Unlimited Alan Grayson appreciation thread!

[Cain]

Alan Grayson: I would like to know whether it is within the Federal Reserve's legal authority to try to manipulate the stock market or the futures market.

Federal Reserve GC Scott Alvarez: I don't believe the Federal Reserve tries to manipulate the stock market...(Yoda: Do or do not, there is no try.)

Alan Grayson: Does the Federal Reserve actually possess all the gold that's listed on their balance sheet.

Scott Alvarez, doing a classic poker body language tell, and taking his time: Yes...

Alan Grayson: Who actually executes the trades for the Federal Reserve in the markets?

Scott Alvarez: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which executes trades through Primary Dealers.

Alan Grayson: Can you name one Primary Dealer?

Scott Alvarez: JP Morgan Chase

Alan Grayson: Do you mind if we have a GAO audit to see if there has been front-running or insider trading by them? Do you mind? Is that ok with you?

Scott Alvarez: I am not sure if I have that authority...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/has-federal-reserve-ever-tried-manipulate-stock-market-how-about-prime-brokers

Alan Grayson is THE MAN.  Matt Taibbi has a great article on him, with a video of this exchange at http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/09/25/have-the-federal-reserve-or-prime-brokers-ever-tried-to-manipulate-the-stock-market/  He also relays this personal anecdote, which makes me think Grayson is pretty much the perfect guy to bust the Fed's balls.

I  have personal experience with... well, let's call it the unique personality of Alan Grayson. In his capacity as an attorney he once basically threatened to have me dismembered and have my body parts dumped in a tin canister and fired into the center of a burning supernova. And that's actually underselling the real language he used. We were having a disagreement about the use of information given to me by a certain source in a story about military contracting, and in the middle of what had been a normal contentious argument between two sane adults, dude suddenly assumed this crazy monster-voice and just went medieval on me. He was roaring into the telephone about how he was going to crush me, how I was going to wish I had never messed with him, how I didn't know who the hell I was dealing with, and so on. One phrase I remember in particular was, "I am going to strip the bark off of you!" It came totally out of the blue and it was like being on the telephone with a metamorphosing werewolf — the whole performance genuinely freaked me out. I may even have peed a little, I can't remember.

When I heard Alan Grayson was running for Congress, I remember thinking to myself, That Alan Grayson? The lunatic? It can't be, I thought. I kept imagining trails of half-eaten sheep leading to his campaign appearances. But it turned out to be true. And when I checked, his platform turned out to be quite sane and even kind of interesting. Then he got elected and I suddenly started seeing his name attached to all of these calls for transparency, various crusades for FinReg reforms, etc.

And now every time I see Alan Grayson, he's tearing some freaked-out bureaucrat a new asshole in the middle of some empty conference room in the Capitol somewhere. I see the looks on the faces of these poor souls and I know exactly what they're going through. Which is just hilarious, frankly. Especially since these people all tend to deserve it, like this nebbishy little creep Alvarez quite obviously does.

Now for most of last year Grayson's public appearances didn't rate any higher than a five or maybe a six on the craziness scale, but he's a definite seven in this clip, trending toward eight. Watch Alvarez look around nervously, like he's not sure whether to say something about how out of control Grayson is. He's looking around like he expects someone to come out with a butterfly net and capture Grayson, so he can get back to lunch. But no help comes. Very entertaining stuff.

P.S. I should point out — I've gotten a couple of letters on this already — that by crazy, I definitely mean Grayson sounds off his rocker when questioning Alvarez. Although the Fed is certainly guilty of almost everything Grayson accuses them of, the line of questioning is just bizarre. What Grayson does here is sort of like asking someone to just admit to being an axe murderer. Just admit it! Admit you murder people with axes. We all know what your denials mean! That said, this doesn't mean we can't enjoy the suffering of Alvarez in this exchange.

[Iason Ouabache]

I had never heard of him before, but I like him. I didn't know that there were any Democrats in the House who actually had some balls.

[Idem]

All Americans need to see this.

[Telarus]

That was Hilarious.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Here's another Alan Grayson story.  I never heard of him before today, but now I'm a fan too.

Whoops: Anti-ACORN Bill Ropes In Defense Contractors, Others Charged With Fraud
Going after ACORN may be like shooting fish in a barrel lately -- but jumpy lawmakers used a bazooka to do it last week and may have blown up some of their longtime allies in the process.

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who's Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html

[Golden Applesauce]

Here's another Alan Grayson story.  I never heard of him before today, but now I'm a fan too.

Whoops: Anti-ACORN Bill Ropes In Defense Contractors, Others Charged With Fraud
Going after ACORN may be like shooting fish in a barrel lately -- but jumpy lawmakers used a bazooka to do it last week and may have blown up some of their longtime allies in the process.

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who's Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html

So I can get hired by a company, commit fraud, get caught, and then prevent them from getting gov't funds?



The only way that could be more hilarious is if it were actually enforced.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

This is why I voted for this guy.
I have to share that video w/ my friends on teh facebork

[Cain]

Here's another Alan Grayson story.  I never heard of him before today, but now I'm a fan too.

Whoops: Anti-ACORN Bill Ropes In Defense Contractors, Others Charged With Fraud
Going after ACORN may be like shooting fish in a barrel lately -- but jumpy lawmakers used a bazooka to do it last week and may have blown up some of their longtime allies in the process.

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who's Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html

I didn't know that was him.  I knew it had been mentioned by some people, but I didn't know he got the ball rolling.  Fucking awesome!

[Jenne]

Good god.  That video is fucking awesome.  WE NEED MOAR LIKE GRAYSON.

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/grayson-not-backing-down_n_305196.html

Alan Grayson refused to apologize Wednesday for saying on the House floor Tuesday night that the GOP health care plan amounts to "don't get sick" - and if you do, "die quickly."

"I'm not taking any of it back. I stand by what I said," Grayson, a freshman Democrat who represents Orlando, Florida, told reporters.

GOP Rep. Tom Price of Georgia filed a resolution Wednesday censuring Grayson for the comments. But Grayson said he planned to stay on offense.

"The point is that if you do get sick, you're going to have huge medical bills. Your insurance company's not going to help you and as a result of that you're going to end up having the plug pulled on you," he said. "I don't think that the Democrats have to be on the defensive for a bill that reduces health care costs, makes health care premiums affordable, makes people's health care coverage comprehensive in the sense that they can't be excluded for breaching lifetime caps or by preexisting conditions and helps all of the Americans who cannot afford health insurance today. I think we should be on the offense not the defense and that's where I plan to stay."

Grayson said he arrived at his conclusion after listening to Republicans talk on the House floor for months.

"One of the responsibilities we have when we're in the majority is from time to time to be the Speaker pro tem[pore]. And it's been my misfortune to have to listen to them attack our bill now for months and drag out our work on this bill endlessly, while according to Harvard scientists, 47,000 Americans die every year for lack of health insurance. And by the way, that's 20 or so since we started talking about it. That's over a hundred a day," Grayson said.

Grayson's floor speech was intended to be satirical, he said. Now that he's under fire, however, he's standing by it.

"Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek. I'm surprised I have to explain that, but that's the way it goes these days," he said.

Ok, now I love this guy.  He's on Rachel Maddow now. I'll try to find a link later.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoITVLWpKB8

BOOOSH!

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

 

HA!
I think I'll call his office tomorrow and tell them I think he's doing an excellent job. And to keep up the good work.

[Iason Ouabache]

HA!
I think I'll call his office tomorrow and tell them I think he's doing an excellent job. And to keep up the good work.

Bake them some cookies!  No, actually they would probably frown on food gifts because of poison risk. Oh, I know! Give them a kittie!!!

[Remington]

Hell, I'M going to phone this guy to congratulate him. And I live in Canada.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Oh SNAP!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H3gND4M9HA

I like this guy a little more every day.