September 2008

The Republicans have been planning all along to use this bailout as an issue against Democrats, despite the fact that it is a bill by a Republican administration. They were so intent on using it that the RNC already had made attack ads and sent them to key states:

The Republican National Committee's new advertisement critical of the the Wall Street "bailout" was produced and sent to television stations in key states before the package failed, officials at two stations said.

"Wall Street Squanders our money. And Washington is forced to bail them out with -- you guessed it -- our money. Can it get any worse?" asks the ad's narrator, as the words "BAILOUT WITH OUR MONEY" cross the screen. (The answer: Obama's plans would make it worse.)

Absolutely amazing. The Democrats should say they aren't bringing the bill backup until the Republicans stop holding the American people hostage. We saw what this did to Wall Street and America's 401k yesterday. They always put party before country. Will John McCain stand up and denounce the RNC for this? Will the media even ask him about it?

That's exactly what the fed is doing, and was doing before the bailout bill even hit the floor of the House:

The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed increased its existing currency swaps with foreign central banks by $330 billion to $620 billion to make more dollars available worldwide. The Term Auction Facility, the Fed's emergency loan program, will expand by $300 billion to $450 billion. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are among the participating authorities.

Of course actions like this only lead to higher inflation and will end up hurting us in the long run. It's basic economics and one has to really start questioning the rational of this decision.

Andrea Mitchell was on Morning Joe blaming Barack Obama for the bailout failing. Her argument is that he didn't bring the Congressional Black Caucus on board to vote for it. She gets noticeably mad about this, despite the fact that Democrats delivered more votes than promise and the fact that the CBC was dead set against this bill since it didn't restore some bankruptcy protection to citizens.

Why is Mitchell even reporting on this? She is married to one of the key players who helped create this problem, Alan Greenspan, so it appears to be a major conflict of interest on her part.

(And I won't even get into how racist this sounds. I guess the CBC is expected to play follow the leader regardless of their own belief, simply because of his skin color?)

Also I thought Joe Scarborough was a member of Congress at one point in his life? He sure isn't acting like it. He gets all pissy that it was brought up for a vote and failed. Every report I had seen was that the votes were there when they brought it up, but the Republicans changed their minds at the last minute. This is also evident in the final vote count. Doesn't Joe understand that, or is he just too busy towing the party line?

It just amazes me how everyone, Democrats and Republicans, are talking about how important this bill was and it's the Democrats fault for it not passing. The Democrats voted for it by 60-40%, while the Republicans voted against it 67%-33%. Is this that hard to understand? The math is a lot simpler than that of the package.

(wow I haven't had to pull that one out of the archives in awhile)

This is absolutely hilarious. Jean Schmidt has decided to give her campaign the back seat so she can focus on the bailout. Really? She is a junior Congressperson, doesn't sit on any committee that matters in this crisis and not a part of the leadership.

Hey - now is a time to give to a great candidate. Vic Wulsin almost beat her last time and now she has even a better chance. Help put her over the top.