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There’s been a lot of talk here at Netroots Nation about the reception New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will receive from the crowd at tonight’s keynote speech. And I have learned that this talk will transform into a direct action tonight at the speech.
Schneiderman is the co-chair of a task force that’s supposed to be investigating the banks over their mortgage securitization practices during the housing bubble. But few resources have been devoted to the effort, all the subpoenas filed have been civil, and the task force increasingly looks like a public relations effort to take existing investigations and pretend that a central authority exists around them. Schneiderman has been variously accused of being either in league with those in the Administration who want to stop investigations, or simply played by them.
Regardless, his reputation, at least among the progressive community, is on the line with the task force. And his office has rolled out an aggressive PR strategy of their own, one which includes this keynote speech. The swag bag Netroots Nation attendees receive includes an issue of The American Prospect with a fawning cover story about Schneiderman, termed “The Man the Banks Fear Most.”
But attendees knowledgeable about the trajectory of the task force, and the lack of accountability for the big banks for their role in crashing the economy, are not really fooled by this. I’m told there will be specific actions tonight to increase pressure on Schneiderman to deliver. The keynote is just a speech, and Schneiderman is not scheduled to take questions. But he will apparently be made very aware of the discontent over the relative inaction of the task force. Leaders of some of the major constituent groups involved in housing policy expressed exasperation over Schneiderman, to the extent that they didn’t feel like they could defend his actions.
Ultimately and sadly, I assume that not everyone at the conference is entirely aware of the foreclosure fraud settlement, the task force, and Schneiderman in general. So he may get a relatively warm reception. But a small but persistent minority have other plans in mind.
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Will he get the Tom Friedman treatment? Or some variation there of?
Will he get mic-checked? (have security been hired to haul away and baton dissenters?)
Hmm. Maybe it will be worth showing up.
Was planning on finding a midget bar from which to tweet #QuestionsAGWontAnswer.
My favorite so far? Are you Client 13?
Predictions:
1. He doesn’t care.
2. Attempts to mic-check him or protest or force him to ask questions will be met by DKos goons and security. (Roughly the same treatment Code Pink and the nurses got at the HCR hearings.)
3. What’s a midget bar? (Sorry for showing my ignorance, but I hope Marcy finds one and puts it to good use.)
Was it a dead woman or a live boy?
I say Eric takes a pledge out of Tom Friedman’s book and asks for another Friedman Unit (FU aka 6 months) to continue the investigation prior to the progressives judging him.
I expect that any sort of protest will be dealt with quite ruthlessly. I expect threats from the MC when he’s introduced. I am sure that his speech could result in perjury charges if it were delivered under oath.
Boxturtle (And he’ll GTFO so fast after the speech he’d qualify for the Olympics)
I suspect security has your picture with the the phrase “NOT WITHIN A MILE” written on it. If I were that sellout, the two people I’d want farthest away are you and Yves.
Boxturtle (bmaz and Dday might not be welcome, either)
Why the ‘early’ establishment (cough) and announcement of the task force but no arrest warrants yet, after all this time?
Why, it takes a long time for the guilty to locate and destroy the incriminating evidence. It’s not something as localized and relatively simple as it was for Ollie North and Fawn Hall to destroy evidence when US AG Edwin Meese announced publicly the pending investigation (later called Iran/Contra), so as to give Ollie enough time.
1. True. He gets a step-up on his political career because now he’s got the “I-was-tough-on-the-banks” bullet to use on his resume when he runs for higher office.
2. Oh hell yes. Daily Kos has been nearly unreadable lately, save a few excellent posters. They’ve gone into election mode and it shows.
3. ?
And on and on until the statute of limitations expires.
Because the mantra of the Obama administration is “Look forward, not backwards”. It’s a biblical thing. They’re afraid they’ll turn into pillars of salt, thereby becoming something useful.
An excellent protest would be for lawyer to present him with indictments for banksters needing only his signature based only on public information. Jamie is a lock for a sarbox conviction.
Then let him argue “These things take time”.
Boxturtle (He probably plans to finish right after the SoL runs out)
And your post @7 — Right on the money.
Man, I’d pay for tickets or pay-per-view to watch Yves and DDay grill Selloutman.
Well, you’re on your game today!
I think Beach is right.
The idea that Schneiderman is going to face outraged questioning probably won’t happen.
We will get what, in the military, was called “permissible bitching”.
Dear President Obama,
I have a fundraising idea for you…
Boxturtle (Does your evil twin sometimes take over while you’re posting, too?)
*heh* Pass the popcorn, BP…! ;-)
This can only be true of people who don’t want to know what is happening but want to appear to be aware of current events. I suspect that this will devolve into a recitation of imaginary advances in investigating the fraud when he knows that people who care know that this investigative unit is as much of a fraud as what they are “investigating.”
Oh, Bear, knowing which questions not to ask has become a cottage industry with some “progressive” bloggers.
Go ahead and do it. At least it would enlighten some ignorant people there as to what this guy’s really all about – the money.
But don’t expect anything to happen, ie. him doing something for the 99. Because that’s just delusional fantasy-based thinking.
We just don’t live in that world.
We live in this world. After all the outrages, abuses, and war crimes, (and look what happened to Manning, … they’re not even trying the facade of justice anymore, it’s not even kabuki, … they’re railroading him), how can anyone think the sell-out (Schneid not O) will do anything for the 99 versus serve his 1% masters?
Everyone that attends that speech needs to heckle Schneiderman until he finishes that speech. They need to tell him to criticized the Obama administration for not helping him get resources for the group.
I expect the room has been flooded with hidden mini-cams. Each has a direct upload to both:
1) the drones over the building; and
2) the droner-in-chief standing by in the war room, waiting to give His Command.
Holder is expecting to be gone from his current position by the end of this year. And so Schneiderman needs to be kept safe from all you “terrorists.” (By definition, all firepups are terrorists… since our big, scary questions cause terror in the minds of The Authoritarians.)
Definitely lots of phone cams so we can all see how the Kos people react to people who don’t toe the Party line.
If he’s there was little tommy friedman invited also? Just another sell out.
Are they handing out 0 buttons?
Whats that smell…?
Hmmm… I cant figure out what that smell is or where it’s coming from.
Oh… I see it now… there is a WHOLE BOATLOAD OF FAKE-FRAUDULENT ACCOUNTABILITY… sitting just off shore.
Apparently Net Roots is at the helm and are going to try to bring the boat ashore.
Oh my… that smell is horrible. It smells like death.
I’m confident the Bankers are trembling in their corner offices. Absolutely confident.
Prosecutions in 10, 9, 8, 7,…
Thanks. That seems to happen about one day a month these days. The encouragement is appreciated, as I sometimes feel I’m losing my edge.
May the sky above you remain free of drones.
Thank you, first time I’ve laughed in several days.
Are you counting down the years or the centuries?
DDay, perhaps you can bring some of this stuff with you and offer it to Schneiderman as he walks out on stage to the lecturn?
Yes. Thanks. I’d hate for my neighbors to be taken out with me!
This is the first thing that has made me wish I was there, rather than watching online. What an utter disappointment Schneiderman is.
‘Ultimately and sadly, I assume that not everyone at the conference is entirely aware of the foreclosure fraud settlement, the task force, and Schneiderman in general.’
That takes me by surprise.
From the throatcoating he’s gotten from rachel maddow, I would thought he had some recognition of what he was supposed to be, and from the total inaction and self generated impotence he has exuded, I had been under, perhaps the deluded impression, people were aware the guy is a hill of rotten beans.
Netroots Nation, what a joke…
Obama’s first convention…
Eric Schneiderman, um, have they given him a phone yet?
Yes.