.