settlefornothingnow

Charles Keating. Prior to this morning, that name meant absolutely nothing to me. Why? I’m not prepared to say that it is because of my youth, because I am schooled and inherently fascinated in and with American history. I am not going to say it is because the media had not provided me with the proper information or outlet to research his name and practices. All I can say is that I am ashamed I didn’t know this earlier.

            But I did wake up this morning, and when I did I found a message in my email from David Plouffe, BarackObama.com in my inbox. It was titled, “Just released Full McCain/Keating video.” It was literally at the moment that I read the message then clicked on the link that my world, from the scope of what I thought I knew about Senator John McCain, ended.

http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo

            “Lincoln Savings was the worst in what we call in criminology, control fraud in the nation. That means, a fraud run by the people who control the organization. In this case, Charles Keating was looting Savings and Loan. Keating was a not very effective real estate developer, who was brought in to acquire Lincoln Savings and Loan by Michael Milken. Charles Keating was and is a very nasty, fraudulent guy.”

            Jonathan Lasner of the Ocean County Register on April 3^rd of 2008 reported,

“Keating and regulators disagreed vehemently on the propriety of the speculative ventures that Lincoln had invested billions in: junk bonds, takeover plays, land development and luxury hotels.

When Edwin Gray, then the bank board’s chairman, moved to cut back the ability of Lincoln and others to use federally insured deposits on such bets, Keating exploded. He hired various consultants-at one time three former congressmen and a former California Savings and Loan commissioner-to fight the new rules.”

            Reading especially the excerpt from the Orange County Register over and over and letting the words seep into my mind, I realize a flagrantly disturbing truth. Charles Keating stole money from investors to continue acquiring bonds and property, fully knowing that the funds were federally insured; without proper regulation of his actions, he wouldn’t have to answer to any charges. To cover all bases and insure that he’d maintain his cloak of innocence, he committed to being in the pockets of several Washington insiders as well as prominent businessmen of all sorts. His influence and bull-headed tactics fertilized his criminally fraudulent enterprise. Whereas most sought to bring down the self-making criminal and stop such hemorrhaging activities, others defended him; referred to this monster of corporate greed and irresponsibility as a constituent.

“I think in the future, I’ll give much more scrutiny in the future when a constituent comes running saying, ‘I need justice.’…”

-Sen. John McCain

            By accepting that man as a constituent, Sen. McCain endorsed and defended the notion that Keating’s practices were within the scope of a citizen being worthy of a vote. And, pray tell Senator, how is more scrutiny going to be employed if regulation isn’t enforced? By guessing? Because it’s an unalienable truth that generally speaking, bad guys don’t always look so bad. Did, or does, or will Senator John McCain truly believe that criminal enterprises will always come to one of his doorsteps in a wicker basket with a bow and a note explaining everything? Whether or not Senator McCain employed such criminal actions, his stance on deregulation has certainly opened the door for suit wearing, property and asset owning, and Bahamas jet-setting criminals, leaving the hard-working, law-abiding citizen’s to bleed-out without pause or moral alarm.

To once again quote the video,

“…One of the people on this list was, then representative, McCain. ‘Of the five Senators here before you, Senator McCain had the closest personal friendship with Charles Keating.’ They were confidantes, they were mutual political supporters, of course the money flowed one direction from Charles Keating to then representative…McCain.”

            I woke up this morning with a sense that even though I disliked McCain, for his position with Iraq, healthcare, his VP choice, and his seemingly fading sense of a connection with working class America, I still felt he was not the kind of POLITICIAN who would undermine the progress and potential of the American people. But I was wrong. By the views he’s been defending his whole career, I’ve been wrong. It says a lot about the party with whom he’s running for and the field of competitor’s with whom he lay to waste earlier in the primary season. It says too much. I felt he was a careless and vindictive individual, but the reckless endangerment of Americans and their financial independence has been perpetrated by another sly monster for eight long years already, so why shoot us now, when we’re already down? It’s our time to stand up and take back what we’ve worked for; we’ve housed your kind for long enough.

Obama 08!

Sources:

http://www.ocregister.com/article/keating-lincoln-winn-2011171-one-bank?orderby=TimeStampDescending&oncommentsPage=1&showRecommendedOnly=1

http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo

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