United States News Digest

Revolt Against Obama Spreads Among Democratic Party Core Constituencies

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Rep. Maxine Waters's explosive dialogue with a Detroit town hall meeting on Aug. 16, on the subject of the black population's outrage at Obama's policies, is spreading like wildfire across the Internet in video form.

Waters tells the crowd, "Y'all love the President" ("Brutus is an honorable man."), which meets a cacophony of hoots. Then she says that "the reality of politics of what's going on" is that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is responding to what their base says about Obama. So far they have given Obama every chance. But "when you tell us it's all right..."—at which point a single, loud woman's voice hollers "It's all right." Waters then smiles broadly, and looks around at her colleagues on the podium, and says "We're ready to have this conversation. We're getting tired, y'all. Our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable." She ends: "When you let us know it's time to let go, we'll let go."

A similar "we've had it" point is being reached in the trade union movement, as reflected in two AFL-CIO unions' refusal to attend the national Democratic Party Convention in North Carolina, and of course, in the AFL-CIO's support for Glass-Steagall. And in the Hispanic community as well, a week of street protests and statements by Hispanic politicians against Obama's horrendous policy of mass deportations—Obama set a record of 392,000 deportations in the year ending Sept. 30, 2010, far more than anything Bush did—has forced the White House to announce that they are postponing further deportations for the moment, subject to review.

This mass ferment is bringing a new layer into motion in the mass-strike process underway in the U.S. since the August 2009 revolt against Obama's health-care policy. This can be seen in the mass turnouts to the national "For the People Jobs Tour" by the CBC; town hall meetings such as the Aug. 18 Rep. Jim Langevin event in Rhode Island, chronicled on LPAC-TV's Aug. 20 "The World in Review"; and so on.

Grassley Demands SEC Come Clean on Destroyed Files

Aug. 19 (EIRNS)—Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Aug. 17, demanding an answer to charges that the agency has destroyed files and documents related to thousands of preliminary investigations into financial wrongdoing by major banks.

Among the cases Grassley asked about, were those related to Bernard Madoff, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, and SAC Capital.

Grassley based his inquiry on charges he received from SEC whistleblower Darcy Flynn, a 13-year veteran of the Commission. Flynn alleged that over 9,000 files had been destroyed, including in cases related to "Goldman Sachs trading in AIG credit default swaps in 2009, financial fraud at Wells Fargo and Bank of America in 2007 and 2008, and insider trading investigations at Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, and SAC Capital."

Grassley is seeking a response from SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro by Aug. 31 on a variety of issues related to the allegations, including their accuracy, the ability to retrieve the documents, the current policy, and the SEC's view of its legal obligations.

Thousands Line Up for Congressional Black Caucus Job Fairs

Aug. 19 (EIRNS)—Some 5,000 to 6,000 unemployed people stood in line in Atlanta on Aug. 18 for the Job Fair sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, the third such event in a planned series of five, which are combined with town meetings. Many of those waited overnight, camping out in their business suits and high heels; 20 people were treated for heat exhaustion. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was shocked by the turnout; he had expected 500 people to attend.

The first CBC Job Fair was held in Cleveland on Aug. 8. Press reports said there were 4,000 unemployed there, but CBC officials said 7,000. Rep. Marcia Fudge, who hosted the Cleveland event, said the turnout shows the gravity of the problem; she said employers who participated had to commit to a certain number of jobs; they had more than 2,500 jobs on the table. Initially, the CBC said they hoped to successfully connect 10,000 job-seekers with employers; in Cleveland, Fudge said that the job fairs might get 15,000 people hired. Compared with 15 million unemployed, Fudge acknowledged that this may not seem like much, but she said it's important to those people who get jobs. The second event was in Detroit on Aug. 16; at least 5,000 people waited in line there, for about 1,000 available jobs.

The final two CBC events will be held in Miami on Aug. 22-23, and in Los Angeles on Aug. 30-31.

Salt Lake Tribune Calls for Glass-Steagall

Aug. 17—(EIRNS)—In a strong, unsigned editorial today, the Salt Lake Tribune, the oldest and largest newspaper in Salt Lake City, Utah, has called on Congress to restore the Glass-Steagall Act. The city is well supplied with LaRouche movement organizing activity, including public meetings, and radio appearances, as well as meetings with other leading individuals and elected officials.

"Today," writes the Tribune, "in the anxious pall of the Great Recession ignited by subprime mortgages and the exotic financial products derived from them, Congress should rebuild the wall that Glass-Steagall created and the Clinton administration tore down. The object of such a reform would be to deny reckless speculators the implicit guarantee that the U.S. Treasury will bail them out when their bets go south.

"A corollary of this regulation is that there would be far less chance that a few huge, integrated banks would be judged too big to allow to fail because otherwise they would take the entire financial system down with them."

The editorial cites Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank president Thomas Hoenig, and then concludes:

"The Great Recession has been compared to the Great Depression ad nauseam. The analogy breaks down, however, because after the Great Recession the president and Congress, unlike FDR and Congress in the 1930s, have failed to eliminate the causes of the meltdown. Unless they do, another speculative bubble, followed by another financial collapse and bailout, is certain."

The Wall Street Super-Congress

Aug. 17 (EIRNS)—The same Wall Street investment firms and funds that have started the wheels in motion for "$1 billion for President Obama/2012," are also targeting control of the other 12 members of the unconstitutional coup-committee which Obama calls the "Super-Congress."

Obama's launch-dinner for his intended $1 billion campaign was hosted by Goldman Sachs, the world's most-sued investment bank. In an ominous sign, a $1,500/plate fundraiser has been quickly organized for "Super-Congress" appointee Rep. Xavier Becerra, by the 75-year-old, Morgan-founded investment banking lobby known as the Investment Company Institute (ICI). "We will host an event for Congressman Xavier Becerra," announced the ICI on Aug. 11, "not only Vice Chairman of the Democratic Caucus but also who has just been named to the new deficit reduction commission. This will be Mr. Becerra's first event since being named to the commission and may be one of the first for any of the twelve members of the group. This event could give all attendees a glimpse into what will most assuredly be the primary topic of discussion between now and the end of the year."

Opposition Builds Against Obama's Hitler-Health Plan

Aug. 15 (EIRNS)—Last week, a provider group, the Coalition to Protect Patients Rights, began a $1.4 million nationwide TV ad campaign denouncing ObamaCare's T-4 provision, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. On Aug. 12, a three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that the individual mandate in the Federal health reform law is unconstitutional, the first time a Federal appellate court has ruled against any part of the law. Today, the New York Post gave over op-ed space to former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey for a piece entitled "BamCare's Rising Legal Woes."

The Coalition's spot likens IPAB to a Medicare IRS with the power to cut payments to doctors and deny care to seniors. A statement on the group's website says, "IPAB's role in the United States would be eerily reminiscent of the National Institute for Clinical Excellences (NICE) role in Great Britain, where NICE makes recommendations to Britain's National Health Service (NHS) on what they should and shouldn't cover. NHS then rations care accordingly. Unsurprisingly, the system has turned substandard health care into a way of life for millions of patients in Great Britain, causing some to travel to the United States to get the care they need."

In her column, McCaughey, the author of The Obama Health Law: What It Says and How To Overturn It, notes that the court said that the Nero Regime arguments for the law's "individual mandate" are a "convenient sleight of hand." The judges, she said, concluded that the law would force people to subsidize insurance companies, which the law makes into private tax collectors. True enough.