Good, tight video. Informative without distorting.

Thanks for the hedzup.

I think the video is fairly transparent propaganda, and is going to be taken as poorly documented and ripped out of context. If I didn't already know a pretty broad history of FMFM (I'm one of the 7 people on the planet outside the wsj editorial page who has been paying attention for the last 15 years...) I would have no way of knowing that these aren't cheap shots.

For example, Barney Frank is shown twice saying that "this" doesn't show that FMFM have a problem. The logical person says, well, he's obviously referring to some sort of report or testimony. What was it? When was it produced? Did whatever that "this" he is talking about in fact show that FMFM had a problem?

The video didn't even provide dates. Without that sort of stuff, it is not a devastating indictment of the democrats in congress in their own words. It's simply a cleverly pasted together series of quotations taken out of meaningful context.

to cathyf: For example, Barney Frank is shown twice saying that "this" doesn't show that FMFM have a problem. The logical person says, well, yes, FMFM obviously DID have a problem.

cathyf,

Tell the Obama people to send in the higher priced trolls, because you know, in the last 6 months about 150 million people have been paying attention. Word is that they are not very happy either.

800 billion dollars and people begin to notice.

Like Baghdad Bob said often on CNN when asked about the US invasion of Iraq, "Lies! All Lies!"

cathyf,

As one who has also followed this debacle in the making I ask -- ARE YOU KIDDING? Either you are an Obama troll, or your have no intellectual powers of discernment whatsoever. I guess if you are an Obama supporter, by definition you have no basic powers of discernment.

Nice try, but this is so clear one would need to be deliberately obtuse not to get it.

Excellent work here.

cathyf,

As one who has also followed this debacle in the making I ask -- ARE YOU KIDDING? Either you are an Obama troll, or your have no intellectual powers of discernment whatsoever. I guess if you are an Obama supporter, by definition you have no basic powers of discernment.

Nice try, but this is so clear one would need to be deliberately obtuse not to get it.

Excellent work here.

cathyf

what context would make Lacy Clay's declaration "this hearing is a political lynching of Franklin Raines" any less offensive?

Sorry, you people don't understand my point.

I can roughly guess the context of each those quotes, because I have been paying attention to Fannie and Freddie for the last 17 years or so. But for someone who doesn't know the history, and is trying to come up to speed, this is going to be perceived as a political hatchet job, taking quotes out of context. Everybody knows that you can "prove" anything by taking stuff out of context, so if you don't provide context you haven't made an argument.

To start with, eve just dates would be hugely effective. When I see tape of some congresscritter saying there is no problem with fan/fred, it makes a huge difference whether the critter was taped in 1995 or 2005 -- such things said in 95 could obviously be the opinions of people who hadn't yet come to figure out what's wrong, whereas such assurances in 05 can only be the product of crooks and/or liars.

What's there is undocumented, so it would be difficult or impossible to track down the full backstory of pretty much any of the taped statements. And it's unsigned, so a viewer can't even rely on an appeal to authority -- we have no way of judging the authoritativeness of the compiler. Such a work either has to contain stand on its own as an authority by documenting and giving context, or it has to come from a source which you have reason to trust as an authority. This tape does neither.

I'm looking for something that I can show to people when I'm arguing that this debacle is a result of democrats selling out to people committing mortgage fraud. This video is not going to cut it.

Cathyf,

The Obots need to send trolls who can actually click on a video. It is a wonder you even managed to post here.

It says at the beginning of the video late 2004.

At $7 an hour you are overpaid.

cathyf,

Sunday's Boston Globe had an editorial that was highly critical of Barney Frank and his role in this mess. When the Globe slams a Democrat, you know it's bad.

I love how you dems are always taking things that replicans say out of context and presenting it as fact in evidence but when faced with the ugly truth of history that doesn't look so good for dems, you simply deny, deny, deny.

The reality is that republicans and yes even pres Clinton tried for years to get FM/FM in order and were repeatedly met with this democratic brick wall. Barney Frank should be publicly crucified over this. What an absolute criminal he is. Forget being thrown out of office, he should go to jail over this whole thing.

I found this video enlightening, I would have liked more information as to the date(s) of this hearing, and if the entire hearing was video taped and if this was available.

What I found enlightening was the obvious supporters of these institutions, and why which was to pander to their constituents. As I'm sure a few other Americans were, I was asleep at the wheel in even understanding or being aware of the agenda of these institutions. I have since been reading and learning from what sources I can find, but I am appalled first off at the income derived by CEO's of these institutions. Something is very wrong when political hacks can get a post in these "businesses" and get multi-million dollar bonuses.

But I have a question. Raines stepped down in 2004, the others mentioned stepped down before that. The Republicans had a majority in both houses, and a Republican President. Why wasn't this fixed?

And please before anybody starts calling me an Obama hack, or liberal or Democrat, I am not. I have voted Republican for over 30 years. I am trying to understand, and frankly I don't find it satisfying to just say this was a Democrat(liberal) plot. Maybe it was, but if things were as bad in 2004 or whenever this video was done, I wish my representatives, and my president would have gotten on the TV and mustered public support for a change. Then maybe this great country wouldn't be in the mess it is now.

People we depended on dropped the ball, it seems to me. I'd like to know why.

Jon,

The Democrats were united and they probably rolled enough Rs by playing the race card that they won the day.

I agree, the dates of the statements would be more helpful for legitimizing this video. They NYT wrote an article on 9/11/03 about this very thing & backs some of the statements in the video. Last I checked, it is still archived there:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

Also, in regards to the question about a rep. congress & president....one word...filabuster. Many things don't make it through congress because of it.

I heard that this died in committee, it needed 60% to get out of committee and onto the floor and it went 11 repub vs. 9 dems so 55%, no floor action.

I love how at the end of the video even Bill Clinton says the Republicans and his own administration were stymied by the Dems.