First they sold us a war...

[cosmicsheep]

...now they are trying to sell us a "bailout".

I always thought that the October surprise would come in the form of invading Iran, but now we see what is really going on.

Once again, the Bushies are using FEAR to cram a totally unprecedented power grab down our throats.

On the Sunday morning news shows you could have substituted the "mushroom cloud" rhetoric with how Paulson and others were speaking about the imminent meltdown that has to be averted NOW, RIGHT NOW, THIS SECOND, or the entire world was going to blow up.

It is so transparent that this is the biggest power grab yet from Bush Co. and once again congress is buying into it hook line and sinker. Where are the voices of opposition to this? Where is someone saying, "hey wait, it is 50 days before an election, lets just hold the phone here a minute and really take stock of what is actually happening, and what is actually being proposed, before we act"?

Did Congress learn NOTHING from the Iraq war, from the patriot act?

And the fact that in the Bush Co. proposal it is written into law that there be NO OVERSIGHT AT ALL of whatever the treasury sec. decides to do? What country are we living in?

I am flummoxed at the short term memory loss of people, politicians and pundits alike.

When Chris Dodd, on ABC this morning, tried to bring up the point that perhaps there should be some sort of effort made to look at caps on wall street executives salaries, or some sort of reassurance to taxpayers that they will get SOMETHING for assuming all this bad debt, Boehner cut him off and basically said "stop being a wussie, this is a time for action, not this liberal claptrap of watching out for american taxpayers, we have to be MEN here and ACT NOW or the world will vaporize"

This is so obvious, and transparent. It is the last hurrah of the Bushies, the final handout to all there cronies and co-conspirators, and we are supposed to just sit back and take it?

UNBELEIVABLE!!!

Question - does anyone here who is smarter than me (that would be pretty much all of you) think that an Obama administration would be able to undo some of this once in office? IT seems to me that the die would be cast and that neither candidate would be able to put this genie back in the bottle, not that McCain would want to.

[Top Cat]

1. It would take at lest 10 months to 1 year to start

[flamingdem]

2. What can Dodd do to stop them?

Inquiring minds really want to know if he can do anything..

[cosmicsheep]

4. Chris Dodd

As much as I like and admire Dodd, I do not think there is anything that her can do relative to the bullying into action that the Republicans are cramming down his throat.

It is another case where the Republicans will paint anyone who says "wait just a minute here" as unpatriotic, and accuse them in subtle ways of undermining America.

[flamingdem]

10. They need to delay this until Obama is elected

A democrat has to step up on this ..

[bridgit]

14. Even if Dodd could do something I'm not convinced he has the stomach...

Dodd & Lieberman both represent some of the oldest, lender based Mayflower Money in the country. He has no desire to upset that apple cart, he and Lieberman were part & parcel of welding together insurance firms with bookkeeping houses that caused need for similar bailouts just not this big. This one is bigger than big; it involves nations and continents of the world. If Dodd wants to keep his family's vacation getaway on a plumb Irish landscape, he'll be treading very carefully indeed beneath very watchful eyes.

[meow2u3]

3. In the end, the only thing the Bush regime sold us was....

..a bill of goods.

[cosmicsheep]

5. Hurrah for Bernie Sanders

At least he is not taking the bait hook line and sinker -

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=303313

[fasttense]

6. If we bail them out this week what is going to happen later?

This bailout, as the bushes have planned it, wont stop anything. Oh the markets will pick up for awhile. The uber wealthy will be reassured that the middle class and poor will always be there to assume the risk if they get in over their heads. Wall street will be happy...for awhile. But this bailout wont stop the slow crash of our American economy. The last two bailouts didn't stop it, only slowed it down. What proof does anyone have that this third? fourth? fix is the fix that will take?

Three or four weeks from now we are going to be in this Exact Same Position. What will we have left to throw at the problem then?

This IS NOT a permanent fix. We are going to see another couple of giants fail again and what will we have left to fix it?

A real fix would involve raising the minimum wage to over $10 an hour, increasing taxes on the uber wealthy, putting money back into consumer's hands. Putting the wealth of our land back where it belongs - in the hands of the majority of American citizens, Increasing DEMAND.

This bailout is just temporary. It's going to blow up again in about three or four weeks.

[cosmicsheep]

8. Amen!

The point no one seems to be making!

Thanks for that.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Just like the repukes took a calculated risk with McPalin, maybe the Dems need to take one as well.

Don't try to hurry up and pass something immediately. Call their bluff and let the chips fall where they may (with the knowledge that the repukes do have other aces up their sleeves - like the Saud family and all that $$$ in Dubai to hold those companies together for some time). And then take the time to do a more reasoned stopgap measure to go until February.

Sadly, I don't think the Dems have the balls.

[kiranon]

18. Agree. This whole thing is a scam. Slow the processs down.

[Vinca]

9. Bottom line, they didn't get our social security as they had originally planned,

so they need to suck us dry another way and fast. I'm starting to think the whole financial crisis is a fairy tale.

[wanpete]

11. Me too Vinca. This is yet another lie created to steal money and power.

There, I said it and I mean't it. The issue is, will we fall for it again?

[KT2000]

12. We've been had

bush never needed to be a good leader for this country - all he had to do was make the announcements for the latest crisis.
9/11 got us the Patriot Act - no time to examine the language - pass it now!
war in Iraq - lies lies lies - pass it before we are under the mushroom cloud
now the economy is going to tank unless the the working and middle class become serfs to the wealthy

rest in peace america

[cosmicsheep]

13. Glad to see Obama calling for "no blank check"

That takes courage at this moment, political courage, and I am reassured to hear him say it.

The Republicans and their cronies are throwing everything they have at this new "crisis",and trying to have one last go at the Govt. trough before they are booted out of office.

While McCain tries lamely to criticize Obama for not immediately weighing in when AIG was bailed out, we see how a real leader acts under pressure when we see Obama
carefully weighing what he says.

Even George Will got it this morning on ABC.

[BlueIdaho]

15. If these greedy companies want our money

They are going to have to accept our terms. This is a negotiation only now we are the ones sitting behind the desk and these greedy bastards are the ones sitting in the wobbly chair - hat in hand - lump in throat. OUR Treasury department shouldn't be seen as an extension of Scrooge McDuck's vault in the basement of the magical free marketplace - it is in fact an office responsible to We the People.

[cosmicsheep]

16. while you are so right..

...the problem is that the FEAR FACTOR is being pulled out again.

Sen. Schumer has said that there will be a deal before the end of the week (conveniently before Congress adjourns).

There are so many smelly, oh so convenient aspects to this.

Cookie Roberts called those who think this is deliberate "conspiracy theorists", well after the last 8 years, sign me up baby!

From Prescott Bush to W. Connect the dots!

[BlueIdaho]

19. The only time we have any leverage

Is BEFORE they get the money... and yes, this can still happen before massive financial institution bankruptcies begin.

The panic is a classic BushCo technique that we've seen before - "a smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud" - remember?

[crazy_vanilla]

17. many of us were never "sold" on the war

[cosmicsheep]

20. agreed!

I certainly was not.

It was just a generalization as to the M.O. of the Bush cabal

[otohara]

22. I Still Have My "Not Me" Bracelet

it got stretched out - my Obama bracelets now grace my tiny wrists.

[otohara]

21. They = Media Too

will the media jump up and down again like they did for the war?

All those fucking so-called "experts" from Wall St., and former Generals talking out their asses every day on cable news channels.

[cosmicsheep]

23. ABSOLUTELY!!!

well said.

Media was either gleefully complicit, or cowed into "rah rah" coverage.

What an embarrassment. And here we are all over again, what do you think the media will do this time?

hmmmmmm?