Relax, Sarah Palin has already offered to go up in a plane and shoot the wolf.
Can you believe they do that in Alaska? Is that sick or what?

And Cheney keeps asking, "Why not just bomb the wolf?"

Incidentally, the Washington Post has a story this morning about the Director of the Congressional Budget Office who testified that the bailout could make the financial crisis worse.

As usual with the Bush administration, it's not about helping America - never has been. It's about acting from the gut and getting another payday for their base. It's about putting one over on America. That's how they get their kicks.

In Bush's warped, twisted, mediocre mind, deeds are only good if they inflict a lot of damage.
Pushing this bailout through could be Bush's revenge on America. It's another way to make us pay for his presidency for generations to come.

Just so I understand. You didn't invite us to the party but you want my help to clean it up? Solly Chollie. Didn't your Mother teach you anything about Natural Consequences?

And I guess we know who the flock of sheep represents in the fable, don't we?

So are you saying there is really no financial crisis? Which is it? Because if Bush is 'crying wolf', then you don't have a crisis to blame him for.

Butch,
The boy who cried wolf refers to someone who has lied so often in the past, that when he really is trying to raise a genuine alarm, nobody believes him.

So you want a paranoid scenario? Paulson doesn't believe congress is going to authorize $700 Billion to give him carte blanche to buy worthless paper, based on a 3 page proposal. This is just to give the administration a chance to say I told you so. Right now they need a serious financial shock as an opportunity to apply shock therapy, to further privatize the government and deregulate. All this was predicted by Naomi Klein in "The Shock Doctrine."

Oh, I think they'll get the money. It's the standard hustle of course. "We have limited time to do this and you have to turn over more of your freedom or else." We have seen this movie before.
President Bush even said we could get most, if not all of the money back. Sound familiar?

The lying part this time centers on the idea that if we don't give in, all this bad stuff is going to happen, but if we do give in, it will be avoided.

That's why this looks like looting on the way down, and I'm sure they'll be back asking for more. In fact, the banking industry may need another 500 billion soon just to try and keep that going.

At some point, the US itself could fail. I noticed Chinese banks have been ordered to stop lending to us. We could print the money but eventually that just drives the dollar to nothing. Then we have to try and sell real things to other countries. Perhaps a state like Hawaii.

This bailout has the ring of BS to it. That is for sure. It's not that I can remember them lying before, it's that I can't remember them EVER telling the truth. This is a con job.

It's as if they were telling the people of New Orleans, "Just give us a trillion bucks and Katrina won't come ashore."

Gerson your not paranoid, the 1st BCT is going to be deployed at home for the first time this month....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/25/us_army_bct_home_deployment/

A US army brigade combat unit will be deployed at home for the first time, the Army Times reports.

The 1st BCT (Brigade Combat Team), numbering about 650 personnel, has returned from Iraq. But rather than dealing with enemy combatants, it may be called to deal with unruly Americans.

The Team "may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack."

The troops will be testing "a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities" for the first time. The BCT will be based in Georgia, the paper reports.

"The troops will be testing "a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities" for the first time. The BCT will be based in Georgia, the paper reports."

They ought to base them in PDX, because God help us with the civil unrest in Multnomah County if Obama isn't the victor after November 4.....

Butch that would be true if there were actually will be an election November 4th...

An alternative...

= financial disaster in October, the stock market crashes
= elections are suspended because of "extraordinary" circumstances
= any resistance is decisively put down with the use of our Army.

Of course, the 1st BCT cannot do this on their own. There are probably units already in place or they are on their way.

FYI, I have trouble believing this myself. But since most of worst nightmares have come true this year.

Tuned in to CNN to see spontaneous demonstrations occuring in opposition to the bailout - I mean rescue -resuscitation -resurrection- Quickly give me lots of money now, and trust me our financial survival is at stake. We all know how toxic just the suggestion of tax increases are to the electorate. Now it's an immediate tax expenditure, and don't ask questions, just pay for it and shut the hell up. Maybe if we act up enough they'll bring the troops home.

Butch: play it safe . . . vote Obama in November!

I'm beginning to suspect that the rush is because the Repugnantcans have determined that McCain-Palin isn't going to win in November. Soooo...This is the last major chance to bilk the taxpayers out of a bundle of money.

Extortion is what it is.

Hallowe'en done come early this year, with the financial sector showing at our collective door in a scary costume demanding seven brazillion bucks in treats, or else.

You know, if you refuse, they'll just TP Washington and softsoap the media.

It's a win-win. Bush's friends get the money, and Obama's government don't.

"the rush is because the Repugnantcans"

Hate to say it, but all the Demos are on board, its only the House Repubs that seem to be holding up things.

If Obama (or anyone) has a better solution than saying Bush is an idiot, then great. If you think I am crazy about this solution, you're wrong. However, no one else in Congress has even a clue of a better thing to do than nothing. I guess it will take a 600pt drop in the Dow to wake them up and then we'll get the rush anyways.

He's gone in 3 months and everybody can celebrate when their house values and retirement accounts are down 20%.

Nothing may be the best thing to do. Your assets will go down no matter what because the value of homes and our holdings in our retirement accounts are inflated. The Dow Jones average broke 1000 for the first time in 1980 and in the 27 years since then has gone over 10,000. Compare that to the previous 27 years where the market only climbed 100 points. That's got to mean something. The people who are scared are those with the most to lose and that's people like Secretary of the Treasury Paulsen not the rest of us. They didn't invite us to the party yet they're trying to stick us with the tab. Let them fall, what did they ever do for us?

"They didn't invite us to the party yet they're trying to stick us with the tab. Let them fall, what did they ever do for us?"

OK, tell that to the retiree who bought his house for $50K, paid off the loan and its worth $600K. He was using it for a retirement fund. Unfortunately, the system created the house wealth thru easy money.

However, telling everyone all of a sudden that we'll have to take 20% off your house price immediately just to show Henry Paulsen he's stupid doesn't sound like the wisest thing.

I wish it was different, but a lot of these same people put 15% of their income into Soc Sec for 40+ years, how much of that do you think they will see?

Soc Sec is the next big thing to crack, but I am sure the next Pres and Congress will do nothing about that unitl it blows up also. So we'll wait until a crisis to do anything and then everyone will say let's wait.

I am one of those people! I've been working almost 40 years, and I'm 20 years in to a mortgage on a house that I could barely afford in 1988 but couldn't touch now in 2008. Whether my house is worth 300,000 or 150,000 or 50,000 isn't as significant as how much of that house do I own and how much do I owe. It's fairly easy to look wealthy on paper if your assets are inflated. The guy who drives around in a 10 year old Taurus that he owns outright is richer then the guy who is driving around in a brand new Lexus that he owes more on then it's worth. It doesn't help someone who has maxed out all of his credit cards to go out and get a new one. Debt is not an Asset. Enron proved that. To do nothing in this situation is not ignoring it so much as keeping the problem from getting worse. Social Security is a whole other issue but this bail out on Wall Street will have no impact on that.

"Whether my house is worth 300,000 or 150,000 or 50,000 isn't as significant as how much of that house do I own and how much do I owe."

OK, I should have been more clear, I was referring to equity = worth - debt. YOu're right having more debt doesn't make you any richer. However, society uses debt to leverage up values and that isn't going to change.

As far as lenders just going out and lending more paper, I can guarantee you it is almost 180 degrees truned around from a year or two ago. Now AAA+ clients who will pay are having a very hard time borrowing money. Whether it is to expand their factory or get investment property. It will stay like this if we do nothing which means fewer jobs and declining asset values.

Its Equity = Assets-Liabilities.