Too Progressive

I am so sick and tired of reading articles like this, about how letting major companies like AIG fail would lead to a doomsday economic scenario.

NEW YORK - What if the U.S. government got out of the bailout business?

The idea certainly seemed all right with throngs of Americans who were outraged by news that American International Group paid out millions of dollars in executive bonuses after it was rescued with taxpayer cash.

But would no bailout be even worse? Financial analysts and federal officials have warned that doing nothing to save AIG — or banks or the auto industry — would be a catastrophe, an economic domino effect of bank losses, stock market chaos and job cuts. No one — at least no one in the government — has the stomach for that.

So, PROVE IT!! The way I see it, there is NO ROOM in today’s fast paced society for companies that can’t keep up. Let these firms go under and make room for more inovative ones that can keep up.

Via Democratic Central:

But if Brian gets the ticket from his brother the Congressman, then by definition his brother the Congressman has made a campaign contribution to Brian’s campaign.  Now, Jim Moran can write a campaign check to his brother for an unlimited sum of money out of personal funds, or out of his Moran for Congress account (see 2 U.S.C. section 439a — http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode02/usc_sec_02_00000439—a000-.html) but he can’t even give Brian a legal pad from his Congressional office for Brian to take notes for a campaign speech.  When Jim Moran receives his allotment of 200 or so tickets, he receives them as Congressman Jim Moran, not as private citizen Jim Moran, or as candidate Jim Moran.  Therefore the tickets belong to Congressman Jim Moran just as much as a legal pad in his office belongs to Congressman Jim Moran, and he may not use them to assist a state candidate.

Even if Brian Moran is not in violation of federal law, trying to “sell” the ticket to anyone willing to work for his campaign is, at the very least, highly unethical.

The other day a coworker of mine told me the offices of both West Virginia senators admitted they had no inauguration tickets to give to constituents because they had “given them all to friends and family.” Today I receive a Facebook update from Brian Moran offering the chance to “win” an inauguration ticket if I sign up to help organize for his upcoming campaign for governor.

This January 20th, America will make history. We’ve all worked so hard for so long to make this a reality - if you’re like me, you can’t wait. Barack Obama knew that what mattered most were the grassroots - everyday Americans building a better future for themselves and their kids.

Unfortunately, there won’t be nearly enough tickets to the inauguration for every Virginia volunteer and grassroots organizer to go. That’s why I’m going to give away inauguration tickets to dedicated Democratic leaders who sign up on our website, http://organize.brianmoran.com. If you sign up today, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a ticket to President-elect Obama’s swearing in, and we’ll let you know the winners by January 16.

I’m sorry but (and correct me if I’m wrong here) aren’t these tickets supposed to be awarded on a first come, first serve basis to constituents who requested them? It seems some Democrats, however, have found an awesome way to con people, though.

Oh look, yet another government scandal! This time it’s our very own State Board of Elections we have to thank.

The Virginia State Board of Elections has unanimously adopted a policy that prohibits voters from wearing anything that expressly supports a candidate at polling places on November 4.

State law has always said no campaigning, but all 134 Virginia counties had different ways of interpreting that.

“Some very permissive, allowing people to wear anything in; some only removing stickers; others not allowing t-shirts, caps or anything with a candidates name,” Virginia State Board of Elections Chair Jean Cunningham said.

Now, I like to pretend I’m an influential person, but anyone who is swayed to vote another way simply by my wearing an Obama t-shirt, or anyone who is offended by my wearing an Obama t-shirt is a sad sack of shit and should not be voting in the first place. On November 4th, I will show up to the Wilson School on Wilson Boulevard here in Arlington wearing my Obama t-shirt and if that poses such a problem I guess I’ll be voting shirtless this year!

If someone does show up to a polling place in a campaign gear, precincts are expected to have something available, like a smock or a poncho, so the person may cover up and vote.

You know what? Fuck it. I say we all go to the polls naked. I mean.. REALLY!?

Via Democracy In Action:

For more than 200 years, federal laws have protected the American people against the use of military forces on our own soil.  Strengthened in 1878 by the Posse Comitatus Act, these laws have guaranteed that the federal government could not use the military for domestic law enforcement purposes.

Without such protection, the federal government could use the might of our army to violate state and individual rights.  Moreover, minor incursions by the military into domestic law enforcement activity could lay the foundation for the imposition of martial law at a moment’s notice.  This is one slippery slope we don’t want to start sliding down.

That is why we should all be deeply disturbed by the news that President Bush has assigned the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army component of Northern Command (NorthCom).  According to an article in Army Times, the soldiers could be called upon for a variety of tasks, including quelling “civil unrest.”  They are apparently engaged in training with shields and batons, beanbag bullets, and Tasers.

I’m just going to go out on a limb and say this was probably done because the Bush administration expects the economy is more than likely about to totally collapse under the weight of the failed Bushenomics of the past eight years.

I wonder, is this BS even constitutional? Seriously, I wonder if a massive lawsuit against the government to stop this is feasible?

Via Swampland:

First there were hundreds of calls. Now sources tell me that the House website has been crashing since yesterday afternoon as groups from the left and right have launched “write your rep” campaigns opposing the bill while business groups have started similar pushes to support the measure. Just in case there’s a member left with no inkling: there’re a lot of people upset by the bill and the vote.

Business groups writing Congress telling them to support the bailout package? Despite everything we’ve been told, that pretty much says it all when it comes to who this is REALLY about. Write your Rep. here and tell him or her to oppose the measure.

UPDATE: Actually, I’ve been getting the following message when I try to access that site all day:

The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.

If you cannot get it to work visit your reps website and you can almost always contact them there.

UPDATE II: Awwww, the poor pathetic White House didn’t get it’s way (for once) and now they’re getting mad because people keep calling it a “bailout.”

Okay so I have a few questions here. First of all, if we’re in the midst of such an economic disaster why is Congress just up and taking the day off tomorrow? Yes I realize it’s a Jewish holiday which leads me to another whole host of questions. It’s not a recognized federal holiday and whatever happened to separation of church and state? And I don’t mean this as a swipe at the Jewish community at all (I’d be saying the same thing if it were any other religious holiday, and not totally because I’m more or less Agnostic). I mean, I guess I’d be taking the day off too if there really were no problems for me to be solving which Congress is inadvertently admitting by taking the day off tomorrow. I stand by what I said earlier today: the real problem here is that there is no problem.

After all, George Bush is leaving office in just a few months anyway, can’t we just take that and be thankful for it? Not try and give him $700 billion just to shut up over the holidays?

GOOD!

In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.

Democratic and Republican leaders alike pledged to try again, though the Democrats said GOP lawmakers needed to provide more votes. Bush huddled with his economic advisers about a next step. The House was to reconvene on Thursday instead of adjourning for the year as planned.

Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite loud protest from their constituents back home. Not enough members were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before an election.

It’s nice to know I won’t be footing the bill for John McCain and George Bush’s failed economic policies of the past eight years.  Also, nice to see Congress finally stand up and tell the Bush administration NO MORE.  At least until someone in the House caves and changes his or her vote.

Ha ha too, at John McCain taking credit for the passage of the bill before it was even voted on, and then it didn’t pass!!

UPDATE: This is hilarious:

Here’s a bonus “afternoon funny” for you to laugh at and then tell all yr work friends: the last time Congress swiftly passed a major, bipartisan piece of legislation was to authorize an idiot to launch the worst foreign policy decision in modern American history. So maybe things aren’t so bad hmm?

Also is anyone else tired of hearing the commentators on the teevee rail on and on about how this means Washington is so broken?  Please. This is the first decent bi-partisan action these tards in the Imperial District have taken in quite some time.

UPDATE II: Oil prices plunged on news that the bailout package had been defeated. Remember last week when everyone thought it would surely pass and oil prices saw their biggest one day climb ever? Yeah, I stand by what I said about this whole bailout thing being a complete sham.

UPDATE III: Better call a waaaambulance, here is why Republicans say they scuttled the bailout package.  Totally NSFW!!

Now, I’m obviously all for totally killing the $700 billion bailout deal, but this is their excuse?  Please. Cry me a god damn river.  Maybe Republicans should just man up and say they killed it because it is vaslty unpopular. Nobody would fault them for that. I do however, fault them for lying, and being in complete contradiction of themselves. Republicans are against the deal because it goes against most of what they stand for as far as free market, deregulation policies, yet they say they voted it down because Nancy Pelosi attacked THEIR PRESIDENT, the man who proposed this damn deal?  HAHA!!

First, we were told we needed to send a trillion dollars to Wall Street right away with pretty much no explanation as to why other than it was necessary to avoid a total collapse of world markets and to stabilize the economy.  Then, after it became evident how increasingly unpopular a bailout plan for Wall Street was, the Bush administration and Congress told us it was needed to “free up capital” in the “frozen credit markets” so small business owners could continue to take out lines of credit.  Well this morning I decided to call up both of my credit card companies and ask them to increase my line of credit. Of course  when I called, I was just shocked when both of them agreed to give me an increase, one by as much as $1,500. And here’s the really good part, the company that agreed to the large increase was none other than Washington Mutual! Obviously I’m no small business owner but a credit line increase is a credit line increase.

The real problem here is that there is no problem, and we’re basically sending $700 billion to Wall Street because obviously a couple million a month isn’t enough for the Bush administration’s BFF CEOs to live off of.  I wonder what lie they’ll come up with now?

By the way, the House is set to vote on this BS later today, I’ll be posting the names of all those who vote in favor this evening.

After watching George Bush warn that everyone will lose their homes, there will be no food and we’ll all die during his address tonight, I can’t help but think that this scandal is not only a Republican political stunt in order to boost Republican members of Congress during the November elections, but it’s also the 2008 version of the politics of fear tactic deployed by the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2004.  This time, instead of telling us a million planes will fly in to our buildings and Osama Bin Laden will eat us in our sleep and John Kerry is coming to steal our bibles and guns, they’re telling us we just won’t have any money or place to live if we don’t hand over $700 billion, no questions asked.

Just curious though, as silly as $700 billion for a bunch of greedy heroin addicts on Wall Street is, what on Earth took the Republicans so long to roll out their 2008 version of The Politics of Fear!?

Sickening.  I can’t wait to publish the names of those in Congress who voted in support of this piece of garbage.

UPDATE: David Letterman on another Republican political stunt - John McCain’s decision to “suspend” his campaign (and by “suspend” he clearly meant continuing to fund raise, do an interview with Katie Couric, meet with Bono, etc. etc.):

“What are you going to do if you’re elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We’ve got a guy like that now!”

Perhaps John McCain can also figure out a way to offer the troops in Iraq a “time out” because of this financial fiasco?

This whole thing is nothing more than a political stunt to allow congressional Republicans to put some distance between themselves and the Bush administration before the November elections.  Republicans in Congress met with Dick Cheney yesterday on Capitol Hill for the first time since the build up to the Iraq war, only this time they basically told him to get lost.  Imagine that.  Republicans telling Cheney to take a hike?  That’s a first.  Not only that, but they went out of their way to make it known that they gave Cheney the cold shoulder.  Why?  Because now they can go back to their districts and make the argument to constituents that they are not in bed with the Bush administration.  They’re going to try and make the argument that it was the “tax and spend liberals” who spent $700 billion in tax payer money to bail out irresponsible gamblers on Wall Street.

And the Democrats are falling for it!!

UPDATE: This scandal is now providing John McCain with an excuse to skip out on Friday night’s debate so he can sit in Washington and do nothing.  If it’s such an “emergency” how come John McCain found time to speak in New York today?  How come Republican Senator Orren Hatch told Chris Matthews today that he’s seen John McCain in Washington exactly “…maybe a couple of times in the past few months.”

This is ridiculous.

Since Wall Street can unload billions in bad investments on U.S. tax payers, it’s only fair that the rule applies to everyone.  Check out buymyshitpile.com and list your bad investments for insanely high prices!!  Current items submitted to the government for purchase include a collection of gay gospel music for $350,000, a mini beagle rescue boat for $200,000,000 and the siren from The Drudge Report for a cool $1,000,000.  Let’s hope the government steps in quick to snap them up before the economy collapses.

The multi-billion dollar government bailout of several irresponsible companies is already having a negative impact on average Americans in the form of high oil prices and a weakening Dollar.

NEW YORK - Oil prices spiked more than $25 a barrel Monday — the biggest one-day price jump ever — as anxiety over the government’s $700 billion bailout plan, a weak dollar and an expiring crude contract ignited a dramatic rally.

Still, the rally, which shattered crude’s previous one-day price jump of $10.75, set June 6, showed the intensity of emotion in the market. The Nymex temporarily halted electronic crude oil trading after prices breached the $10 daily trading limit. Trading resumed seconds later after the daily limit was increased.

In addition to spiking oil prices, the U.S. Dollar weakened even further on news of the bail out.

The 15-nation euro rose to $1.4807 in afternoon trading, up from the $1.4470 on Friday. A weak greenback was a catalyst for the commodities boom of the past year, and analysts said large investment funds were expected to pour money back into the sector.

Like I said last week, the U.S. should be ashamed.

This has got me really steamed.  I wonder if the government will be there to bail me out of the immense amount of student loan debt I will have accrued when I’m done with college?  I wonder if the government will be there to bail out everyone who has or will be forced to file bankruptcy because of medical bills they can’t afford to pay because they have no health insurance?  Absolutely ridiculous and the U.S. should be ASHAMED of itself today.

Via MSNBC:

Alaskans say no one from McCain camp asked them about eventual VP pick
A Republican with ties to John McCain’s campaign says the team assigned to vet McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, had not arrived there until the day before McCain announced his vice-presidential choice.

Free press coverage has been almost none existent as a result of the total lack of enthusiasm for this year’s Republican Convention (although they have tried to mask it by “cancelling events” due to the situation along the Gulf Coast) and the revelation that the McCain campaign completely neglected to carry out any sort of vetting process on VP nominee Sarah Palin.  Folks, we would be witnessing a total collapse of the McCain campaign just two months before the election.  Also, anyone besides myself think we could also see a potential switch in VP nominees too?

[Read also: Palin hires attorney for Troopergate investigation, Palin disclosures raise questions about vetting]
[Earlier: UPDATE: I was right, Sarah Palin had not even been fully vetted by the McCain campaign]

What kind of presidential campaign picks a VP without even properly vetting them?  Or even vetting them at all, as appears to be the case here.  What kind of President would John McCain be if he can’t even control his own campaign?  Could McCain possibly change his VP nominee and if not why has the campaign just now started vetting Palin?

Oh hey, remember how Wal-Mart is reportedly warning it’s workers that they have to vote for John McCain or they will face an apocalypse?  Yeah, that’s sort of illegal in the USA so several labor unions have become involved and are now petitioning the FEC to investigate the nation’s sleaziest retailer and put an end to their games.  Hopefully something will come of it but given that this isn’t the first time Wal-Mart has played politics in the work place I highly doubt it will be the last!

[Earlier: Wal Mart encouraging employees to vote for McCain]

Ooooops! Wow, just wow.