MATT TAIBBI---Best Way to Raise Campaign Money? Investigate Banks

[kpete]

POSTED: APRIL 21, 9:27 AM ET | By MATT TAIBBI

Best Way to Raise Campaign Money? Investigate Banks


A hilarious report http://www.followthemoney.org/press/ReportView.phtml?r=447&utm_campaign=tom-millerforeclosure-report&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nimsp-contacts has come out courtesy of the National Institute of Money in State Politics, showing that Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller – who is coordinating the investigation into the banks’ improper mortgage dealings – increased his campaign contributions from the finance sector this year by a factor of 88! He has raised $261,445 from finance, insurance and real estate contributors since he announced that he was going to be coordinating the investigation into improper foreclosure practices. That is 88 times as much as they gave him not over last year, but over the previous decade.

This is about as perfect an example of how American politics works as you’ll ever see. This foreclosure issue is a monstrous story that is somehow escaping national headlines; essentially, all of the largest banks in the country have been engaged in an ongoing fraud and tax evasion scheme that among other things has resulted in many hundreds of billions in investor losses, and hundreds of thousands of improper foreclosures. Last week, the 14 largest mortgage lenders a group that includes bailout all-stars like Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, managed to negotiate a settlement with the federal government that will mandate some financial relief to homeowners who have been victims of improper foreclosure practices. It’s unclear yet exactly what damages and fines will be involved in the federal settlement, or how many homeowners will be affected. But certainly there are some who believe the federal settlement was a political end-run around the states’ efforts to extract their own deal from the banks.

Put it this way. If the banks had to pay what they actually owed – from the registration taxes/fees they avoided by using the electronic registry system MERS to the money taken from investors in toxic mortgage-backed securities to the fees and payments stolen from homeowners via predatory loan practices and illegal foreclosures – they would probably all go out of business. That’s how much money is at stake here: the very future of financial giants like Bank of America and Citi and JP Morgan Chase is hanging to a very significant degree on the decisions of politicians like Miller.

Hence the sudden avalanche of money sent Miller’s way. The numbers are laughable. In 2006, out -of-state donors gave Miller’s campaign $10,508. For the 2010 cycle, that number was $497,357. Three lawyers by themselves – Al Gore’s attorney David Boies, plus Donald Flexner and Robert Silver, all partners in the firm Boies, Schiller and Flexner – gave Miller a total of $60,000.

the rest:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/best-way-to-raise-campaign-money-investigate-banks-20110421

[Oceansaway]

1. k & r...nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. There seems to be absolutely NOTHING that shames or scares these politicians

and corporate interests anymore. This is about as clear a case of bribery as I have ever seen. One would assume that Miller is not in any way afraid of a political opponent hammering home the fact that these banks have suddenly dropped hundreds of thousands into his campaign.

Taibbi is one of the most courageous and talented journalists in America today. Let no one forget that poking billionaires in the eye and endangering their ability to steal oceans of money can easily get you whacked. Viva Taibbi!

[sabrina 1]

4. I worry about him too. He is almost the only

reporter exposing these massive crimes.

Now, they smear people instead of killing them. And we know from those HBGary emails, that even people like Glenn Greenwald are on their list of people to 'investigate'. If Anonymous had not found those emails, a negative smear campaign, such as the one they used against Julian Assange would most likely have been launched against Greenwald by now.

But we know now that they hire huge firms to do this. I bet Taibbi is being 'investigated' to see what could be used to discredit him. I hope he's aware of it.

The MERS situation alone, as he points out, which deprived local Town Halls of their fees, that at least should be prosecuted. And all those fees collected and paid back to those who were legally entitled to them.

If anyone doubts that Banks are running this country, then they have not been following this scandal.

[crickets]

3. Best democracy money can buy. K&R