What Is Up With Politics Today?

and…more importantly Obama, Biden, and McCain will be voting on the bailout tomorrow.  They’ve added a few features such as raising the FDIC cap to 250k.  I’m still not convinced this is the right thing for our economy but it will be interesting to watch tomorrow night.

 Thoughts? Concerns? 

Interesting video about the current situation and what caused it.  Warning it is totally partisan and the maker was a McCain fan but that doesn’t make the information in the first bit less interesting.  Skip the last minute or two to avoid the vote McCain bit.

First, I’m not an expert…I’m not even a pseudo expert.  I listen to/read the news, have a basic understanding of our economy, and form opinions that I like to think are at least well informed.  So here is my take.  I’ve done a lot of reading and I’m now more willing to accept the need of some sort of ‘bailout plan’.  However, I still think Congress did the right thing in rejecting the plan that was submitted yesterday.  There are a variety of reasons I didn’t like it…too much power to the Sec of T, not enough consequences on the gamblers, not enough rules all around. 

I’d like to see Congress get economists together (that have different view points) to come up with a plan that details what will be done, with what oversight, how the government will eventually remove itself from the role it will be taking on,  a requirement for the development of regulations to prevent such gross mishandlings in the future, and where the funding will come from (as in taxes). 

I hope that there is a debate in the committee that is drawing up the new plan (and I truly hope there is a new plan and not pressure to accept the old one with minor revisions).  I want everyone to stop being reactive and start being proactive.  I want a plan that is more thoughtful and that will be useful long term….not a stopgap measure.

Yeah…who would’ve thought I’d ever utter those words even to myself/on paper but nonetheless, I am  proud of them.  *Yes, I know I’m late to this but I’ve been on the road for a little more than seven hours and I didn’t have a computer with me when the vote came in…although I was watching it and very happy, which is an entirely different yet amusing post about being that happy about politics in the middle of a VA doctor’s office OH MY* Anyways…since I couldn’t express my joy online then I’m playing catch up.

So..they did the right thing.  I was shocked.  Yes, I know the drop in the Dow dropped 777 points (lucky number seven no more me thinks) but even that has its bright side…what with the price of oil dropping $10 a barrel.   About the Dow I think that was the shock talking and I think it will be better tomorrow.  I don’t think it will be a massive free fall and after a week when we aren’t all in bread lines I think they’ll back off of the huge plan and come up with something more reasonable (that doesn’t give so much damn power to Henry Paulson)

I really am proud of the bipartisan disapproval they showed even though it wasn’t what the ‘big players’ wanted them to do.  They listened to the outcry of average people and did the right thing instead of listening to the money…least that is my take. 

As I said before I was on the road all day so I haven’t had a chance to read anyone else’s take (about to go do that now).  I’m sure I’ll be back with more thoughts and comments as I gather my thoughts but…again.. way to go House

a Trillion Dollars? By my boy Roy.  I know I put him up a lot but he’s good, I like him, and he cheers me up.  AND it’s my blog and I’ll post music if I wanna :)  Further, excellent political commentary in a way much less bitter than I am capable of. 

Purpose – to unscrew the financial system by giving more power to the Sec. of the Treasury. 

The act is supposed to: 

 ~          protect the value of homes, college funds, life savings, and retirement accounts (this is the Feds job how, again?)

~          “preserve homeownership and promote job and economic growth” (when did owning a home and having a job become a Constitutional right?_)

~          not totally screw taxpayers (yeah that’s not how they said it but that’s what they meant)

~          “provide public accountability for….(this) authority” (right b/c our government is so good at transparency)Damn, I hate it already and that’s the first page. 

Trap…uhm I mean TARP

Which is the acronym for Troubled Assets Relief Program

Let’s the Sec of Trea buy and fund bad debt on his own terms within the bounds of the Act.  – he also has to give us (the pubic) an explanation of how he’s purchasing, how he’s coming up with the pricing, how he’s selecting managers, and how he’s deciding what qualifies as ‘troubled assets’ 

OH and he can’t let companies make a killing at the expense of the taxpayers..but there are loop holes aplenty. (page 9 lines 11-22)

Pages 10, 11, and 12 detail how he must do his thing

Pages 13&14…talks some more about saving Americans from themselves and making sure all the lenders get a chance at the taxpayer money. 

Pages 14-17…talks about the oversight board (trying not to laugh, really)

Pages 18-21 …reports for and from the oversight board about the $ trail

Pages 21-22 …sales procedures pretty much says the Secretary can do whatever the hell he wants with what he buys.

Pages 25 Helping people whose homes are in foreclosure not lose their homes b/c heaven forbid that anyone live within their means. (going so far, mind you as reducing the PRINCIPAL of the loan page 28 line 17 if you don’t believe me)

Pages 30-32 talk about corporations and heads of those corporations (top 5 execs of a public company) not being able to make a killing off of the fed.

Pages 33-38 talks about minimizing the negative impact on the taxpayers who are having to bail out rich ass gamblers and people who bought more than they could afford.

Pages 39-57 blah blah

Page 57-  funding. Proceeds from sales of acquisitions…hmm but how about buying the acquisitions in the first place.  ::sigh::57-67 blah blah

Page 68  Here is the answer to that funding question  “Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt which is now a few billion over ELEVEN TRILLION dollars. 

The rest of it is mostly CYA bullshit that I can’t even care about.  FUBAR 

Yeah so in case you missed it I pretty much think the entire thing sucks and that feeling of dread I’ve had since they bailed out the insurance company is just getting worse.

There ya have my little summary if you want to read the entire thing it is here.  What are your thoughts?

If you are interested in reading the entire thing it can be found here.  It is 110 pages, so not light reading.  Pretty much all of the politicians are saying they’ll back it and all of ‘the regular folks’ are wondering wtf.  Well at least I am.  I’m writing this before I’ve read it to give y’all time to read and respond when I write more in depth on it later tonight.  I was listening to NPR this morning and they had an economist on who said the fed was overreacting.  I thought that was interesting…of course he ended the interview saying he hoped he’d have the will to say it wasn’t needed if he was in Bernanke’s place.  Anywho go read the plan and I’ll do the same then we can gripe or cheer together…or at each other

Well my race anyway… I’m not going to do a debate post because, frankly, I couldn’t get past the first 3oish minutes.  Really, (I know I’m shallow) but if something isn’t being blown up I have trouble watching it so the debates were the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard and at least the first few minutes of it made me want to shake ‘em both.  Maybe I’ll look up a transcript (reading it would be quicker and I could just get it over with.) Anyway…I promise I’m on track sort of.  My point is that listening to it and reading to views LEFT and RIGHT made me realize that I should bring Barr into my little who am I going to vote for race (see, I can stay on the road I just like the scenic route).

Abortion

Against it ish.  Personally he has definitely said he’s against it and he’s for pro-life laws but at one point he does say that he thinks it’s a state =1 point.

Death Penalty

He is for the death penalty = no points.

NCLB

Against it-  Says the more government control the worse the problem gets.  Yeah. =1 point

SCOREObama – 1McCain – 1Barr -  2 

There we go now I can start fresh tomorrow with a new issue and lookie, I got a winner in the race for the moment.  This is fun (I’m such a dork).

::shameless plug::

For those of you reading this go show some love to my other blog damn it and if you’ve been and it sucks and I should quit wasting my time tell me…or if you are one of the two  people that has read it say something!  Talking to myself is getting old

What in the name of little pink bunnies, I’m sure you are wondering, do Hitler and Obama have in common?  Their policies?  No.  Taste in fashion? No.  Music, then?  Nope.  I’ll stop teasing, the thing is they are both fantastic orators, charismatic, promise(d) change, and bring out the youth vote (well in Hitler’s case it was more about getting the youth support but same diff).

Ok…now for you right wing bunch (I’m sure I managed to lure at least some of you with that title) I’m not comparing their morality or policies.  I am not saying that Obama is “bad/evil” like Hitler.  Don’t get all happy.

As for you lefties, same as above except don’t get all pissy

At any rate, what got me thinking about this was someone saying to me how much McCain sucked at public speaking and how much better Obama was and that Obama was going to “change” the government.  I asked something along the lines of what exactly do you think is going to change and got the “well this regime sucks” answer that I almost always get.  So it made me think….. (history nut that I am) of another group of people who were struggling and looking for someone to blame (Germans b/c of their treatment after WWI looking to blame anyone and wanting anyone to promise to make it better). 

Just a lot of correlations (no, not in policy just in the circumstances /propaganda)…  Yeah so I thought I’d share my little twisted bit of whatever. 

No, I still haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for and I’ll be continuing my issues tally tomorrowish just had to get that out.

Hmm…and I think I need to bring Barr into my little race as well.

Let the stoning begin (historically speaking, as in begin the rock throwing)

I swear.  But God in heaven this is hilarious.  Oh and don’t watch it if you are easily offended blah blah blah

Oh GOD…still laughing