BS: Bill Clinton...wow!

Subject: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 May 12 - 09:47 PM

He should be the guy that's leading your country. Saw his interview tonite. You should repeal that thing about people only being allowed to serve two terms. That guy is okaY. you should go with him.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Bobert
Date: 20 May 12 - 09:52 PM

No thanks... Slick Willie talk a good talk but he subject to rolling over when the chips are down... The 1996 "Welfare Reform" legislation was the most anti-human legislation in my life time... Slick Willie signed it...

Columbine??? Slick Willie wouldn't go up against the NRA even tho he was in his 2nd term and had nothing to lose...

You can have him, Big Al...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 21 May 12 - 12:39 AM

Bill Clinton wasn't smart enough to see that the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999, which he supported, and which effectively repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, would result in a huge bank bailout in 2008. Had Glass-Steagall remained in effect, retail banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America would have been prohibited from making the types of high-risk investments that almost broke them.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 May 12 - 01:06 AM

Perhaps he was smart enough, and did exactly what he was being well paid to do. He strikes me as a pretty smart man.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 May 12 - 05:43 AM

nah! he was a cool dude. Played the saxophone and sorted out Northern Ireland. We love him.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 May 12 - 05:48 AM

And still had time to put the glow in Hilary's cheeks and get a blow job from Monica in the Oval Office.......

What a man! Re-elect him! You need this guy!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 May 12 - 05:50 AM

Clinton-Gore privatized me out of a government job, and I can't imagine how the new contract setup saved the taxpayers any money. It just added another level of management.

I thought it was Republicans who did nasty things like privatization. I always thought of Clinton as a Republican in Democrat's clothing. Bill Clinton was no friend of the worker.

And as Bobert says, the "welfare reform" act was a monumental work of government stinginess, penalizing those who need help most. Bill Clinton was no friend of the poor.

But hey, we Americans like Tony Blair - and I think there are many parallels between Blair and Clinton. Blair is to Clinton as Thatcher was to Reagan????

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 May 12 - 07:54 AM

How about Carter? Saying some good stuff recently...

http://cdn.front.moveon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/JC1.jpg

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Bobert
Date: 21 May 12 - 09:49 AM

Of all the presidents in my life time, Jimmy Carter stands out as the most principled, the most moral and the genuine...

He just was in the wrong place at the wrong tine with OPEC and Iran...

Too bad... This country would be better off today if Carter had 3won a 2nd term...

But, like most presidents, they take the blame for stuff that is completely out of their control...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:03 AM

He can be as statesmanlike as he wishes when he has no dog in the fight.

Several times, such as after the Haitian earthquake, I have attempted to get his foundation to get involved with bringing AWGs [Atmospheric Water Generators] to Haiti and other disaster sites. The answer has always been "Sorry, we don't do that sort of thing." Instead, they go for publicity solutions by handing out bottles of water from helicopter doors.

Short sighted and much more expensive, both in terms of cost and the environment. If they were interested in long term solutions, they would be talking with us right now.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Greg F.
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:06 AM

I thought it was Republicans who did nasty things like privatization

Clinton was a Dem in name only, Joe. His outlook and agenda were middle-of-the-road Republican; the last of a now extinct breed.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: number 6
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:07 AM

China loves Clinton !

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:42 AM

I never had the respect for Clinton that so many mudcatters seemed to have. Just another rich politician looking out for himself, imo.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Stringsinger
Date: 21 May 12 - 12:10 PM

The revocation of Glass-Steagal caused the U.S. economic crisis.
Bill Clinton...pew!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 12 - 01:45 PM

It was the congressional majority that repealed the Glass-Steagal act; Bill Clinton approved, but it is doubtful that if he opposed the repeal, that the veto could overcome the congressional majority.
(My main objection to Clinton was that he seemed to "go-with-the-flow" rather than leading.)

The Glass-Steagal Act already was being flouted, banking and securities were being combined. This was encouraged under Kennedy, and his Comptroller of Currency, James Saxon, who issued a regulation permitting national bank to have combined (comingled) accounts. The Supreme Court opposed.
In the 1960s and after, investors were withdrawing their funds from the banks and placing the money in the securities sector. The SEC allowed market funds to allow money market funds could redeem shares, and approached the functions of the commercial banks.
Furthermore, the savings and loan companies were essentially free of Glass-Steagal regulations. Gradually, FDIC-insured banks approached securities or investment banks.
In the 1970s, banks were allowed to authorize investors to make withdrarals to invest in securities. Banks were authorized to privately place "commercial paper."
President Reagan appointed regulators who favored deregulation. Bas were allowed to establish subsidiaries to deal in securities.
U.S. banks were having a hard time in the new marketplace, unable to compete internationally.
UK and Canada, and all others (except Japan), were combining activities and forging ahead.

Essentially, Glass-Steagal regulations were already dead before Clinton became president. The Gramm bill put fini to the banking-securities separation.

Putting the blame for 2008 on Clinton is a classic case of oversimplification.

Many complications, the development of hedge funds, and abuse of hedge funds, which seemingly allowed bankers to enter into loans whick were not backed, led to the crisis in 2008. That is almost another story.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 12 - 01:48 PM

'bas' in one paragraph = banks. Sorry for mis-typing.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: gnu
Date: 21 May 12 - 01:55 PM

Bobert... "Of all the presidents in my life time, Jimmy Carter stands out as the most principled, the most moral and the genuine..."

I agree. His interview in Playboy magazine cost him a LOT of votes but the text was/is well worth the read.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 21 May 12 - 02:00 PM

"Of all the presidents in my life time, Jimmy Carter stands out as the most principled, the most moral and the genuine..."

but sorry, too much micro-manager, too little leadership. Clinton had the gift, and I'd much rather have a middle-of-the-roader than a liberal or a ocnservative. Unfortunately, he let his own flaws cripple him.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 12 - 01:13 AM

I liked Clinton, but he was hampered by a GOP house and senate, wasn't he? Makes a huge difference in what gets passed. Obama would have done a lot better in his first two years if the blue dog Democrats hadn't acted like Repubs.

What I didn't like was his pushing and passing NAFTA. That was/is a catastrophe.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Bill Clinton...wow!
From: Bobert
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:33 AM

Glass-Steagal went down because of the work of Senator Phil Gramm and...

...a boat load of $$$ from Citigroup...

Clinton gets a lot of blame for dumb stuff but too much of Glass-Steagal is put on the wrong guy...

B~