April 27, 2009

And it took a student, not a reporter, to finally ask Barney Frank what responsibility he took for the housing debacle. Barney didn't like that.



Man, I miss reporters.

Sure would be nice if we had reporters.

I blame the corporations who bought the media, and our Congress who let them.

I blame bad schools, who obviously are not training reporters how to investigate and report.

I blame society, one which discourages courage and rewards conformity.

I blame newspaper editors, for hiring people with zero critical thinking skills. Or "reporters" like Rolodex-of-Realtors Reagor, who think they have to buddy up to the people they should be tearing down.

But sure is nice to see a student stand up, and do the job that reporters used to do.

I think Barney was shocked.


28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barney does a good job attacking the questioner instead of answering the question. That, in itself, answers the question. Maybe Rep. Frank might get the butt flu.

msNJ said...

"What is it you think I should have done that I didn't do?"

Hoho, Barney. Would you really like to hear the answer to that one, or are you just going to bob and weave on semantics?

Uh, not let Wall Street buy your lawmaking powers, for one..

casey said...

Good for that kid.At least someone has the balls to ask the baffoon a question.

Anonymous said...

It appears that Barneys' colon tightened here when questioned and not from the usual suspects...

My Butt Buddy Barney!

Anonymous said...

Keef,

Best way to protect against the flu is to only eat Kosher food.

Anonymous said...

Buh buh buh Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olbermann love Barney Frank, so he must be good. What happened?

Ladies & Gentlemen, Barney Frank, a US rep, just said on record that "it's good to label people."

If you missed it, watch it again, it's right after some girl in the audience intervenes by asking him to stop labeling people.

Anonymous said...

Barney Frank, a different type of pirate.

Anonymous said...

Student: How much of the housing debacle was your fault?

{crickets}

Frank: What should I have done differently?

{03:21}...For example...instead of using the TARP money to simply roll through AIG and use it to pay out other banks...Wasn't the question was about subprime/housing culpability?

Since the premise is that Frank is to blame for that, wouldn't the competent questioner have at least one relevant example?

FAIL.

Thomas Jefferson said...

The kid's career just peaked. Ihope he enjoys his six seconds...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I gotta say, the student was hopelessly unprepared but at least he had the balls to stand up to this butt pirate.

-Gonzo

Anonymous said...

And this is the problem with politicians like him - they get defensive when they are questioned by the people they are to represent.

Turn his fat ass into diesel.

will shill for coin said...

I think it takes a "posse" of reporters to rope down a big dog like Frank.

For instance O'Reilly roughed him up pretty good, and instead of piling on, the rest of the media ignored it, except Jon Stewart made fun of O'Reilly for being too harsh. Sign...

Paul E. Math said...

I thought the kid did a good job of standing his ground.

He obviously touched a nerve because Frank just about gave birth right there at the podium.

A questioner shouldn't have to defend himself. If the question has no merit then it should be easy for Frank to dismiss it with his response. But Frank didn't want to give a response so he tried to turn the focus onto his accuser.

Frank might not have been chairman of the committee back at the beginning of the decade but he was quite vocal in his opposition to rules that could have saved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from insolvency. But you're not going to hear Frank being honest and admit that was a big mistake on his part.

Because Barney Frank is as dishonest and incompetent as they come.

Mitesh Damania said...

John Perkins interviewed by Cindy Sheehan:

http://tinyurl.com/cindysh

Jasen said...

Both the video and this post are lacking. So we should pose the question to Keith:

Exactly what is Barney Frank's culpability regarding the housing crisis as a whole, the sub-prime market in particular.

It's weird how what you think of Barney Frank colors what you think happened in this video. I saw a dumbass little Harvard prick get taken down a notch because he cant separate the housing crisis from the financial crisis. It's obvious that others don't agree with me, from the comments anyway.

Virtue Rewarded said...

Yesterday Chris Wallace asked Lawrence Summers this question:

"WALLACE: The White House revealed the other day that last year you made $5 million working one day a week for the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. What did you do to make what averages out to $100,000 a day? And is there any possible conflict with the fact that you're helping to oversee the economy?

SUMMERS: I was providing strategic advice on a range of economic — on a range of economic judgments.

You know, when it comes to ethics, Chris, what we're all asked to do is to disclose everything about our financial lives. A set of officials, not politically appointed officials, government officials, review those reports in great detail.

They ask us as a condition of working in the government to divest certain of our assets, and they instruct us that there are certain policy matters that we're not to be engaged in — for example, any specific matter that affected the firm that I was affiliated with — and we comply with those rules.

So none of us make our own judgments about conflicts of interest. Those judgments are made by officials, career government officials, who are specially trained in that regard, who apply broad standards."

BS answer Huh???? Of course it's a conflict!! AND...how can the judgement of any one human being be worth $100,000 a day??? ...especially with Summer's track record!!

xxxooo said...

I agree with the other posts; the kids wasn't prepared. I'm sure he's learned something...

Frank looked weak to me since he said: "we were told that terrible things were going to happen" so Frank starts arguing non-factually since he has to explain why he didn't get regulations into place; Frank also throws around "right wing conspiracies" in order to create a "straw man"; the kid should have grabbed onto that and started asking for names and asked if those folks would be brought to justice.

Anonymous said...

All this torture talk is like rubbing salt in a wound.By their friends ye shall know them.

Anonymous said...

i don't think I am old enough to remember reporters and I am 43.

miltfreidman said...

You guys are missing the whole big point of this here.....Frank tells the students where the problem is...he says the Chairmen of the Federal Reserve informed Congress that he was giving 80 billion dollars to AIG.

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve told Congress what he was going to do with our money. And they could do nothing about it. And they have still done nothing about it.

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve got how many votes in the November elections last year? What? It wasn't a position on the ballot? Well surely it was in '06. No? '04?

You get the point.

Let's add them up....

We are in two wars that have not been declared.

We have no elected officials that control our money (wealth).

What exactly do you boys in Congress actually do?

Bob said...

Thats why reporters dont ask tough questions - they are too scared of being attcaked.

This student seemed to let it roll right off his back and kept asking questions. Maybe some of our reporters should take note

jim said...

What a douche.

Anonymous said...

bill o'reilly asked him weeks ago.

k.w. - Southern Ca. said...

I'm sure Barney would like the student as his new *boy toy* ... but the student is too smart for him, and calls him on his bad behavior.

We're finally *starting* to shine the light on these public service predators who have ruined this country, while enriching themselves on the backs of the remaining tax-payers.

Anonymous said...

for fear of yelling fire in the theater let me try.........rape

The OC said...

Keith -- you forgot to blame Republicans.

Mike Oxlong said...

Maybe its just me but whoever owned who in that video doesn't matter to me...

Frank is an elected official. He behaved like a defensive child. Sure, people will ask stupid questions. I hear stupid questions all the time. But whether the person asking is stupid or not has no bearing on the answer to the question.

Miss Goldbug said...

Barney was caught off guard with the students question.

I dont know why barney kept talking about 2008. Maybe its all about deflect away the blame.

Barney, in 2004 told the banking industry, they had to lend to poor people, because as he said "they were being denied the American dream".

Why doesnt he acknowledge it?

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