Friday, August 13, 2010

Please Let Elizabeth Warren Protect Us Mr. President

"To restore some basic sanity to the financial system, we need two central changes: 

fix broken consumer-credit markets 
and 
end guarantees for the big players 
that threaten our entire economic system. 

If we get those two key parts right, we can still dial the rest of the regulation up and down as needed. But if we don't get those two right, I think the game is over. I hate to sound alarmist, but that's how I feel about this. 
- Elizabeth Warren
 

I felt Privileged to meet Elizabeth Warren
at the 2010 Netroots Nation Convention



Meet Elizabeth Warren!
The idea for the consumer watchdog agency
originated from a paper  
Elizabeth Warren wrote in 2007 

Elizabeth is the Gottlieb Professor of Law,
at Harvard Law School.
 



She Chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel which held hearing on the Trouble Assets Relief Program (TARP).  The Panel releases monthly oversight reports that evaluate the government bailout and related programs.







Elizabeth Warren was under consideration as Supreme Court nominee for position that is now freshly held by Elana Kagan.



The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the new watchdog agency, which she may be tapped to lead, is a cornerstone of the administration's plan to rewrite current financial regulations. It will have autonomy to write and enforce its own rules and a dedicated source of funding. 

Think about it! This idea originated with Elizabeth Warren.  She is highly qualified; so that can't ever be an obstacle. So if the idea is that great to become the cornerstone of Obama's Wall St. reform, the long awaited relief for consumers who have lost their homes, their pensions, their jobs; then why wouldn't the author and creator of this idea be picked to lead it?

The Congressional Oversight Panel she currently Chairs issue monthly reports that have covered foreclosure mitigation, consumer and small business lending, commercial real estate, AIG, bank stress tests, the impact of TARP on the financial markets, government guarantees, the automotive industry, and many other topics. The Panel has also released special reports on financial regulatory reform and farm loans. For each report, Warren releases a video on the Congressional Oversight Panel's website explaining key findings. All reports and videos are available at cop.senate.gov.

Had Elizabeth Warren not already been serving as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, she would still be the most qualified candidate for the new consumer agency.  Had she not been the author of the idea in a paper released on it in 2007, she would easily still be the most qualified candidate to chair the new agency.  


In essence you have a person who is already a lawyer; a law professor, at Harvard; who specialized in studying and doing research on bankruptcy laws; who has proven to have special insights into the perspective of consumers, aka Americans; who had the original vision about this agency; wrote the mission statement for the agency; who was also appointed to be the Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel which has become the precursor to the new agency; all of this one very dedicated and humble public servant.


If you look up the term 'No Brainer' it now says; "See also the appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Protection Bureau


It is in direct proportion to her unique qualification that Progressives have totally embraced and fallen in love with Elizabeth Warren. To everyone who has lost their home in foreclosure, lost their job, have had or are having to go through bankruptcy, who have lost their retirement, or in any other way have fallen prey to the abuse of Wall Street or the greed of big business; to everyone of them, Elizabeth Warren offers hope.  To everyone of them, everyone of us, we all look at her as the symbol of potential justice in our own individual lives.

It is in direct reverse proportion to this unique qualification that the Party of No, the Grand Obstructionist Party, the party of the rich, the party of Wall Street; do NOT want to see the other 99% of Americans get any protection from the corporate masters, from corporate governance, from their greed and abuse.  


Obama has been experiencing a serious erosion of his base! Progressives are impatient for change in their favor and disappointed to see bank bailouts, corporate welfare, Wall Street insiders Summer and Geithner running the economy and the belief that big business was "too big to fail" but working Americans? Not so important they can't fail!


Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' recent comments about the "Professional Left" has only inflamed the passion and divided progressives even more.  Obama can ill-afford to alienate the left anymore.  Give us Elizabeth Warren on this one or face a wrath like you haven't ever seen Mr. President!  For progressives like me, I can only say that appointing Elizabeth will do much to heal the divide.  Failure to appoint Elizabeth will cause many progressives to jump ship and be your worst critics.


Although some senators have questioned whether her nomination could succeed in the Senate, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs recently said that he thought Warren was a "terrific" candidate and that she was "very confirmable" in the Senate.

Don't blow this one Mr. President!  To quote Vice President Biden: "This is a BIG fucking deal"!

Pick Elizabeth! Pick Elizabeth! Pick Elizabeth!



Elizabeth Warren at Netroots Nation 

 Elizabeth was a keynote speaker at the 2010 Netroots Nation Convention in Las Vegas.   She captivated the progressives and proved herself to be a dynamic speaker!



Elizabeth Warren was also on a panel on the 'Forgotten Foreclosure Crisis' with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley who himself was a well educated, highly intelligent participant on the panel who proved to be well versed on the the entire Wall Street scams that led to the foreclosure crisis. 

I attended both her dynamic speech on the convention floor and the panel on the forgotten foreclosure crisis. I thought she was just outstanding.  Yes she is totally qualified in every sense of looking just at her resume.  But I was struck at her sincere compassion.  She was highly approachable.  I waited my turn to be able to share just a few words with her.  I told her a thumbnail of what I wanted to discuss with her in the future.  And I told her that I would be using the picture with her to help remind her of those words when that comment arrives.

For me Mr. President, its personal!  
Seriously, pick Elizabeth!


Here is Elizabeth's Speech from Netroots Nation
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Links to more on Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren, likely to head new consumer agency, provokes strong feelings


By Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writer,  August 13, 2010

This is an article I just ran across in the Washington Post that gives some perspective on her bio background, her qualifications, and why GOP in Congress are resistant to her leading the new agency. Read on Washington Post link [HERE] 


Elizabeth Warren Uncovered What the Govt. Did to 'Rescue' AIG, and It Ain't Pretty
On AlterNet [HERE]