Yet Another Bush Power-Grab

Treas. Sec. Henry Paulson

It seems the recent recognition by Wall street’s overzealous speculators that the nation is in deep recession (something they’ve ignored for years despite it being a regular big deal out amongst the real people who do real work when they can find it) has led to yet another opportunity for the Bush Administration to make an unprecedented power-grab. And predictably, they’ve leapt at the chance.

From the New York Times:

The Bush administration on Monday rolled out the broadest overhaul of Wall Street regulation since the Great Depression, presenting a series of proposals that would, for the first time, create a set of federal regulators with authority over all players in the financial system.

But the proposal will do almost nothing to regulate the alphabet soup of sophisticated financial products that have fueled the current financial crisis. And it will not rein in practices that have been linked to the mortgage crisis, like packaging risky loans into securities carrying the highest ratings.

[Emphasis mine] Well. There you have it. The overwhelming greed of the financial sector has led to serious financial troubles, so the Bushies want to claim more power while at the same time doing nothing at all about the greed that will by summer (if projections are correct) have millions of hard working Americans homeless in the streets.

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Political Ad Accountability

It never ceases to annoy me that the politicians (yes in my own democratic party this time) freely use scare tactics and other forms of gross manipulative techniques to win votes. This pragmatic, whatever works mindset is exactly what got our country to the point of being governed by big business.

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4,000 And Counting…

The Associated Press reported on Easter Sunday that the American Death Toll in Iraq Reaches 4,000 after a roadside bomb killed four soldiers in Baghdad.

At least 61 other people died across Iraq on Sunday, but the U.S. is not keeping any official records of how many Iraqis pay the ultimate price for the ‘freedom’ we have brought them. …and bought them, at a price so far to American taxpayers of ~$600 billion.

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, J.P. Morgan upped its bid for the bankrupt Bear-Stearns investment bank to $10 a share, 5 times the negotiated price agreed upon last weekend just in time for the Tokyo stock market opening on St. Patrick’s Day. The unprecedented bailout of an investment bank that is not a member of the Federal Reserve system was seen as necessary to prevent a worldwide financial market meltdown. The Fed is guaranteeing Bear-Stearns’ worthless investments up to $30 billion (of American taxpayers’ money).

Speaking of American taxpayers’ money, the Bush administration assures us that the $200 – $600 in tax rebates set aside earlier this year in hopes of stimulating the economy (perhaps we’ll all go out and purchase shares of J.P. Morgan?) will be mailed in May. Perhaps this will come just in time for millions of soon-to-be homeless Americans to buy a nice three-room tent to live in during the warm summer months. If they’re very careful with their budget, some of those families might save enough to buy kerosene space heaters for their tents before winter!

Happy 5th Anniversary, BushCo

What did they do to us, again? I forget…

 Two “Unknown” Iraqi Casualties

American Dead: 3,990

American Casualties: 40,229

Iraqi Dead: Unknown

Iraqi Casualties: Unknown

Cost to the US: $504,000,000,000.00 

The Sky is Falling! …Oops

Bear-Stearns Bailout: Billionaires 1, Taxpayers 0

Hat Tip to The Bonddad Blog

This video consists of clips of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson lying his ass off on George Stephanopolis’ Sunday talk-fest (you can tell he’s lying because his lips are moving, but pay attention to his “tell” – how he blinks, stutters and shakes his head when he tells lies, negating what he’s saying. The man just cannot defend bailing out a speculative investment bank – the fifth largest in the country – while doing precisely zip to help the citizens who are losing their homes to this mess.

Which, unfortunately, is only going to get worse as more greedy billionaires who haven’t paid any taxes since Bush exempted them get the people they’ve screwed (US citizens) to bail them out of their bad decisions. If the US taxpayers have to bail out the billionaires, shouldn’t we also make them pay some taxes? How about refinancing their homes at a flat 4% for 30 years, as if they’d gotten those loans from a fed-guaranteed lender (since that’s now who owns the paper)? How about wiping out THEIR debts?

I like this “Hillbilly Report,” thought readers would find it refreshingly truthful too. Enjoy!

A Swashbuckling Musical Interlude

A toe-tapping Austin Lounge Lizards take on the health insurance industry, only this time instead of Guido and the Goons, we get Cap’n Kaiser and his notorious crew of murder by spreadsheet bottom-feeders!

Enjoy!

Hillary Makes It Hard to Like Her

Hillary Clinton Claiming “Experience” She Doesn’t Own

I have a framed, surprisingly personal letter of thanks on the office wall signed – not stamped – by President Bill Clinton. It came in reply to a short email we sent one Christmas when he was being perpetually impeached for lying and obfuscating about his large “bimbo problem.” We sent holiday greetings from our family to his, along with a post script asking him please not to resign. Hillary didn’t respond or add her signature to the letter, even though the email was to them both and all four of us attached our names. Just not all that involved in White House life or her own personal life, I supposed at the time.

I personally wondered during those times what the deal was with her. Protecting the privacy of your dysfunctional marriage is one thing, but private is not something Bill’s amorous adventures were. Had she no pride? No ambitions for herself? No common sense?

This last year has informed me that she’s turned Bill’s bad behavior into a debt “owed” to her, and she’s projected that onto America in general too. News flash to Hillary Clinton: I don’t owe you a darned thing.

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Texas, Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island…

AAARRRRRGGGGH!!!!!

Well, John McCain locked up the Republican primary last night, and his only remaining rival Mike Huckabee good-naturedly dropped out as expected.

But alas, neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton managed to lock up anything – though God knows they should probably think about locking up their most rabid supporters, who aren’t the least bit shy of ravaging the Party while lobbing nasty epithets at each other.

I’d say it’s a problem with our primary system, which does have many problems, but I don’t really think it’s that. I think people are just too emotionally involved with personalities, and not very well-versed on how politics actually work in this country. Where “Machines” generally run the show and the best any candidate can do is hope to contribute to the policy platform come convention time.

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