Bankster Petition Delivered to Senator Dodd

Today, our petition in support of a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Committee (CFPA) was delivered to the office of U.S. Senator Chris Dodd. BanksterUSA thanks our partners at Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumerwatchdog.org and CREDO for the combined effort which generated some 45,000 signatures. Dodd is the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which is about to start committee work on the Senate version of the bank reform bill. Dodd supports a strong CFPA, but has not been able to get one Senate Republican to agree with him. Reform advocates are very concerned that this agency might be watered down to a corner desk in one of the existing federal agencies that failed to take any action to protect consumers in the run-up to the Wall Steet meltdown.

Our petition and video which featured Senator Dodd in a tux and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase in a lovely gown doing the chicken dance, asked Dodd to stand firm on CFPA and dance with the people and not with the plutocrats on Wall Street. The video produced by our friends at HeadzupTV got around quite a bit on the internet and was used by many of our banking coalition partners.

Petition signers on our site had many messages for Dodd about their struggles in this rough economy and their feelings about the big banks. We wanted to share a some of these with you below. We also asked signers to tell us what song they thought Senator Dodd should be dancing to. From hard rock to disco to rap and folk, we got a lot of totally terrific suggestions. We here at Bankster had not heard of the old Pete Seeger song “Banks are Made of Marble,” so thanks to the many people who pointed that one out to us.

Top contenders in the song category were:
Money, Pink Floyd
I Won't Back Down, Tom Petty
Power to the People, John Lennon
This Land is Your Land, Woodie Guthrie,
The Times They Are a Changing, Bob Dylan
Banks are Made of Marble, Pete Seeger

Comments for Dodd on BanksterUSA Site

ON JOBS:

No work for almost a year.

I am a contractor in the building trades. My income has dropped by 4/5ths over the last two years.

As a tenured faculty at a major American University, I was fired!

My earnings as a self-employed musician are down 50% over previous years, thanks to the Wall Street crash.

My Bed and Breakfast was doing well until the economic crash caused my mostly retiree clientele to cut back on spending. We are down 20% from last year and each month is a worry.

I have a small business. And I am unable to get a low interest loan because the FAT cats are hogging the money!

I'm grateful to still have a job. Three of my closest friends don't.

My small business clients, cannot get business loans, even though they have excellent credit. This has forced them to layoff a number of employees.

Our company saw a complete stall of construction across all sectors forcing us to take 10% pay cuts and lay off several employees.

Nearly $200,000 in student loans and no jobs, no relief in sight for me and my family. And my health insurance has just gone up $100 per month.

The company I work for had to lay off employees. All of them had families. Our industry is relatively small. It will be difficult for them to find another job.

ON THE BIG BANKS:

Too Big To Fail? Break ‘em up into a million bite-sized pieces.

The fat cats who brought down the world's economy are still reaping unfair benefits. Let's tax them more fairly than we do.

The citizens are being held hostage by Wall Street and speculators. Their acts has bottomed out the economy and taken the life out of middle class people. It is time to turn this back around.

The largest crime a retiree faces is having our retirements mismanaged by a few big banks on government welfare.

ON RETIREMENT:

I was in pretty good shape to be able to retire in 5 yrs. Not any more. I'll be lucky if I can retire in 15 yrs now. I'm 60.

I lost 25% of my stock value when Wall Street GAMBLED and lost, with the help of the banks.

My 401K is now just a 4.

My IRA value dropped in half.

Ready to lose our home and property due to joblessness . . .and the vultures await.

Went from fairly well off to marginal...hope we don't live too long, the money won't last at the rate they're stealing it.

My college savings was literally cut in half, and is having a hard time recovering. Also, both my parents have either been temporarily or permanently laid off.
I have no job, no money (my Unemployment is finished), no car and the towns around me are dying putting more people out of work losing their houses and they will join me soon enough.

It's not about me, it's about my grandparents who are struggling to keep a job and while watching their retirement funds disappear.

Songs and Messages for Senator Dodd

This Land is Your Land, Woodie Guthrie
The Times They Are a Changing, Bob Dylan
Banks are Made of Marble, Pete Seeger
Money, Pink Floyd
I Won't Back Down, Tom Petty
Power to the People, John Lennon
We Shall Overcome
Achy Breaky Heart, Billy Rae Cyrus
Do the Right Thing, Simply Red
I Did it My Way, Frank Sinatra
We Can't Make It Here Anymore, James McMurtry
Darling, Save the Last Dance for Me
Tango Till They're Sore, Tom Waits
Mercy, Duffy
“Stop now! What's that sound? Everybody look what's going down!” Buffalo Springfield
Bad Moon Rising
Little Pink House, John Mellencamp
Main Street Cha-cha-cha! Onward with Prof. Warren's CFPA.
I Saw the Light
We're Not Gonna Take It Anymore
The Money Crop by Malvina Reynolds
Do it Again, Steely Dan
Help, the Beetles
Get up offa that thing, James Brown
Queen: “Bealzebub has the devil in his sights for me, for meee, for meeeeeeeeeeee!”
We Are Family
Downtown
Down on Main Street, Bob Seeger
Respect, Aretha Franklin
Street Fighting Man
Hard Times Come Again No More, Stephen Foster
Put a little love in your heart
Helter Skelter, U2
I Won't Back Down, Tom Petty
Power to the People, John Lennon
Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde
Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash
Wake Up Everybody Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
Good Night Irene
Who’se Sorry Now?
Dude walks like a lady, Aerosmith
Eve of Destruction
It's Time To Say Good-Nite
Bring it on
You're Breakin' My Heart
Loren Richards "A Deeper Love" by Aretha Franklin
Star Spangled Banner
Won't Get Fooled Again
God Bless America
Up With People
We wont be fooled again, The Who
Takin' It to the Streets!
The Glass-Steagall Waltz, Richard Strauss
Twisted Sister's We're Not Going to Take It!
Dance With The Dolly With The Hole In Her Stocking
The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd
We Built This City
Dance to the Glass-Steagall rhumba, not the Wall Street waltz! Shake your booty for John Q. Public, not Wally B for Bail-out Wall Street!
Protect us wee people.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Get into the Groove
Mr. Lonely (because Dodd is the ONLY senator who is interested in helping regular people)
So Long, Nice to Know You.
Wont Back Down, Tom Petty
We Don't Get Fooled Again
JOE HILL, I dreamed I saw Joe Hill again, alive as he could be, said I but Joe you're ten years dead, I'll never die said he... I'll never die said he.
Dire Straits, Love over Gold
Excuse Me, Mr. by Ben Harper
We Shall Be Released
Back Stabber-the OJays
Burning down the house, Talking Heads
Too Much Month at the End of the Money DiPiero, Robbins & Sherril
"Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too)" - [McCoy]
Fight the Good Fight, Triumph
Lawyers, Guns and Money, Warren Zevon
Holding Out For A Hero, Bonnie Tyler
I Will Survive, \Gloria Gaynor
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Fight the Power, Public Enemy
Power to the People, John Lennon
Money for Nothing, Dire Straits
Love Over Gold, Dire Straits
Greed , Godsmack
Peace Not Greed, Kottonmouth Kings
Last Dance, Donna Summer
The Storm is Passing Over and Pennies from Heaven - both on the sound track of Bonfire of the Vanities
Twist and Shout!!!
"They'll never keep us down" from Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People
Kick Out the Jams
Power to the People!
I Dreamed A Dream, Les Mis
Both Sides Now, Joni Mitchell