Reforming Wall Street is going to be just as intense as health care. Both have an army of lobbyists that will swoop into Washington to vigorously defend the financial interest of its shareholders. Both have CEO’s who are a washed in money, and like the health care system, a lack of regulation in the financial institutions leave the American economy (and to a greater extent with Wall Street – the global economy) vulnerable to its malfeasance.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is introducing a financial regulatory bill this week. With that you are going to hear a lot of fancy exotic financial jargon flooding the airwaves and the Senate floor like commodities, credit default swaps, derivatives, etc. You’re going to hear a lot about past legislations like The Glass Steagle Act of 1933 , The Gramm Leach Bliley Act of 2000, etc. You’re also going to hear the names of regulatory agencies like Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Reserves, etc. And when it comes to actors, you’re going to hear names like Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, etc.

However if you don’t care to remember a single name out of all of this, remember the one: Brooksley Born. She is the former chairperson of the CFTC who in vain tried to regulate the multi-trillion dollar derivatives market. She was a whistleblower who tried to warn of the pending financial doom that was sure to come by not regulating this illusive and complex financial instrument. And like all Washington whistleblowers before her and ever since, she only gained some notoriety after her warnings were not heeded and her “I told you so” moment resulted in the greatest financial train wreck since the Great Depression.

If Alan Greenspan is Goliath, Brooksley Born is David, except in this epic battle Goliath won. Like most prophets screaming in the desert whose apocalyptic visions are ignored until it is too late, Brooksley Born is one name you can be sure opponents of financial reform, including the 1500 Wall Street lobbyists coming to Washington this week to block reform, will use all in their power to send back into obscurity so that greedy Wall Street executives and nefarious politicians can get back to their shenanigans of reaping short term gains to the peril of the American tax payers’ long term financial security. But as Congress takes up financial reform, proposing to regulate the derivatives market, many in an effort to cover their tracks pretending they had no clue that calamity would come our way as a result of leaving this part of the market unregulated, we would be remissed not to remind them of the warnings of Brooksley Born. She was muffled and pushed out of Washington because she was a Debbie Downer on Alan Greenspan and Wall Street’s free market party, and to allow any mention of over the counter derivative reform without crediting her for trying to do something about it even before the collapse will only be adding insult to both hers and the American tax payers’ injuries.

Watch the full PBS documentary online The Warning:

WALLACE: We’ve got about a minute left. Why do you think you’re such a lightning rod both for your supporters, especially in the Tea Party movement, and for your many critics?

BACHMANN: Well, I think part of that may be because when I talk about what is happening in Washington, D.C., I use the actual statements or comments or the data that Nancy Pelosi or President Obama or Harry Reid refer to. I use their own statements on them. And usually they don’t like that very much. They don’t like to be quoted back with what they’ve said.

For the sake of argument let’s pretend she didn’t even make that really lame response to the question, and that her being reviled by the left has nothing to do with all the bizarre claims and statements she has made in the last year or so and get on to answering the question of whether or not she is a lightning rod.

For clarity the definition of a lightning rod according to Free Online Dictionary is “one that attracts and absorbs powerful, typically negative feelings and reactions, thereby diverting interest from other issues”. Think of a lightning rod as something you want to stay away from out of fear of getting yourself zapped.

I can think of a few people who are lightning rods, deservingly or not. For example, on the left Michael Moore was made out to be a lightning rod by the right in order to marginalize the effects of his wildly successful anti-Bush documentary Fareignheit 9/11. In the book “Top 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America”, a simple picture of Moore was placed as number one. As ridiculous as this right wing smear campaign against him may be, the effects of turning him into a lightning rod was very effective, forcing politicians to distance themselves from him. In an effort to paint then presidential nominee John Kerry as an over the top liberal, Bill O’Reilly even asked Kerry to justify why he had Moore in his skybox at the Democratic National Convention, as if he was hiding a wanted fugitive.

Other examples of lightning rods on the left are Bill Clinton during the 2000 presidential election. With the Monica Lewinsky scandal clearly in his rear view mirror, Al Gore was baited into distancing himself from the embattled president and in the process the accomplishments of the Clinton/Gore administration. Currently Rep. Charlie Rangal (D-NY) is a lightning rod. While the attention of the Democrats were on passing a major health care reform bill, Rangal, the chairman of the powerful tax law writing Ways and Means Committee was mired in a tax evasion scandal. As a result, he was pressured from the Democrats both on Capitol Hill and the liberal base to step down as chairman of the committee which he eventually did. And most notably on the right the most famous lightning rod was George W. Bush. Political campaigns were won or lost based on how far politicians could separate themselves from the legacy of the woefully unpopular president.

Bachmann is a favorite of the Tea Party movement, and they are being courted by the Republicans like the prettiest girl at the prom. Whenever there is a rally she’s given preferential treatment as a keynote speaker. She and Sarah Palin shared a stage at her Tea Party rally in Minneapolis. Because she is so admired by the right, it is impossible for the left to user her as a liability to turn off her base in order to gain political advantage.

So is Michele Bachmann a lightning rod? The answer is no. Polarizing maybe, but not a lightning rod.

We had eight years of Bush and Cheney. Now you get mad!?

You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and
appointed a President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate
energy policy.

You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.
You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans…oh hell no.

I have to admit after eight years of Bush and Cheney regardless of whichever Democratic candidate for the presidency was elected I didn’t think conservatives would be so outspoken so soon. Apparently, selective amnesia of the eight years when Republicans controlled the White House is a preexisting condition that severely affects most of those on the right.

I learned of Earth Hour 2008 when the Google site was completely black to bring awareness to the event. The then three year old and I had a blast. He had no objections whatsoever, and he thoroughly enjoyed playing with flashlights. This year we also played with flashlights, had wood in the fireplace, and played with his multiple lightsabers.

This time though at age five he had questions.

“Why are we turning off the lights?”
“Uhmm…to save the planet,” I said.

“OK buddy ole pal let’s leave the lights off and play with our flashlights”.
“Uhmm maybe tomorrow.” he said.

Eventually, with a little finagling and an occasional playing of the “Just obey Daddy” card, I did manage to keep his attention and we did have a great time playing Hungry Hungry Hippo in the dark. But my ultimate goal of course will be that as he gets older, and the novelty of playing with lightsabers and flashlights wears thin, that just knowing that he is participating in a massive movement in which his contribution along with many others collectively makes a world of difference in saving the planet and making it healthier for generations to come will be more than enough to help him focus on greener habits. We’ll see next year.

It is dishonest for right-wing commentators to insist on an equivalence that does not exist. The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly from one direction — the right, not the left. The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day — and, quite regularly, at Tea Party rallies — is calibrated not to inform but to incite. (Read Full Article)

Today, I’m signing this reform bill into law on behalf of my mother, who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days.

I’m signing it for Ryan Smith, who’s here today. He runs a small business with five employees. He’s trying to do the right thing, paying half the cost of coverage for his workers. This bill will help him afford that coverage.

I’m signing it for 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who’s also here. (Applause.) Marcelas lost his mom to an illness. And she didn’t have insurance and couldn’t afford the care that she needed. So in her memory he has told her story across America so that no other children have to go through what his family has experienced. (Applause.)

WATCH THE FULL SPEECH AND THE SIGNING CEREMONY

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis was taunted by tea partiers who chanted “nigger” at least 15 times, according to the Associated Press (we are not cleaning up language and using “the N-word” here because it’s really important to understand what was said.) First reported on The Hill blog (no hotbed of left-wing fervor), the stories of Lewis being called “nigger” were confirmed by Lewis spokeswoman Brenda Jones and Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, who was walking with Lewis. “It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis,” said Carson, a former police officer. “He said it reminded him of another time.”

Another Congressional Black Caucus leader, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, was spat upon by protesters. The culprit was arrested, but Cleaver declined to press charges.

House Majority Whip James Clybourn told reporters: “I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus.”

There were many reports that Rep. Barney Frank was called a “faggot” by protesters, but the one I saw personally was by CNN’s Dana Bash, who seemed rattled by the tea party fury. Frank told AP: “It’s a mob mentality that doesn’t work politically.”

Meanwhile, a brick came through the window at Rep. Louise Slaughter’s Niagara Falls office on Saturday (the day she argued for her “Slaughter solution” to pass health care reform, though it was rejected by other Democrats on the House Rules Committee). (Read Full Article at Salon.com)

The incident was spoken of on the House floor by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) who called on Republican lawmakers to condemn the Teabaggers for their overt racism:

Calling an individual or an organization’s motives racist is as taboo as being racist itself. You just don’t go there without proof of such claims. Keith Olbermann was one of the first to call out the Tea Party about their racial overtone, and his statements were met with a lot of push back and denial from the organization and the right in general. They rejected his claims that the Tea Party movement has very few if any non-White members, and the right wing bloggers cried foul for even suggesting that Tea Party protestors are racist. Now given the events of yesterday, Keith Olbermann’s words this past President’s Day have been vindicated:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A year in the making, the health care legislation is at a critical juncture where every vote counts. With Kucinich being a consistent hold out, firm in his commitment to vote no on any bill that did not include the public option that anyone can participate in, this was a major victory by President Obama who made a campaign style stump speech in Cleveland, OH to rally support for the health care bill. He even pleaded with the people of Cleveland to lean on their representative to support the bill.

Finally, with mounting pressure from his constituents, his Democratic colleagues, and the White House, along with the realization that the final bill will not have the provisions he deemed essential to win his support, Dennis Kucinich conceded. He pledged to vote for the bill, not as a compromise to his principles but as a means to an end – a single payer system:

I want to thank those who support those who supported me personally and politically as I’ve struggled with this decision. And I ask for your continued support in our ongoing efforts to bring about meaningful change. As this bill passes I will renew my efforts to help those state organizations which are aimed at stirring a single payer movement which eliminates the predatory roll of private insurers who make money not providing health care. I’ve taken a detour through supporting this bill. But I know the destination I will continue to lead for as long as it takes for whatever it takes to an America where healthcare will be firmly established as a civil right.

WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE:

The Energy Policy Act in 2005 extended daylight saving time by four weeks starting in 2007 from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. The objective, or the hope, was to save 10,000 barrels of oil each day through reduced use of power by businesses during daylight hours.

But what if the amount of energy saved during daylight hours is offset by the increase in usage in the morning hours when depending on where you live it may still be dark outside when the alarm clock goes off? And what about reducing energy cost? The law of supply and demand dictates that reducing oil consumption should reduce oil prices. However, prices can be fixed to remain stable or even increase by OPEC who can simply reduce production in order to artificially increase prices, manipulating the laws of supply and demand to its advantage.

The results of the effectiveness of daylight savings in energy conservation is all over the place. Therefore it is uncertain as to whether or not daylight saving time conserves energy. However what is absolutely certain is the conservation of profits of the big oil industry. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave huge tax breaks to American energy companies and corporate polluters, allowed for drilling both off shore and in the Alaskan Wild Life Refuge, and even shielded manufacturers of motor fuels and other persons from liability for claims based on defective product relating to motor vehicle fuel.

Watch as Rep. Fortney Stark (D-CA) voices his opposition to this bill:

Extending daylight savings time was a fuzzy attempt to disguise a deficit spending $14.5 billion tax break to the energy companies while pretending to exact real reform. And with subsequence summers of over $3 a gallon gas prices of 2007 and $4 a gallon gas prices in 2008, daylight savings time wasn’t the only thing making Americans lose sleep during the past few years.

This is why the news out of the Middle East was especially interesting. Not only did Vice President Biden condemn the announcement by Israel that it will build 1600 additional houses in the contentious area of East Jerusalem, but it was also followed up with a rejection by Secretary of State Clinton, who characterized the timing of the announcement as “insulting”.

This is not the first time the US has pleaded with Israel to halt activities that are antithetical to the peace process. For example in 2005 George W. Bush warned Israel against building 3500 extra homes in a West Bank settlement. And just like in 2005, the criticisms by Secretary Clinton were followed up by reaffirmation of the United States’ strong alliance with Israel. However this is one of those rare moments when the US uses the word “condemn” when speaking of Israel, a word reserved only for her most outspoken critics. Yet given the pattern of objecting without following through with meaningful enforcement, will the US sustain its condemnation of Israel’s expansion of the settlement in East Jerusalem?

VP Joe Biden’s Interview on Al-Jazeera: