It's all in your head.

[flamin lib]

Worried about the credit and mortgage crisis? Concerned that jobs and manufacturing are going overseas in unprecedented numbers? Bothered that unemployment is rising and very few of us have job security anymore? Unhappy that the value of your home is less than it was a year ago and perhaps so low that you can't re-finance it for what you paid for it?

Well, don't be. Phil Gramm, John McCain's leading economic advisor says it’s all in your head. In an interview with the Washington Times Mr. Gramm, ex-senator from Texas, said,”You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession." He went on to say, ”We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."

Boy, that makes me feel better. But before we get all complacent at the good news that it’s just our imagination maybe we should look at Mr. Gramm's past accomplishments.

In 1998, then Senator Gramm as Chairman of the Senate Finance committee, single handedly killed President Bill Clinton's proposed legislation that would track foreign money laundering. The bill was designed to track and freeze assets of Al Qeada and other terrorist organizations and might have closed down funding for the 9/11 attacks. This legislation was a key provision in the Patriot Act passed unanimously AFTER the 9/11 attacks killed 3000 Americans on American soil and destroyed the two towers along with a large part of the US economy.

Later, in 1999, Senator Gramm authored the Gramm, Leach, Biley Act that de-regulated commercial banking and removed every single safeguard to the banking industry put in place after the 1927 Depression. This act is solely responsible for the sub-prime lending fiasco and credit crisis we currently face.

In December of 2000, during the Christmas recess when nobody was looking, Senator Gramm slipped a bit of un-related legislation into an 11,000 page appropriations bill. That legislation de-regulated oversight of commodities trading allowing Enron to manipulate energy prices and supply. Did I mention that Phil’s wife was on the Board of directors of Enron at the time? That little piece of legislation is known today as the “Enron Loophole.” Some economists believe that without the Enron Loophole oil prices would fall to half of the current price overnight. Oh, and Mrs. Gramm resigned her position at Enron a month before the company melted down destroying the retirement savings and lives of it’s employees. She got to keep her retirement and the bonus she was paid. Senator Gramm abruptly resigned his senate seat mid-term just as the too-little-too-late investigation of Enron's business practices began.

Mr. Gramm is currently Vice President at UBS, a foreign bank. That’s a position he was promoted to in early 2008 when he had to resign as their lead lobbyist because John McCain said he didn't want any lobbyists working on his campaign. I'm sure Mr. Gramm is no longer trying to influence legislators in matters of banking regulation like he did with John McCain right up to his “resignation”. After all, that wouldn't be ethical, would it? Did I mention that UBS is under investigation by the FBI and IRS for money laundering in the sub-prime mortgage melt down?

So there you have it, friends. If you've enjoyed the total incompetence that allowed 9/11 to happen, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the credit meltdown and the price of gas at $4.00+ per gallon you’re going to really like four years of a McCain presidency. After all, the man most responsible for all those things will be the chief architect of the McCain economic policy.

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/09/mccain-adviser-addresses-mental-recession/ Phil Graham interview

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/21/se.27.html Phil Graham and terrorist funding

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act Banking de-regulation

http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3221:nicholas-f-benton-silence-protects-the-speculators&catid=17:national-commentary&Itemid=79 Graham and the Enron loophole

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/worldbusiness/06tax.html?_r=1&oref=login UBS under investigation by FBI, IRS

Spread the truth, for it will set you free . . .

[Redstone]

1. Gawd, that man is a poor excuse for a human being. And always has been.

Redstone

[jwirr]

2. Just turn that around. The idea that the wealthy are insulated from

the results of the economic mess they made is all in their heads.