From Market Watch:
A key congressional panel on Thursday approved legislation introduced by the Texas congressman that – for the first time in the central bank’s 95-year-history — would require government audits of Federal Reserve monetary policy, as well as how much the central bank has lent and will lend to specific banks.
Paul’s measure, which was approved by a vote of 43 to 26, would require the Government Accountability Office to audit the central bank’s interest rate policy, agreements with foreign governments, foreign central banks and the International Monetary Fund. It also would permit audits of a roughly $800 billion Fed mortgage-backed securities purchase program, which could grow to $1.25 trillion, Paul said.
Zero Hedge has a clip of Alan Grayson.
Voting against the measure was Barney Frank (chairman of the House Financial Services Committee) twenty three other Democrats, and two Republicans. One might say that with this vote, Mr. Frank has finally exposed himself.
Opposing: Gwen Moore (D), Shelley Moore (R), Al Green (D), Mary Jo Kilroy (D), Charles Wilson (D), Carolyn Maloney (D) Gregory Meeks (D), Gary Ackerman (D), Brad Miller (D), Melvin Watt (D), Emanuel Clever (D), Keith Ellison (D), Stephen Lynch (D), Michael Capuano (D), Barney Frank (D), Dennis Moore (D), Andre Carson (D), Joe Donnelly (D), Bill Foster (D), Melissa Bean (D), Luis Gutierrez (D), Ron Klein (D), Jim Himes (D), Joe Baca (D), Gary Miller (R), Maxine Waters (D).
Related: Kevin Brady (R-TX) asks Geithner to resign, who takes the opportunity to call upon denial and conjecture while tripping over a big stone building in New York. Tension ensues. h/t Indy.
Related: Fed makes colorful study, pushes dollar off cliff. From the first comment at the link: “our currency is now over 50% backed by fannie/freddie MBS”
Speaking of Freddie and Fanny, that government-sponsored billion-dollar scandal is not ready for prime time.
Update: Also from Indy, Geithner completely loses grasp. Either the position must pay well…or that resume update isn’t looking good.
Comment by Joe on 11/20 @ 7:00 am #
Barney Frank voted against it. Why am I not surprised.
Comment by serr8d on 11/20 @ 7:04 am #
So, Ron Paul gets to audit the Fed.
In a way, this might be a good thing. He hates the Fed; at least we’ll be entertained.
Comment by JHo on 11/20 @ 7:08 am #
I wouldn’t expect much, serr8d. Truth and the lie racing around the world and like that.
Comment by LTC John on 11/20 @ 7:09 am #
Bill Foster, Melissa Bean and Luis Gutierrez – I am so proud to be from IL. Oh, and Bill? I’ll be sure to vote against you this coming election.
Comment by McGehee on 11/20 @ 8:43 am #
Let’s see, what state is he from? Why, he’s from the same state as Michael Huckabee!
‘Magine that.
And the other Republican on that list is from West Virginia — the state represented in the Senate by Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd. Squeaky clean she must be, coming from that place.
Comment by BJTexs on 11/20 @ 8:47 am #
It really is time to shine the light on both the Fed and Fannie-Freddie. what are the potential detrimental effects of audits on either of these two organizations?
Barney Frank’s whimpering does not count.
Comment by SporkLift Driver on 11/20 @ 9:07 am #
Barney Frank’s junk has been flapping in the breeze for at least as long as I’ve been politically aware (a little over three decades) polite society pretends not to notice. If any little boy points out that the emperor is naked he just gets shushed (or worse). I don’t expect this to hurt Frank, the man is invulnerable
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 9:13 am #
Andre Carson is pretty much an embarassment. Not pretty much. He is.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 11/20 @ 9:22 am #
I’d tend to raise a jaundiced eyebrow toward any legislation sponsored by Grayson. The man’s a fucking grandstander.
Still, this is one (narrow!) area where his thinking and mine tend to intersect.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 9:23 am #
I know! Let’s put simpering Goldman Sachs faggots in charge!
Comment by Arnold on 11/20 @ 9:26 am #
Wow, such nice homophobic comments. Do you have ten minutes of racist material you can do? I mean, if you’re gonna go all politically incorrect and vile, why not go all out?
Comment by BJTexs on 11/20 @ 9:28 am #
Nah, hf. Former Lehman Brothers losers would be better. You know, for the improvement in unemployment statistics … for the Recovery.com website … and for the childrenses.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 9:29 am #
Losers and whores all of them. What lie and lie and lie. But you’re right the Lehman ones make gorgeous powerpoint.
Comment by B Moe on 11/20 @ 9:29 am #
Her dad was Arch Moore. He was one of the reasons I was Democrat in my youth.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 11/20 @ 9:36 am #
Comment 11 was pretty damn gay.
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 9:39 am #
Comment #11 was totally teh ghey. HOMOPHONE !!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by BJTexs on 11/20 @ 9:41 am #
Arnold would like you to know that calling straight people faggots indicates that you have a psychological condition which manifests itself as an unreasoned and uncontrollable fear of gay people. Arnold is very much in your heads.
Oh, wait, it was the comment that was homophobic! Somebody get that comment a psychiatrist STAT!
Diagnosis: The other white meat! (Racist!)
Comment by sdferr on 11/20 @ 9:45 am #
*Fear the queer* has been on the move the last 30 years, you’ve got to give credit where credit is due: where once it was an accusation it has now become a demand.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 9:50 am #
The only for real gay person I ever call gay is the Lindsey one cause… duh. He sort of revels in it. Oh. And the Mr. Crist one too but just cause when the Mr. Crist one gets his gay on he gets his gay on with other people’s monies. He thinks it’s fabulous but I think it’s kind of pitiful and undignified.
Comment by BJTexs on 11/20 @ 9:54 am #
I’ll make one last pontification:
In both conversation and writing I utterly reject the term “homophobic.” It is a faux manufactured one off verbal bomb to instantly put someone on the defensive, based upon information the thrower couldn’t possibly have. Same goes for “Islamophobe.” Neither Arnold nor anyone else has any criteria for making what is essentially a psychological diagnosis. Feel free to come up with some other lightweight designation for victimization (“gay basher, queer intolerant,” etc.) but leave the psychological designations out of it or be dismissed out of hand as an ignorant non-intellectual ideologue.
“Now go or I will taunt you second time!”
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 9:54 am #
Arnold is teh ghey. NTTAWWT
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 9:56 am #
Don’t give that rectal ramrod more credit than it deserves, BJ. Dismissal out of hand is quite appropriate.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 11/20 @ 9:59 am #
Millions of people at sporting events that yell “YOU SUCK!” are extremely homophobic in Arnold’s world. I mean come on think about it, what is the person supposedly sucking?
Comment by BJTexs on 11/20 @ 10:02 am #
Back on topic: I’m with you, hf, with regards to Graham and said as much. He deserves at least a passing review for really hammering the point, even if in teh ghey Lindsay fashion, he needed to insert his standard “you are a good man” sop.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:05 am #
Right. But it’s not like he’s oblivious to the fact that everybody in South Carolina hates his guts. So he’s gonna try and butch up his act now and again. He’s scared.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:06 am #
I’m a winner, pal.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:07 am #
You walk up to some guy and say that and see what happens.
Comment by Pablo on 11/20 @ 10:08 am #
Sometimes I want to pat Lindsay on the head and give him a cookie. But you could still do that if he was fenced up in somebody’s backyard.
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 10:11 am #
Pablo – You could give him some Snookie’s Cookies. They rock.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:19 am #
wow. Europe is pissing on the Goldman boys’ wittle heads. Not that they don’t like that sort of thing.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:24 am #
these are supposed to be very very tasty… oh. Isn’t this the time of year that Mr. Instapundit usually starts selling his cousin’s or sister-in-law’s or whatever’s chocolated up fruit? I’ve bookmarked that a couple times as a maybe but never pulled the trigger.
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 10:26 am #
Those are very good, happyfeet, in a Harry & David kind of way. I like Omaha Steaks better.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:28 am #
Omaha steaks has a store down the street I think. I will check.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 10:30 am #
*Steaks* I mean. Omaha always makes me think of that Warren Buffett Obamawhore.
Comment by Pablo on 11/20 @ 10:40 am #
I was think about a cookie like this.
‘feets, one thing about Omaha Steaks is that if you like their junk mail as much as you like their steaks, they’ll make you very, very happy. Otherwise, I guess you could just lie to them when they ask you for your deets.
Comment by Pablo on 11/20 @ 10:44 am #
Oh, and Grayson? Really?
Well, thanks dude. I hope it doesn’t hurt too much when Orlando throws you out on your nutjob ass. I mean, I hope it hurts, maybe even a lot. But not too much.
Comment by JHo on 11/20 @ 10:49 am #
^ Agreed.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 11:59 am #
Those look like a treat our Miss Lindsay would enjoy to be gnawing on I think.
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 12:05 pm #
Is Grayson that jackass congresscritter (redundant) with the dramatically bad toupee?
Comment by SBP on 11/20 @ 12:06 pm #
Hmm… can you be more specific, JD? I don’t think “dramatically bad toupee” narrows it down quite enough. :-)
Comment by Danger on 11/20 @ 12:24 pm #
“Those are very good, happyfeet, in a Harry & David kind of way.”
Jd,
Harry and David makes awesome Hamburger seasoning 8^) I would kill for some of that right now. Everything at the dining facility here is bland.
Comment by David Beatty on 11/20 @ 12:35 pm #
Figures that my congress critter Brad Miller (D – N.C.13) would oppose that measure.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 11/20 @ 12:48 pm #
I will proudly help. But I don’t think they let us vote more than once.
Comment by Pablo on 11/20 @ 12:49 pm #
JD, see My Congressman Is Nuts.
Bad rug? Bad hair? I dunno. I can’t focus on it with that bag of spoiled meat it appears to be sitting atop.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 11/20 @ 12:49 pm #
I think Grayson’s hair is real, but probably the color isn’t.
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 12:50 pm #
Danger – You want I could send you some …
Comment by Slartibartfast on 11/20 @ 12:57 pm #
I’m thinking of registering myself as a Democrat again, just so (maybe) he can be stopped in the primaries.
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 12:59 pm #
Grayson is a bad person, on his good days.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 11/20 @ 1:00 pm #
I just love it that the zerohedge site spells the yeas as “yay”.
Comment by Danger on 11/20 @ 1:03 pm #
“Danger – You want I could send you some …”
Man that would be awesome! Send me an e-mail dangerdaveoc at gmail dot com for my address
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 1:20 pm #
You should have an email …
Comment by Danger on 11/20 @ 1:30 pm #
Nothing yet JD but the servers here are slow. I’m running out of gas tonight so I will check again tomorrow.
Thanks, and good night
Comment by JD on 11/20 @ 3:10 pm #
My BlackBerry server is down, Danger. It should be there in the morning. Be safe.
Comment by RTO Trainer on 11/20 @ 7:14 pm #
Feet–it is my opinion that anyone who has ever worked for Goldman Sachs should be barred from ever holding any kind of appointed position in government. Smart people should already refuse to vote for anyone with that employer on their CV.
Comment by RTO Trainer on 11/20 @ 7:21 pm #
JD, Share that info (with Danger’s blessing, oc) and I’ll send some good stuff too.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 8:55 pm #
I agree RTO Goldman is a very scummy and gay operation to where it’s like a cross between something European and something abjectly fecal.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/20 @ 8:55 pm #
who knew about the H&D hamburger seasoning
Comment by Danger on 11/21 @ 8:05 am #
“who knew about the H&D hamburger seasoning”
Apparently not Harry or David cause I can’t find it on their website. Must be some kind of marketing gimick. The art of advertising without advertising (kind of like Bruce Lee’s art of fighting without fighting;)
Comment by JD on 11/21 @ 8:17 am #
I just tried from my regular email, Danger. Check yours.
Comment by Danger on 11/21 @ 8:26 am #
JD,
Thanks, I’m at work right now but I’ll check it in about 2 hours when I get to my room.
Comment by LTC John on 11/21 @ 8:49 am #
“where once it was an accusation it has now become a demand”
Man, that is so useable.