Support the Wall Street Reform Bill H.R. 4173

Tired of Wall Street doing whatever they want and then leaving it for the taxpayers to clean up when it goes bad? Support this bill. The republicans are looking to defeat it. Again I'm not supporting one party here, merely what I think is in the best interests of the U.S. If you agree pick up the phone and call your Senators. Especially if they are Republican.

some highlights:

protect consumers by creating an independent consumer financial protection agency to end the rip-offs and get rid of the most outrageous financial products, like the "exploding mortgages" that helped cause the financial crisis

end the bailouts by setting up procedures to wind down failing financial institutions by making the banks—not the taxpayers—foot the bill

limit the risky practices that got the banks into so much trouble, and makes banks set aside more money as a cushion in case things go wrong.

shut down the "shadow markets" by cracking down on the backroom trading that put our economy at risk. Unlike the stock market, these "shadow markets"—where trillions of dollars of "derivatives" are traded each year—are currently secret, highly risky, and virtually unregulated.

Pick up the phone tomorrow and call your House Rep and Senators. Here are the NY Senator phone numbers:

Senator Charles Schumer
Phone: 202-224-6542

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Phone: 202-224-4451

Find your Seanator here if you are not in NY

Snapshot: Visiting Congressman Elliot Engel

Jumping right in! Today I met with Congressman Elliot Engel from New York's 17th District. I don't have time right now to write a report but I will do so by tomorrow evening while everything is still fresh in my mind. Heres a picture for now. The two other gentlemen are members of MoveOn.org. I just joined this group so until I feel it out I do not want to speak on it. I want to form my own opinion first.

Do you feel comfortable with 4 companies controlling 85% of the meat you eat?

My wife and I have a newborn and a baby nurse staying with us and Monday night when I was booted out of my living room early I decided to take my lappy in to the bedroom and watch some streaming content on Netflix. Since The Wire is only on disc and I had an hour and a half before bedtime chose to watch Food, Inc. I always watch documentaries with a grain of salt. I commend Michael Moore for doing what he does, but hes more editoral than journalistic.

I found Food, Inc to be very journalistic. It presented Robert Kenner's research in what appeared to be a rather low bias manner. The movie explains how cattle and poultry were historically raised and grown and how the industry has evolved over the last couple decades. He states that 85% of meat produced in the US is now controlled by 4 major corporations. The concerns are of course with how the animals are treated, how the meat is processed and the proceedures used to help ensure that what we eat is sanitary, and how much influence Cargill, Tyson, Smithfield and Perdue can exert on the farmers and on government to get the best business results. I encourage you all to watch Food, Inc and form your own opinion.

For the purposes of this blog I am only interested in how corporations pressue government officials to get their needs met. The movie argues that the meat producing corporations exert pressure via soft money and other tactics on congressional officials to ensure continued government subsidies for corn crops. Keeping the price of corn artificially low allows meat producers to feed their cattle corn at an incredibly cheap price. Now cows don't naturally eat corn, they eat grass but its much easier to feed cattle a cheap crop than have cows graze on vast acres of land. This keeps meat prices artificially low as well. Tie in McDonalds that is the largest purchaser of ground beef (and I think they said chicke too) in the US and its logical that meat producing companies will cater to their best client. Have you ever wondered why you can buy a McDonald's hamburger for $1 but theres no way you could make one for $1 yourself?

So what upsets me? The fact that congress continues to subsidize corn farming to the extent that it does. It seems pretty clear to me that its corporate influence rather than constituent demand that encourages our government to keep corn prices low.

Are your representatives representing you or their financial interests? Do they need campaign money and are voting with corporate interests to get funding? Make sure they are representing your interests by contacting and getting to know your representatives. Make them earn your vote, don't let them buy it.

Update: The oil spill is 76,000 square miles

Thats a square thats 275 miles by 275 miles. To put that in somewhat fathomable terms if this oil slick were the 51st state it would rank 18th in area ahead of Washington and just behind South Dakota and Nebraska.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis

I live in NY and I am shocked at how little coverage or urgency is being conveyed by the media regarding this disasterous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know just how big this spill is and it appears that BP really doesn't know either. Is it 5000 barrels a day? 20,000? 100,000? How much is a barrel anyway? I think 55 gallons. Even at 5k barrels x 55 = 275,000 gallons seems like an astronomical amount that has been pouring into the Gulf for over a month now. Still no fix. Are NYers not concerned? I give the benefit to the media that not all journalists are compromised and the oil conglomerates are not quashing the story with cash or other means. So why so little coverage NY?

Personally, I eat very little fish and while I like shrimp I can get it from any country now direct to my local Whole Foods or via frozen bags. The fishing economy is not my personal concern. What should concern all of us NYers and Americans though is $5/gallon gasoline. Every 10 cents that gallon goes up so does our collective blood pressure. My dad would throw an anyurism at $5 gas but never question a $2 coffee. Hes like many Americans I know. So lets get to the real story. The gulf oil spill will raise oil prices. Its not going to happen immediately. Maybe the trickle down effect will take 3 years. If you're an expert on oil economics chime in here.

My thinking is this: The US rents tracts of the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies to drill and extract. Congressmen MUST take action or look weak on the environment. This means that those tracts will go up in cost. My guess is that they will be harder to get too. Higher cost and lower supply will naturally be passed on to the consumer. Guess what? $5 gas. Are my numbers right? I don't know. Like I said, I'm a layman. I think my thinking is solid here though.

So how does this relate to politics? Well my boy Charles Schumer who is usually rather outspoken should be up in arms in the NY media about how this is being handled and what the impact will be for NYers. Higher gas prices. Get the word out. I know very little about Kirsten Gillibrand other than she was the lucky recipient of the seat used by Hillary Clinton for a few years. The word "used" is quite intentional but thats another story. I haven't heard her speak out about this spill. This is where our elected officals in my opinion should be speaking to their constituents on a proactive basis to evoke an opinion. Sure this is not a NY spill, but this is a national problem and a rather significant one. Nita Lowey, I just took the time to look you up. You're my local representative. At least I know what you look like now. Come around Mamaroneck sometime and say hi.

The bottom line is that our government representatives are not proactive, but rather reactive. We elected you to represent us. Communicate with us when we should be alarmed or excited or fascinated with a topic. This oil spill is an example to me of how our elected officials fail us. Just because it's not happening in NY doesn't mean it's not effecting NY. If you have to push our hot buttons to get us involved, i.e. icreased gas prices may result from this spill, then do it.

If you have thoughts on how this oil crisis will impact NY or will impact the US please post your thoughts. Feel free to teach me something. The point of my blog is to get some action, to change whats going on with our politicians, and to learn more about politics.

Opening statement

My goal with this blog is to express my thoughts about the absurdities I see in politics and to find some people who feel the same way I do about politics. Its not necessary to agree with my view on issues, thats not what this is about. I'm talking about the need for our citizens to take action on the local state and national level to address the issues that are slowly tearing our country down. I'm not a left or right wing person, but rather a realist who wants to see government officials do the right thing for the right reason.

Since this is a blog I'm going to jot things down as they come to mind. It will be more of a brainstorm that I will wrap into concise thoughts as I go. I may as well get started.

Please feel free to comment on anything. I'm not a politician in any way, and I certainly would not profess to understand more than the layman about what really goes on. In fact, I hope to learn more about politics through anyone who reads this. I'll present my thoughts and you can break them down and offer yours.