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A Mad Day

Tuesday 30 September 2008

by: John Cory, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

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(Illustration: Tom Richmond)

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust ... and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do..." Howard Beale, from the film "Network" (1976).

    I'm mad as hell because today was bad and was all about politics and not country first.

    Democrats were once again Charlie Brown to the Republican's Lucy with the football and we saw the predictable result. Republicans are whining about "the big mean lady who talked bad about us so we showed her - we didn't vote for America, we voted against the big mean lady who didn't talk nice!" And the media talking heads will regurgitate this bilge for hours and days to come.

    There is only one political ad that should be aired immediately by the Democratic Party and that is: All of the McCain's surrogates' quotes about McCain suspending his campaign to save the country with this headline: "Republicans Vote For The Great Depression!"

    The Democrats need to hang this necktie around John McCain and the Republicans from now to Election Day. John McCain and the Republican Party refused to reach across the aisle. McCain is powerless. McCain is Bush in lame-duck clothing. McCain was pivotal in defeating the bipartisan effort to save America.

    Wake up Democrats! These people couldn't care less about America, the middle class working folk, poverty, health insurance and education. The Republicans care more about politics and the wealthy than anything else in this world. Don't you get it? We turn to you for change - not compromise. We turn to you for leadership - not more of the same.

    As I read Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini and others, they all say this was not the best solution - but it was something to fill the void of nothing. Doing nothing would only speed the crisis with disastrous results. And so, Democrats believed in the delusion of "Country First" and went to the wall. Republicans, of course, support disaster because that is their forte. The Republicans bring about disaster like the war in Iraq, Katrina, Enron, deregulation, and, when caught, blame it on Democrats from FDR to Bill Clinton. Blame it on the poor and minority populations. Blame it on Gay Marriage. Blame it on teaching evolution in public schools. Anything to avoid taking responsibility for their failures. That's the GOP way.

    It's time to play politics, Democrats! Hope is not a method. Change comes through action, and now is the time to nail this to the Republican hide of this country. No nice words - no soft peddling - power to truth - with a political edge. If Democrats want victory in November - it may have just been handed to them.

    I'm not a smart guy or strategic political planner, but here is my view of the next few days that could bring Democrats victory - if they really want it:

    1) Every Democratic spokesperson on television points out that McCain is so weak he cannot lead his own political party, so how can we expect him to lead this country?

    2) Run ads of John McCain hugging George Bush with photos of New Orleans drowning, of the carnage in Iraq, the DOW plummeting, CEO's retreating to beautiful mansions with millions of dollars while their former companies go bankrupt and employees carry their jobs out in cardboard boxes on their way to the unemployment office.

    3) Show the DOW where it was on the day Bill Clinton left office and where it is today after eight years of Bush and the GOP. If it is a flat line - we all know the medical condition of an EKG flat line. No matter how many spikes are induced by CPR.

    4) Message: McCain and GOP put politics first - not country. Willing to sacrifice America to avoid losing power.

    As I said in the beginning, I'm mad as hell and I'm looking for the Howard Beale Democrats. Anything less is disaster for America.

    "... We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy ... I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad." - From the film "Network" (1976) by Paddy Chayefsky.

    Democrats - it is time to get mad.

  

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John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device, 1969 - 1970.

Comments

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Soooooooo is the author for

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 13:22 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Soooooooo is the author for or against the bill?....I'm a little confused cause in my book the Republicans have scored major points (but don't think i am gonna rush out and vote for them....hell no!) for standing up to this mindless bill which a large number of Democrats were about to push on through like every other detrimental Bush bill to come before them...a few tweaks to calm the populace and BLAHMO! its bend over backwards time. Sure the Republicans may have done it for political reasons but I would like to think that they finally heard the American people saying NO! Enough...either speak for us or loose your job...as it should be. So back to the question, is he for or against it...cause if he is for it and he is bemoaning the Republicans for not letting it pass then he is dead wrong.

Mr. Cory's point might be

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 13:40 β€” Mike (not verified)
Mr. Cory's point might be better taken if 40% of Democrats hadn't also voted against this bill. Face it, it was hastily cobbled together and much of the nation, Republicans and Democrats alike, wasn't sold on it.

John Cory has it right.

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 13:50 β€” Kansas Dem (not verified)
John Cory has it right. This could be the ticket to put Barack Obama safely above all of the Republican bag of chicanery, dirty tricks, and voting frauds they have been using to take the government away from the people to put it into the hands of the money changers and greedy corporate managers. We need to put an end to Fascism in these United States of America before our constitution is damaged beyond repair. A vote for a third party Candidate is effectively another vote for McCain and more of the same. If you want more of the same go on and vote green or for another person that doesn't stand the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell. I get so angry when I see posts advising us to vote for a lame duck third party candidate. It is a philosophy guaranteed to tip our beloved nation over the cliff into the chasm of disaster. THINK of the consequences of your actions before giving into gut impulses like GWB or some far out Evangelical that thinks his dreams are a conversation with God almighty. SHEESH!!!!!!!! What we need is a large dose of common sense and reality based logic in our decision making process. We will not find a savior in politics. We will all have to act together to save ourselves and lift ourselves by our own strength and bootstraps. This is a time for us to all act in concert and not trust in others to fix our problems.

I am a democrat and I have

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 13:50 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I am a democrat and I have never been so happy that the Republicans voted against this bailout bill whatever their reasons. I do not support this bailout It is a completely irresponsible bill. There is an increasing consensus that bailing out Wall Street is a wasteful allocation of resources. There has been a lot of fear mongering on the part of the Fed with regard to their ransom demands. They have a lot of nerving demanding anything from the tax payers. Even if the bailout eventually gets passed it won't solve any of our economic problems. It will just give a pass to a few wealthy bankers who created this problem. Democrats need to wake up and start listening to economists because they clearly don't have a grasp of the situation. Here is quote from economist Jeffery Miron,"Talk of Armageddon, however, is ridiculous scare-mongering. If financial institutions cannot make productive loans, a profit opportunity exists for someone else. This might not happen instantly, but it will happen." Context can found in this article. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html This problem needs to be addressed from the bottom of the pyramid, not the top and it will be cheaper to do so. I do not believe in trickle down economics and that is the very approach that this bill takes to solve a our financial crisis, one largely created by the idea of trickle down economics.

It’s Lord of the Flies,

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 14:11 β€” radline9 (not verified)
It’s Lord of the Flies, with rich white guys in Congress and Wall Street screaming like a pack of wild banshees. β€œKill the pig. Make him die.” Someone get a grip, please. Great article, agree completely, It's time for dems to step up to the plate.

Its ok. A parnoid and

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 14:22 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Its ok. A parnoid and psychotic elitist nation can take "uptake" medicine and in about six weeks a new nation will be born from the equally psychotic parents who ushered in this crazy moment. The uptake medicine this nation now needs is a new production line of odorless machines of trains in cities and across America fuel efficent cars to the rescue people to the rescue working in communities if my neighbor looses his house he can move in with me that's what my grandparents did in the Depression they had 11 children and fed another 11 even when my Grandfather lost his company they knew the uptake on compassion and generosity yielded better times ahead We can change - that was what the no bailout vote was yesterday- a great big signal for going a different road where; goods the Chinese made are made here - and some there and we control our production towards the common good and the common global society once healed we build Windmills limit theWallmarts and put to use good technology for the good we won't plant corn in deserts we won't build cities on coastlines and in deserts we won't use nuclear cause the bailout got us we won't listen to media bought and sold we will make new newspapers which report news we will just simply change, neural shift, and begin using technology for the greening of America all risks have consequences the fact that the body politic spoke up this week makes the case for democracy stronger we can all suffer some for being self indulgent for not watching the goons we can all take responsibility for the future the state was reinstated yesterday by saying NO! "homey-less" ainted taking this no more there is always a way out of here take uptakes during a downdraft and all will be warm and feed and clothed this winter cause we the body politic aren't afraid There is one way for new growth burn the prairie but under favorable wind conditions and then see the green shoots spring up probably by spring.

The Democrats are not going

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 14:51 β€” Joe S (not verified)
The Democrats are not going to get mad. If the last eight years have taught us anything it is that the Democrats are the party that gets mad in front of TV cameras and then rolls over when the chips are down and no one is looking. See the FISA bill. This bill should take all that money give to the people about to lose their homes but require them to then use it to pay down their mortgages. This would reduce their debts plus end up putting money into the hands of the banks just like they want to do. It is a very distasteful idea, but if they are going to spend the money anyway they might as well trickle it up into the banks through the hands of indebted homeowners (and I'm a renter so I get no benefit) that way at least more of the common people c0uld benefit directly. Like the one "Democrat" said trickle down caused this problem, maybe a little trickle up can stabilize it more justly. The current bill would simply leave homeowners in debt to the government, the same government which foisted billions of dollars of debt on them in the first place under President Bush. As many economists have said the government is sure to overpay for this debt because it will not be auctioned on a competitive market but sold directly only to one buyer the "People."

Absolutely correct

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 14:56 β€” EDVIN STROMSTEN (not verified)
Absolutely correct commentary. As representatives of us ordinary folk the Republicans are horrible and a grade of "F" is generous. Unfortunately the Democrats, our last hope (we hope) are a "D" and even that is generous. In order to have modern capitalism it must be well regulated and government must be dedicated to the common good and an integral player in everything that forms the basis for a humane and civilized society for everyone. The wealth that rises to the top like the cream in the milk bottle of yore, must be redistributed (say equalized) constantly or else the whole economic system will eventually freeze up. Our economy is a mass economy that demands full participation by all, a rather good idea all in all. Where are the politicians with the brains and guts to take a stand for intelligent capitalism.

The Bill is pure BS, an

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 14:58 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
The Bill is pure BS, an expensive parting gift to Bush's friends. If you're still arguing along party lines, you haven't been paying attention.

I don't believe for a minute

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 15:02 β€” Fempatriot (not verified)
I don't believe for a minute that the House and the Senate won't pass a bailout bill. It's just a matter of time. And the bill when passed will do more for Wall Street than Main Street. As long as Americans insist on being either "Democrats" or "Republicans" and can't see that they are both working toward the same goals--reducing us to a nation of peasants--we'll be ruled by our employees--those we have hired. And they'll continue to vote themselves the best perks and the most golden parachutes while passing the most oppressive laws for the general public. We have the best government money can buy--but it's the money from Wall Street that buys it, not the money from Main Street.

I like his energy, but is he

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 15:10 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I like his energy, but is he right about not voting. The Europeans are calling for America to act like Statesmen on this problem. I don't know why, but I tend to believe them more than us since they seem far more mature than American congressmen and more intelligent. Sorry.

The problem with Joe Public

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 15:22 β€” Joe Public (not verified)
The problem with Joe Public (me) is that I have no idea if the bailout plan is good or bad, necessary or not. My gut feeling is we have to hold our nose and save the banking sector, but I've seen (not had the time to read through) pages and pages against the plan. Obviously, acting fast and strong seems like a good idea, even if we end up saving some undeserving scoundrels along the way. Also, acting strong and fast may cost less than the consequences of not acting. But then again, not acting will precipitate chaos (perhaps), and maybe from the new Depression will come a New New Deal (Obama as FDR?). It could be the thing that eliminates the neocons from the scene for a long time. Given a choice there may have been less pain doing the right thing in 1927 or 1928 and avoiding the first great depression. A lot of people did suffer.

Fact is, Obama has shown

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 15:25 β€” JL Stiles (not verified)
Fact is, Obama has shown himself to be no different than McCain in essence so we're fooling ourselves by getting so heated up about this horse race. It's a distraction. The bail out plan is a huge disaster and blatant give away to wall street without a shred for the people. Obama is as militaristic and globalist as McCain. Obama hasn't offered a peep about the Military Commissions Act which has gutted our constitution nor has he or any of the Democrat power brokers supported impeachment which could have ruined GWB for good. He has been a total wimp on the surge which has ensnared us in the war for years more against our own intelligence estimate and military advice. Obama also supported immunity for telecoms and now he is supporting a bailout for his rich banker connections without debate on any other possibilities. Really, if anyone could give any significant difference between Obama and McCain, I'd like to know. If anyone could give one thing Obama has done of any significance to stand up for the people of this country I'd like to know it. Obama's simply lame. Would I rather have him than McCain? Yes, but only for cosmetic reasons such as Obama looking and speaking better. And we talk about Palin while Biden is a total war hawk and phony. Biden was a terrible choice and showed obama has no guts, no real convictions.

The Significance of These

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 15:33 β€” Alan (not verified)
The Significance of These Events The significance of these events is not being appreciated. These events are not analogous to a natural catastrophe, these events ensue from a systemic disease process rooted in corruption and megalomaniacal greed. The infrastructure of American society has been neglected for decades. Look at the state of our public education system, look at our roads, railroads, public transit, look at our universities, our hospitals, our public services of every kind. All of these have been systematicallyundermined and looted in order to create a plutocratic class of the megarich. We have lost our way as a democracy. In a democracy it is axiomatic that all forms of power be circumscribed. Money is a form of power. How can it be that billionaires exist in our society when 50 million people have no health insurance? We have lost our way as a democracy.

This bailout bill was

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 15:46 β€” Dan Stafford (not verified)
This bailout bill was garbage. Hoover did the same thing before the Depression and it only slowed it down a couple of months. We are watching history repeat itself here. The bailout does NOT get at the root cause of the problems - that the middle class is broke and has been for twenty years or more. Think of it in these terms: One rich guy owns twenty houses and thirty cars. He sleeps in one house at a time. He drives one car at a time. He has dinner at one place nightly. He puts gas in one car at a time. Twenty houses with twenty families: Every house has dinner every night. Twenty restaurants and grocery stores get that business daily. 40 cars are driven daily, each needing gasoline 2-3 times weekly. The utilities are turned on constantly in all twenty houses. Twenty houses are buying stamps. I could go on and on, but you get the drift. The real driver of the American economy is ALL OF US. Not a couple of million highly wealthy persons. The bailout does SQUAT to get the middle class up to an income level above keep-even on the amount of cash in-hand it requires to live. If you don't fix the middle class directly, you get more foreclosures and bankruptcies. All the "bailout" does is keep the existing rich wealthy at the expense of the overall economy.

The Federal Government is

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 16:03 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
The Federal Government is supported by the taxes paid by the citizens. It is not supported by big business or industry by paying honest taxes. If the citizens would escrow their taxes into a trust fund instead of paying into the Treasury then the government would have to lay off workers, close offices, not provide services and aid to foreign countries, failed banks or failing industries here at home or any of the cushions created over the years to the citizens. But wait they can just print more paper money without any of us paying taxes and keep the failures busy failing, the the banks busy hoarding resources, and foreign countries being bribed. But they will not worry about the citizens' welfare at any level below the middle class "poverty". I would suggest that we don't attend the birthday party this Nov 4 and noone gets voted into anything and we start with a clean slate at a Constitutional Convention in Independence, Missouri and get it right this time.

While left and right came

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 16:10 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
While left and right came together to oppose the bill on Monday, I suspect that the bill that most Republicans would support and the bill that the Progressive Democrats would support would be completely different. Let's see what manages to get passed. I'll be praying that the Progressive Democrats don't get trampled. (anyone know why Keith Ellison voted yes after signing the Progressive Caucus letter?)

In response to John Corey

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 16:16 β€” P (not verified)
In response to John Corey has it right... "A vote for a third party Candidate is effectively another vote for McCain and more of the same. If you want more of the same go on and vote green or for another person that doesn't stand the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell. I get so angry when I see posts advising us to vote for a lame duck third party candidate." It's the two party system of screwing over the voters that got us here in the first place. Voting independent had nothing to do with voting from you gut. It has everything to do with voting for what your beliefs are. Voting third party may have the result of getting John McCain elected, but if all independents choked back the vomit and voted Obama the end result would be the same. It would just make people like Kansas Dem feel better at night thinking their oh so just cause has come out victorious. If you truly want change, you can't vote the same way the country has since the Civil War and expect different results. For all of you that still believe the Democrats are any different then their counterparts, read up on the Gram Leach Bliley act that Bill Clinton (you heard right, the glorious Bill Clinton) signed into law. It allowed for banks to compete, a phenomena that, when sprinkled with greed, ends up with our current situation (which is not a crisis because it is the direct result of greed and exploitation). I say we don't need no water let the mutha effea burn and then reconstruct a better system that doesn't reward greed and exploitation. We have access to more information than ever before, but for some reason, people sill want representatives to vote for bad legislation.

I don't know about the rest

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 16:47 β€” Droslovinia (not verified)
I don't know about the rest of you, but has anyone else noticed how the Dems caved in on the whole "drilling" issue while we were all looking at Wall Street? They've screwed us twice (or attempted to) in the past month, and they're still not being called to task for it. I'm still with Barak all the way, but I'd much rather he didn't come from a party that is willing to toss us all under the bus whenever they get the whim. At least you can trust the Republicans to be consistently evil. With the Dems, you have to take the knife in the back, rather than in the front.

I'm glad **this** bailout

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 17:04 β€” Komodo (not verified)
I'm glad **this** bailout failed. History proves that this strategy doesn't work (Hoover/Great Depression). Instead of the Dems creating a bill to help the perpetrators, why don't they give that $700 Billion dollars to the public in stimulus checks? This would solve all of the problems. Can you imagine each household receiving a quarter of a million dollars for every person who is eighteen years or older? But, no, the Dems are out there pushing to reward the perps and keep the whole fiasco going. You HAVE to know that the Republicans will only be back next month demanding another trillion. Why not? The Democrats play such a great bunch of suckers.

What a bogus rant! The only

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 18:03 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
What a bogus rant! The only thing more hysterical β€” humorous β€” than the hysteria β€” fear blended with anger β€” underlying Cory’s analysis and perspective is the degree to which it completely misses the point. The Republicans are not to blame. The Democrats are not to blame. And neither are the special interests nakedly exploiting and continually engendering the ideological dichotomy diminishing our political psyche and poisoning our body politic. The American people are to blame for tolerating this charade in the first place. Debt is strangling our country. The current β€œcrisis” is the product of policy intentionally perpetrated to dope Americans into continuing the shopping spree that provided the essential economic cover necessary to allow the scoundrels to continue their feeding frenzy. Ignorance, hubris and avarice lie at the rotten core of our national apple. A day of rectification is near, and irrespective of the fate of this Cash For Trash legislation, either America deals with the root-matter or each day is just another step closer to it.

The same bankers that

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 18:04 β€” Nader4President (not verified)
The same bankers that opposed any government intervention are now saying that the taxpayers must bail out the bankers' companies IMMEDIATELY. And of course we can trust the Bush people to tell us the truth- right? And we can trust Keating's Five, McCain, and Obama who talks about "clean coal" to be straight with us - right?

This piece is not up to

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 18:09 β€” Steve Newcomb (not verified)
This piece is not up to Truthout's usual standard; it's a rant against Republicans. Not helpful. Personally, I'm *grateful* to the Republicans (in this one case, anyway) for delaying a fascist takeover, and I wish we had more Dems who are revolted by the fascist stench of Bush and his money men. The lesson I take away from it all: the principle of one vote per citizen is still affecting the legislative process, even if only rarely and temporarily. In other words. voting still matters, because our Representatives want to keep their jobs. Hurray for Democracy!

This is exactly what I said

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 18:17 β€” Christopher E. Robin (not verified)
This is exactly what I said a week ago. The only thing that Bush and the Bushies are interested in is protecting their precious status quo. This country was born from revolution. It is time to be born again!

Handling the financial

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 18:43 β€” Jim Pivonka (not verified)
Handling the financial crisis - Houston, we have a problem! Our people, and our representatives think the financial system rescue plan is about protecting financial institutions from failure resulting from bad judgement about mortgage backed securities. It is actually about protecting the worldwide supply of money and credit from collapse due to deleveraging resulting from the vanishing value of highly leveraged collateralized debt obligations (CDO) and credit default swaps (CDS). These have become, under the market fundamentalist mandated financial deregulation regime, the source and underpinning of the money supply. If they collapse the money supply will collapse aong with them, and will have to be re-created by central banks and governments. Doing that will require dealing with extraordinarily difficult political and distributional issues. Any delay in restoring the money supply will kill economic activity, and throw the world economy back 20 to 30 years, I suspect. People will become homeless, illness will go untreated, starvation will become common, and civil unrest and warfare even more common. Absent this "rescue" package, the sooner the (money) printing presses roll, the better. Don't get me wrong: Even if we get a rescue package passed, and avoid a collapse of the world economy and money supply, it will not fix everything... The debt crisis will continue to deepen and spread, just in a more "regulated" and less damaging way. Many more (between 200 and 300) major banks will fail. The economy will sink into a severe recession, lasting 12 to 18 months, possibly more - as compared to the possible multiple contraction that might result from collapse of the money supply. Vulnerable investments will still suffer some of the greatest losses in modern times; the market has valued stocks well above their 'natural" price/earnings ration of 16:1 for many years, and they will likely retreat to that level. Housing prices will likely decrease, relative to monthly rental prices until the ration returns to its 400 year average ratio, 100:1 (one month's rent x 100 = property value; eg. $4300/month x 100 months = $430,000). But that is not what the rescue is about. It is about avoiding a much worse scenario, resulting from a collapse of the world's money supply and a dramatic shrinking of trade and economic activity. And yes, of course the financial deregulation was absurd, the central banks should never have let the money supply become dependant upon debt instruments instead of real production and economic activity, and the system has reqarded impetuous, reckless, and irresponsible risk takers instead of hard working laborers and farmers and business owners. But that's not really the point, just now, is it? We are trying to avoid a disaster just now, and have to deal with the financial "genius" crazies later.

you're wrong, john cory,

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 18:46 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
you're wrong, john cory, this bailout is a bad medicine that won't cure but inflame further the crisis down the muddy road. i agree with komodo's opinion - the good medicine is a bailout of the homeowners and small business, not those bankers who have run us down time and time again.

If the democrats would have

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 20:06 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
If the democrats would have shown the type of "bone" that the Republicans did in shutting down this version of the Bailout, we would most likely be living in a different type of country right now.It is apparent that some sort of "bailout" must happen-but this was the wrong plan from the get go. It amazes me that the plan as originally presented was considered for even a moment-Paulson should be dismissed immediately! We must compel Congress to consult with econ experts to determine how to resolve this issue with the least amount of pain to the taxpayers-the plan we go with CANNOT allow those that initiated the situation to profit-NO executive bonuses & mandatory government oversight of all aspects of the distribution of taxpayer funds. We can fix this, but it can't be fixed by the people who allowed it to happen....

Paulson went to them

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 23:02 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Paulson went to them pretending to beg, but really only making the demand clear: He fully expected to get the money, and threatened on his knee to tank the economy if he did not! On one knee, he was proposing marriage with a &700B dowry! You don't propose for that much not expecting approval. He expected to get the money while everyone panicked, before anyone could read the thing. Naked power grab! We may have dodged a big bullet just now, but eventually, they will weasle themselves rich while tents spring up in city parks. As for corporate media, they either feel conscience over helping sell the war, or are flexing their muscle by showing just a little truth, only to spook the powers they once served but now rival. Can't win without the spin! Everyone just knows--I mean KNOWS--deep in their heart, that the only reason anyone who matters in Congress would balk is to argue over their 'cut'. They argued long enough to get caught at it. In an election year, they did not even care if we found them out after the fact, as long as they can get it passed. It might mean losing their office, but I suspect retiring from politics rich beats keeping the seat. Let the new administration pick up the trash.

I am heartened by those here

 Tue, 09/30/2008 - 23:59 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I am heartened by those here who have the intelligence to understand that the piece of crap legislation which happily went down in defeat was just another Bush bill being shoved down our throats. That it was being rushed so hard should have been, and was to a lot of people, a HUGE red flag! I'll bet, that like the unconstitutional and misnomered "Patriot " act, the 205 knuckleheads who voted for the bill probably didn't even read it, much less comprehend it. I too am a life-long democrat, who on occasion votes independently of the Democratic Party. Once I understood the nuts and bolts of the legislation, I was ecstatically relieved that some congressmen on both sides of the aisle (no matter what their reasons) had the guts to just say, "NO!". Kudos to them all. 200 economists can't be wrong. Are there 200 to be found that were supporters? I doubt it. It's better not to pass bad legislation than having none at all. Haven't we learned that during these last, unending, torturous nightmarish eight years?

So what is with the

 Wed, 10/01/2008 - 01:21 β€” wiley (not verified)
So what is with the Democrats?! No one should have voted for this bill. There should have been calls for Bush's and Paulson's heads for even suggesting that the treasurer be given the outrageous imperial powers! Treachery!!!

Here's an interesting read

 Wed, 10/01/2008 - 03:46 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Here's an interesting read that pretty much sums up what I think of their reframing (double-speak) efforts of the now "Main Street Rescue Offer" (hurry, act now, supplies are limited). American Capitalism and The Moral Poverty of Nations: Of Faustian Bargains and Disposable Human Beings http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t0605f.html peace out

What is te alternative to

 Wed, 10/01/2008 - 08:01 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
What is te alternative to the "Bailout"?

There are a ton of

 Wed, 10/01/2008 - 18:10 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
There are a ton of alternatives floating around out there, sourced from a variety of different authorities, for instance Robert Johnson, former chief economist for the Senate Banking Committee appeared yesterday on DemocracyNow! and proposed an outline for a solution that would look dramatically different than Paulson’s. The fact that you (or rather we, the U.S. taxpayer), like policy makers, have not had an opportunity to give appropriate consideration to alternatives speaks volumes to the tactics employed by the Bush administration.