You give them huge amounts of cash, put yourself between them and the pitchforks, and still they whine! Can the administration stop kissing Wall St. ass now?

A revolt among big donors on Wall Street is hurting fundraising for the Democrats’ two congressional campaign committees, with contributions from the world’s financial capital down 65 percent from two years ago.

The drop in support comes from many of the same bankers, hedge fund executives and financial services chief executives who are most upset about the financial regulatory reform bill that House Democrats passed last week with almost no Republican support. The Senate expects to take up the measure this month.

This fundraising free fall from the New York area has left Democrats with diminished resources to defend their House and Senate majorities in November’s midterm elections. Although the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have seen just a 16 percent drop in overall donations compared with this stage of the 2008 campaign, party leaders are concerned about the loss of big-dollar donors. The two congressional committees have raised $49.5 million this election cycle from people giving $1,000 or more at a time, compared with $81.3 million at this point in the last election.

Almost half of that decline in large-dollar fundraising can be attributed to New York, according to a Washington Post analysis of records filed with the Federal Election Commission. Donors from that area have given $8.7 million this year, compared with $23.9 million at this point in the 2008 cycle, with most of those contributions coming from big contributors in the financial sector. New York donors had given congressional Democrats almost twice as much money at this stage of the 2006 midterm campaigns, when Republicans ruled both chambers and held the White House.

You know, the Dems might consider doing things that make the base happy, since we’re known to make donations when someone actually looks out for our interests.

Bookmark It

Nice article in Grist about Greensgrow, my local urban farm.

Bookmark It

The crazy thing is, the banking system did fail. This was a giant marketing scam to convince everyone otherwise. But since banks aren’t actually lending to anyone anyway, what, exactly, did they accomplish? Other than making sure bankers didn’t get any salary cuts, I mean. Go read the whole thing:

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.

We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.

The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank AG, among others. That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks, which received 100 cents on the dollar for contracts that would have been worth far less had AIG been allowed to fail.

That move came a few weeks after the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department propped up AIG in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s own mid-September bankruptcy filing.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was head of the New York Fed at the time of the AIG moves. He maintained during Wednesday’s hearing that the New York bank had to buy the insurance contracts, known as credit default swaps, to keep AIG from failing, which would have threatened the financial system.

The hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also focused on what many in Congress believe was the New York Fed’s subsequent attempt to cover up buyout details and who benefited.

By pursuing this line of inquiry, the hearing revealed some of the inner workings of the New York Fed and the outsized role it plays in banking. This insight is especially valuable given that the New York Fed is a quasi-governmental institution that isn’t subject to citizen intrusions such as freedom of information requests, unlike the Federal Reserve.

This impenetrability comes in handy since the bank is the preferred vehicle for many of the Fed’s bailout programs. It’s as though the New York Fed was a black-ops outfit for the nation’s central bank.

Bookmark It

What BP is claiming is that if fishermen choose not to talk part in the oil spill cleanup, BP will consider that as potential income declined and deduct it from their claims.

In other words, if you didn’t want to risk your health and expose yourself to their toxic waste, you’re going to suffer financially as a result.

Bookmark It

Via Ian Welsh, an actual good idea that would help consumers! (Which is why it’s unlikely they’ll do it, but you never know.)

Bookmark It

Bruce live:

Bookmark It

Expect blogging in slow motion….By the way, still no global warming and Al Gore is still fat!

Bookmark It

What else can you do when it’s this friggin’ hot? We went to the heavily air-conditioned movies to see “Get Him To The Greek,” a good-natured summer film that manages to be funny without insulting your intelligence. (Look for an amusing walk-on by Paul Krugman.) It’s a cross between “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Spinal Tap,” only on acid.

Bookmark It

I saw this on the street the other day and just loved the colors.

Bookmark It

Robert Kuttner.

Bookmark It