A Texan and Totalitarianism

GinnyTosken

Congress is now reviving a proposal killed last year by Senator Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who was then chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The bill, introduced by the Clinton administration, would give the Treasury secretary broad power to bar foreign countries and banks from access to the American financial market unless they cooperated with money-laundering investigations. It was strongly opposed by the banking industry and Mr. Gramm.
"I was right then and I am right now" in opposing the bill, Mr. Gramm said yesterday. He called the bill "totalitarian" and added, "The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and kill them."
from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/business/20MONE.html?searchpv=past7days

I find it wryly funny that in Mr. Gramm's mind, a money-laundering bill is "totalitarian," but hunting down people and killing them is not.

Ginny

"If you love someone, set them free; if they come home, set them on fire." --George Carlin

SixofNine

Baby, you know the sun beating down on our bald heads can make a man say crazy things.

wasasister

Irony indeed.

The Russians defeated the much better armed German Army in WWII by sucking them deep inside their vast land and then cutting off their supply lines.

Terrorist money is now deeply invested in US and other nations friendly to the US. Now is the time to cut off their supply lines.

It was reported some time ago (and I don't have the link, so this may only be one of those rumors) that as the FBI was flying one of the suspects from the first World Trade Center attack over NYC, an agent looked down at the twin towers and said to the prisoner: "Looks like they're still here." The prisoner said, "They wouldn't be if we'd had more money."

Rex B13

Hi Ginny,
Maybe you could go and ask the Taliban or Asama Bi Laden about that? Oops, I forgot, women are not often seen and NEVER heard in that country.
Cheers,
Rex

CPiolo

And where does the Taliban get their money?

A few months ago, the Bush administration handed the Taliban a subsidy of $43m, in abject gratitude for the assistance of fundamentalism in "the war on drugs".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,555446,00.html

You'll have to cut and paste to properly link to the article.

CPiolo

GinnyTosken

Rex,

Maybe you could go and ask the Taliban or Asama Bi Laden about that? Oops, I forgot, women are not often seen and NEVER heard in that country.

Sounds like your kind of place, eh?

Ginny

GinnyTosken

Rex,

I just noticed your quip:

Ginny:Is there a NOW chapter in Afghan?

Unless you're thinking of a blanket, I think you mean Afghanistan, Rex.

I don't belong to NOW; for me, the focus is too narrow. I am interested in human rights, not just rights for women.

Kiss, kiss,
Ginny

Julie

Hey Ginny--

:"I was right then and I am right now" in opposing the bill, Mr. Gramm said yesterday. He called the bill "totalitarian" and added, "The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and kill them."

This guy is a moron plain and simple. We will all be so much better off without him.

Can't wait to see you and Rex at Promise Keepers!!

Julie

Tina

NOw isn't that narrow. It's statement of purpose is tied directly into that of human rights.T

Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."

A Texan and Totalitarianism

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