In trying to understand why AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers have collapsed I listened to Michael Greenberger a law professor at University of Maryland School of Law when he was interviewed by NPR Terry Gross http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story... on April 3, 2008 and http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story... on Sept 17, 2008.

Now both these interviews are very detailed discussions of how the market ended in the mess it is now. I have done some research on what Greenberger is talking about and
essentially he is talking about a bill that was a 262 page rider on an 11,000 page bill that was pushed thru by Republican Majority Congress just before 2000 Christmas recess, drafted by lawyers of investment banks from Wall Street introduced by Phil Gramm (Former Republican Senator now an former advisor (gone in July 2008) for Republican Candidate John McCain). This bill was called "Commodity Futures Modernization Act" (HR5660 & S3283) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_F... and allowed for "credit default swap". Now, the Democrats have their fingerprints on this also. They are not innocent. There were two Democratic Senators Harkin (IA) and Johnson (SD) and one former House Rep LaFalce (NY) plus President Clinton signed the bill in Dec 21, 2000. So this is not to just point a finger at the Republicans though I feel that they are to blame and they certainly have done nothing since to reverse this law and they have had the power to do so. Now our children and grandchildren will be paying for our mistakes for a long time. So how do we fix this? First we must fix this regulation and other like it, second we cannot elect Senator McCain because he does not understand any of this (he has said so himself) and one of his experts is the architect (Phil Gramm) of the problem. Please vote for people that understand what has driven this economy into the ground.
Teresa Littman

Support: http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php...
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=...

Thank you, John, your tone and message is now coming through instead of making me angrier. I see that you are dedicated, sincere and knowlegeable in what you believe. I am sure now that "you" have acknowledged the mess dare I say debacle, which is good, maybe the next convention has hope. I am still not sure John and Bill have done so in reading the newspapers but those have been know to misquote or take out of contents. So I am going to give them the benefit of my large doubt on your say so. Mostly because as you point out the options are few. If I can be there for the next convention, I will. I will volunteer to help before the convention again because as a Dem, I am a gulton for punishment, ok just sort of kidding. Maybe we can shake hands at the next event. Call us if you personally need us to help because no matter how many times we sign up we do not get asked except to make more phone calls, that we will not do.
Teresa and David Littman 240-2492

Wow more arrogance and assuming laziness!! Thanks John and Kenne.

I did the same thing before and after the caucus attempting to be informed and understand the commitment require to be a delegate. All the websites were outdated. I did look again last night and found a little more info but too little too late. John, quit cheerleading and assuming we have not tried to understand the process. Give others some credit for intelligence, Dave was a volunteer, he was the one who dragged me into the whole process. Teresa

TO John_Ab
I think you have blinders on. Kudos Santa
Nev Dem Caucus & Conv 2008, “Be Afraid, Be VERY Afraid”!
Jan 19, 08, I attended the LV Nev Cauc for the first time as a Nevadan, born and raised Calif in 1954. OK, I admit that most of us Calif’s “watch” the political scene not participate, probably out of apathy, but also because every event involves hundreds of thousand of people vs. 117K +/- that Nevada experienced as a record turnout. I saw and heard both Hillary, Barack and Bill speak in person. By the time the caucus was here, inspite of the fact I thought the whole caucus process was outdated and didn't allow for everyone to participate, I was excited. We were emotionally invested. My husband and I volunteered.
The caucus was a circus with nobody totally in charge and everyone looking for their precinct on a large campus with no understanding of where the individual needed to be. This does not sound like a terrible disaster until you are listening to the complaints personally. (no room to list them). OK, no one but Harry Reid, Senator majority leader, expected the turnout Nev got. My Bad! Live and Learn. Well live anyway, Nev Dems obviously did not learn!
Feb 23, 08, just a little over one month later, Nev Cty (LV) Conv. Again, we volunteered to help with organization on the day of the conv. Arriving at 7:AM at Bally Conv Ctr, expecting to help send delegates to the Nev State Dem Conv and maybe even the Natl Dem Conv. Once again, not one person I talked to in the Hillary Camp knew when or how the votes were going to happen. That was the least of the problems that day. Silly me! Did no one count how many delegates there were going to be? No wait, they did know but chose to ignore the facts. But it is not their fault. What??? Now I know a few more names to be afraid, John Hunt and Bill Stanley. It was reported the Fire Marshall closed the doors and did not allow any more people in at around 11AM. What I do know is that we were registered the night before and we were ready to vote. Well, that was not to happen that day, a recess was voted on at about 4PM after a lot of arm twisting, some finger pointing (at the lack enough of volunteers, rumors of vote tampering,etc), some apologizing, some trying to put a positive spin saying it was a “good” problem and we needed to protect the votes for our candidate because we might disenfranchised voters and our delegates, Nev’s big 25, might be endangered at the Natl Conv if we did not recess now. So, we recessed on the promise, the next regroup would be a quick 15 min vote for our candidate and our state delegates. Yeah right!
What little I have learned is you have to know the number of delegates each candidate earned during the caucus before you can elect any delegates to the state convention. I am afraid; I use to be afraid of GW Bush, Chaney, etc, now I’m afraid of our own incompetence. I am still a Dem, one scared Dem but still a Dem. Teresa Littman (moving back to CA)