This Is Crazy Awesome
Open Left - Front Page — I am finding work with the large Democratic trifecta in D.C. to be generating more news and work than really any other time period during the last five years I have spent blogging. Really, now that we are actually governing, there is so much more to do than the endless focus on elections, strategy, infrastructure building and message analysis. None of those other areas of work have disappeared--we simply have added an entirely new, exciting and time-consuming layer of activity onto our political schedules. It is both exhilarating and exhausting. For example, today, I didn't even have time to listen to, much less blog about, the cabinet confirmation hearings. Better examples: there ...

Alan Grayson: Smile America, You’ve Got A $1.2 Trillion Slush Fund?
Firedoglake — Alan Grayson, the Blue America candidate whose background was representing whistleblowers against war profiteers, is now in the House and sits on the Financial Services Committee.  In a hearing yesterday, he questioned Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn and wanted him to account for the $1.2 trillion dollars that ...

"Shovel ready" bullshit from the Fed
Corrente — The Fed still won't tell us where our money went. [Congressman Alan Grayson:]"What do you think might happen if they knew how their $1.2 trillion had been spent? Do you think they might be angry?" [Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn] "No. They can judge from what we're telling them....." Read more…

Hello Again... A $1.2 Trillion Slush Fund?
Open Left - Front Page — Now's as good a time as any to announce that I'm working for Alan Grayson (FL-8) as his senior policy advisor.   The Financial Services Committee had a hearing yesterday with a variety of witnesses, and one of them was the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, Donald Kohn.  The Fed has lent out $1.2 trillion over the last few months in response to the credit crisis, and won't tell anyone who they lent the money to. If you haven't already, watch this clip, it gets good. We need your help.  About a half hour after this hearing, I got a call from the VP of Public Policy for a major bank, who assured me that ...

America's Covert Government Lending
The Washington Note — This is an intriguing exchange between Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-08-D) and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn. While I think that the US has few choices right now about the scale of financial stimulus and efforts to get the financial system back into some degree of relative health, there are many choices regarding the 'terms' of federal support. I had no idea that there was a shroud over the roster of financial institutions that were drawing on American taxpayer money to shore up their positions. Some institutions are not taking federal money -- and some are. Some ...

Fed Official Confronted Over Bailout Spending Secrecy (VIDEO)
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — Where's the bailout money going? If the federal government told you, then banks might stop taking it. That's the argument made by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn in this overlooked clip from Tuesday's House Financial Services Committee hearing on the bailout funds. In response to pointed questioning from Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), Kohn laid out the reasoning. "I'd be very concerned, Congressman, that if we published the individual names of who was borrowing from us, no one would borrow from us," he said. "The purpose of our borrowing is not to support individual institutions but to support the credit market." Grayson couldn't believe ...

Fed Official Confronted Over Bailout Spending Secrecy (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed — Where's the bailout money going? If the federal government told you, then banks might stop taking it. That's the argument made by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn in this overlooked clip from Tuesday's House Financial Services Committee hearing on the bailout funds. In response to pointed questioning from Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), Kohn laid out the reasoning. "I'd be very concerned, Congressman, that if we published the individual names of who was borrowing from us, no one would borrow from us," he said. "The purpose of our borrowing is not to support individual institutions but to support the credit market." Grayson couldn't believe ...

Alan Grayson: Scourge of Secretive Central Bankers
Discourse.net — YouTube - $1.2 Trillion Slush Fund: Congressman Alan Grayson Grills Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn $1.2 trillion: We can’t be told who got it, what we got as collateral, or how it’s doing. ...

Meet Alan Grayson
This Modern World — You may remember Alan Grayson from his campaign commercial about Iraq corruption, one so angry and well-executed that you could hardly believe it came from a Democrat. He won the seat in Florida’s eighth district, and now he’s actually in Congress, actually asking the screamingly obvious questions about the bailout. Here’s video of Grayson yesterday querying Donald Kohn, the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, about who the hell they’ve given $1.2 trillion to. And Kohn REFUSES TO ANSWER. Matt Stoller, who’s now a senior policy advisor to Grayson, has more , including a request for suggestions on where to take things next. I’m going to go out on a limb here and ...

In Congress, It's All About The Committees
DownWithTyranny! — Most of the work Congress does, gets done in committees. Yesterday I was over the moon when I saw one of Blue America's heroes, Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL), grilling John Bovenzi of the FDIC and, Donald Kohn, vice Chair of the Fed, about the $1.2 trillion that the Bush Regime seems to have given to its pals the banksters. Kohn refused to say where the $1.2 trillion in taxes has gone-- and Grayson wasn't exactly deferential. Instead he related to him the way you'd expect a top drawer attorney to handle a hostile criminal witness-- kind of the way Grayson has been handling war profiteers ...

Stoller the senior policy advisor for Grayson
Corrente — Sayeth Kos. And Grayson's video is so nice I'm gonna play it twice. Read more…

Rep. Grayson to Fed: Show Us the Money
Firedoglake — The Federal Reserve can create money, but it cannot take on risk on to it's balance sheet with what it buys. Has the Fed engaged in some freelance law-bending? The spike in the balance sheet during the recent crisis leads many to wonder. What collateral did the Fed get for the dollars it zapped into ...

Better Democrats: Alan Grayson For Re-election!
Open Left - Front Page — In 2010, with 257 Democrats in the House and 59 in the Senate, Democrats will inevitably have to turn more of our electoral efforts to defense of incumbents than to support for challengers. Tonight, Open Left is adding our first incumbent to the Better Democrats 2010 page: Representative Alan Grayson, of Florida's eighth congressional district ...

Making the Fed Tell Us Which Banks It Is Giving Our Money To
Open Left - Front Page — A few months ago, Florida Rep. Alan Grayson (D) asked a top Federal Reserve official to tell Congress which private banks the Fed was handing out taxpayer money to - and the Federal Reserve official categorically refused. Now, Congress may do something about that obscene secrecy, with Senate Bill 513: WASHINGTON, March 3 - Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to demand disclosure of the financial institutions that have received more than $2.2 trillion in taxpayer-backed loans and other financial assistance from the Federal Reserve. Sanders introduced the bill after the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, in testimony before the ...

National Republican Campaign Committee Purity Trolls Blue Dogs
Firedoglake — The NRCC just adore their Blue Dog cousins -- so much that they're willing to act as enforcers for their group by attacking Democrats who don't want to be members: The National Republican Campaign Committee on Thursday went on the attack against 18 freshman Democrats who it said ...

Congressman Alan Grayson wants to follow the bailout money
Corrente — I like to watch banksters squirm. Doesn't everyone? Read more…

Hullabaloo — Misdirection by digby I'm sure you all recall congressman Alan Grayson's tough questioning of Fed officials a couple of months ago in which he asked if they would be kind enough to provide taxpayers with a list of the specific institutions to whom the Fed was handing out mone. You'll also recall that Fed Vice President Donald Kohn said he didn't think that would be a good idea at all. Here's the Youtube in case you missed it. Grayson was early on this. The senate took it up last week and got the same response which was basically, "don't worry your pretty ...

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: Tell Congress “No More Dough Till We Know Where It Goes”
Firedoglake — In an interview published in yesterday's New York Times, President Obama says that it could take another $750 billion to bail out the banks beyond the $700 billion already approved. Yet serious questions surround the money already distributed to Wall Street, and attempts to determine how it was disbursed ...

Talking Economic Accountability With Rep. Alan Grayson
Firedoglake — Please welcome Rep. Alan Grayson in the comments. And don't forget to reward good behavior -- you can donate to Rep. Grayson's campaign here -- jh You probably know Alan Grayson for his greatest hits collection on YouTube. It was his questioning of Fed Vice Chair Donald ...

Senator Dodd Promises to Ask Which Banks Received Fed Loans
Firedoglake — On Wednesday, May 6, Marcy Wheeler and I interviewed Chris Dodd in his offices on Capitol Hill. Dodd was very forthcoming about a number of issues, including the AIG bonuses, the influence of lobbyists on the defeat of cramdown, credit card interest rate caps, and a new Pecora Commission. ...

Alan Grayson Says “Audit the Fed”
Firedoglake — Eighty thousand people have now seen the famous Youtube of Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn refusing to answer Alan Grayson's questions about where all the money is going. By law he doesn't have to. Despite the fact that they have printed or guaranteed some $2 trillion dollars in the past year, the Fed answers ...

Alan Grayson says 'Audit the Fed'
Commondreams.org Views — Eighty thousand people have now seen the famous Youtube of Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn refusing to answer Alan Grayson's questions about where all the money is going. By law he doesn't have to. Despite the fact that they have printed or guaranteed some $2 trillion dollars in the past year ...

Fourteen More Cosponsors Join Alan Grayson, Sign On to Federal Reserve Transparency Act
Firedoglake — Fourteen more members of the House of Representatives have responded to Alan Grayson's call and agreed to cosponsor the Federal Reserve Transparency Act: Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] Rep Brown-Waite, Ginny [FL-5] Rep Altmire, Jason [PA-4] Rep Latta, Robert E. [OH-5] Rep ...

Bailout Priorities And Raw Power
Open Left - Front Page — Sometimes you don't find out who your friends are until the bear in the woods hits the Pope's fan.     In the last year We, the People have been finding out who our friends are and aren't.  (Actually mostly just aren't.)  We especially have been finding out what the priorities are and where the power lies.  And lies and lies. Since the financial crisis began we have been seeing as clear a display of raw power being used against the interests of the people as I imagine can be seen.  We were given hours to put up all of the money we have to bail out a few large financial institutions because they were "too big to fail," but we did nothing ...

Who Is Alan Grayson, Anyway?
WSJ.com: Washington Wire — Naftali Bendavid and Louise Radnofsky report on Congress. Rep. Alan Grayson has been making waves since he came to Congress in January, just nine short months ago – a tack opposite to most freshmen who tend to keep their heads down. The biggest came this week when the Florida Democrat declared on the House floor, that the Republicans’ health-care plan amounted to “Don’t get sick,” and “If you do get sick, die quickly.” That comment made Grayson an object of vilification and admiration. That was enhanced Wednesday when he apologized. Sort of. He said he wanted to apologize “to the dead and their ...

Wither Grayson on Health Care?
Firedoglake — Big Tent writes about my HCAN post: I agree with Jane. But it makes me wonder why all the fundraising for Alan Grayson? He has never joined the Progressive Block in its refusal to vote for a health care bill that does not contain a robust public option. Last week, when asked ...

Help Us Help Alan Grayson Save Federal Reserve Audit Bill
Firedoglake — This shocked everyone. In an unprecedented move, the House Financial Services Committee voted to approve an amendment by Ron Paul and Alan Grayson to audit the Federal Reserve — the first time anything like this has happened in the Fed’s history. A push is already under way to remove the ...