The Fleecing of the American People

Is the media going to stand by and let this happen? I fucking hope not. So far, the news results are encouraging. And while you can't exactly expect everyone to read the article on Alternet "10 Things You Should Know About Bush's Trillion Dollar Fleecing Plan", (to steal a turn of phrase from Shark-fu) a bitch can tell a news article is important when it's on the front page of Yahoo, (see screen shot -- NYT article linked from the Yahoo homepage here.)

So, what the hell is going on? Why is everyone panicking? Why is everyone panicking about the panick?
America, the Bush Administration is asking you to bend over, again, and take it... again. Blaming the current financial collapse, congress is once again being ordered, yes ordered to pass a piece of legislation drafted by members of the Bush Crime Family^TM , specifically Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen, former CEO of GoldmanSachs. That's right. Someone who benefited tremendously from the circumstances that lead directly to the current financial collapse, and who stands to benefit even more if this fleecing plan does pass congress (god forbid!) ...drafted ...the ...plan? Yes. Welcome to America. Those who benefit most from proposed policy are the ones drafting said policy... kinda like the Secret Energy Meetings Darth Cheney had with the likes of Enron and Haliburton (we think). Only back then it was so antithetical to the American people that those who would get all the money draft the legislation that the meetings and the plan had to be secret.

No more. Nope. Since the Bush Crime Family^TM has managed to pull this stunt so goddamn many times in the last 8 years, they're not even being coy about it. Fortunately, Americans aren't as dumb as the Republican party wants them to believe they are, and people are getting pissed. Fortunately, Chris Dodd (D-CT), who today called the 700 BILLION dollar bailout "unacceptable" (amoung other things), is the chair of the Senate Banking Comittee... and pissed. Matt Stoller reports that a number of other congress members are pretty pissed off about this nonsese too, including Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama who is the ranking member of the Senate Banking Comittee), who called the plan "un-American" (amoung other things).

Radio Goddess Randi Rhodes has a good round-up of other articles in today's homework that you should read in order to get up to speed on this whole mess. Meanwhile, on today's Thom Hartmann program, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), theorized that this bailout (which is pretty much doomed to failure) is the "October Surprise", an attempt to tie Democrats to Bush and the economic collapse with this bailout since Democrats are in charge of congress. As noted above, congress isn't falling for it. Congress thinks this is bullshit too.

But just in case you're concerned: contact your congressperson (you have one) and your senators (you have two of them) and tell them that you don't want to pay for the mistakes made by Wall Street. Also, keep a weather eye on the news-reportage of this whole thing... and just remember, that 700 BILLION dollars is coming out of your pocket and going into the pockets of people like Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen.