"The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.”~ Michael Moore, American Filmmaker, at www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=235

Who Wins from this Bailout? - The primary owner of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, (the Fed bank with the most clout), J.P. Morgan Chase. J.P. Morgan who just purchased Bear Stearns and the good assets of Washington Mutual for less than .50 on the dollar & and.....and another owner of the Federal Reserve Bank, Bank of America who just purchased Merrill Lynch.

Before we do "Bailout" WE SHOULD NATIONALIZE THE FED which is currently privately owned - no brainer! Listen to Bail Out - The Fed Wins, The People Lose

The fact is lots of people got very very rich dealing in, and selling extremely high risk, highly leveraged debt, cleverly marketed as financial ‘new products’. Those at the SEC and the leaders of such markets were well aware that they were selling very risky paper which had no assets of real value to back them up. (thus the reason Bears, Morgan, Merrill, Sachs all had debt to equity ration ‘exceptions’ granted by the SEC). Those same leaders are today living in million dollar homes, with millions in the bank…….that my friends is where the money went.

Will Wall Street be investigated and prosecuted?
Will they be audited and taxed?
Will they be made subject to the same market forces as Main Street?

READ Most U.S. Corps. Don't Pay Income Tax & Ralph Nader for president

You can Comment at Hearlink Blog

Who voted for the BAILOUT

October 3, 2008

BAILOUT PASSES HOUSE, 263-171 - WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

October 1, 2008 Senate passed Bailout, 74 - 25

“Driven by fear we are moving quickly to pass a bill" - This is the same tactic that was used right after the 9/11 crisis - so that we, the people, lost our civil rights - We should know by now that when something is "FEAR DRIVEN" it is bound to fail.

Kucinich: We Had Alternatives

In God We Trust, Wall Street Gets Cash

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 3, 2008) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement after voting against the Wall Street bail out plan, H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:

“The public is being led to believe that Congress has reconsidered its position because we have before us a better bill than we had a few days ago. It is the same bill plus hundreds of new pages for hundreds of millions of tax breaks. What does this have to do with the troubles of Wall Street?

“Driven by fear we are moving quickly to pass a bill, which may produce a temporary uptick for the market, but nothing for millions of homeowners whose misfortunes are at the center of our economic woes. People do not have money to pay their mortgages. After this passes, they will still not have money to pay their mortgages. People will still lose their homes while Wall Street is bailed out.

“The central flaw of this bill is that there are NO stronger protections for homeowners and NO changes in the language to ensure that the secretary has the authority to compel mortgage servicers to modify the terms of mortgages. And there are NO stronger regulatory changes to fix the circumstances that allowed this to happen.

“We should have created a mechanism for our government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and use our power to work out a new deal for the homeowners. We could have done this. We should have done this. But we didn't.

“Now millions of Americans will face the threat of foreclosure without any help. And the numbers will soon rise for a number of reasons. Not only because of the Alt-A, jumbo mortgages which will soon be reset at higher interest rates, but because the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is pushing up rates on adjustable mortgages and more than half of the US adjustable mortgage rates are tied to LIBOR. Homeowner defaults will grow in significant numbers. Let’s see if Congress will be as quick to help homeowners on Main Street as they were to help speculators on Wall Street.

“Now the government will have to borrow $700 billion from banks, with interest, to give banks a $700 billion bailout, and in return the taxpayers get $700 billion in toxic debt. The Senate "improved" the bailout by giving tax breaks to people in foreclosure. People in foreclosure need help paying their mortgage, they do not seek tax breaks.

“Across our Nation, foreclosures continue to devastate our communities, people are losing their jobs, and the prices of necessities are skyrocketing. This legislation, just like the one we defeated last week, will do nothing to solve the problems plaguing American families or help them to get out from underneath the oppressive debt they have been forced to take on.

“Unfortunately, there has been no discussion of the underlying debt-based economy and the role of our monetary system in facilitating the redistribution of wealth upwards.

“It is not as though we had no choice but to pass the bill before us. We could have done this differently. We could have demanded language in the legislation that would have empowered the Treasury to compel mortgage servicers to rework the terms of mortgage loans so homeowners could avoid foreclosure. We could have put regulatory structures in place to protect investors. We could have stopped the speculators.

“This bill represents an utter failure of the Democratic process. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability of government to defend the public interest in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests.

“Years ago, in a Cleveland neighborhood, I saw a hand-scrawled sign above a cash register in a delicatessen. The sign said: "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash." The sign above the Speaker's rostrum reads "In God We Trust," but we are paying the cash to Wall Street.

“It is not as if we had no other choice but to pass this bill.” You can Comment at Hearlink Blog

October 3, 2008

Ten Reasons Not To Bail Out Wall Street by Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts, Esq.

(1) Crime that pays is crime that stays.

There is reason to believe that Wall Street and those they represent are holding loans without collateral, multiple loans secured by the same properties, and other fraudulent instruments among the “troubled assets.” Based on the secret “Treasury Conference Call” with 800 Wall Street insiders, we know the deal proposed to be passed by Congress isn’t the real deal promised to Wall Street.

(2) This smells like obstruction of justice.

Bail-out without due diligence of so called “troubled assets” is a perfect way to hide documentation of financial crimes. It is also a perfect means to launder both the past ill-gotten gains and new federal money spent recklessly and without necessary safeguards and oversight mechanisms. Be very suspicious when they tell you “we just can’t tell what’s in these troubled assets.” We can assure you that the federal government has field offices all across the country that deal with significant amounts of real estate and mortgage assets on a daily basis. If Treasury refuses for more than a decade to comply with the laws, with approximately $4 trillion missing (and counting), it is not competent to manage $700 billion of taxpayer money while its arm is twisted by Wall Street.

(3) Wall Street owes the federal government money.

We need to get stolen money back from the banks that served as depositories for the US government (including trillions for which the Pentagon and HUD could not account) and punish them, not create another opportunity for them to game the system and engage in criminal enterprises to rob consumers. To the extent there has been regulatory wrong-doing, let’s not let the miscreants leave town with the evidence.

(4) Good guys are shut out.

A bail-out provides no way for honest leaders to come to the fore and use their creativity and expertise to restore balance and integrity to the system or for unproductive and poorly-managed banks that contribute to current over-capacity in the banking system to die a dignified death.

(5) This results in more investment in the “bubble economy.”

Spending massive amounts on non-productive uses (“buying” worthless credit default swaps, mortgages with no collateral and derivatives, which could even include the derivatives used to manipulate the precious metals markets) as opposed to productive uses (repairing infrastructure, creating alternative energy systems, supporting inventing and production of “green” products) is inflationary.

This bail-out will drive prices of food, water and energy up for the people who can least afford it.

(6) Bail-out does not result in capital circulating in healthy ways.

The bail-out of Wall Street and too-big-to-fail banks and insurance companies that are getting bigger by the minute by swallowing up other failing financial institutions (and creating more institutions that are “too big to fail”) does not result in trickle-down to those whose money was stolen in recent swindles (S&L, dot.com, current housing crisis), i.e., the taxpayers/middle class and working poor.

(7) These arrangements will result in more corruption.

Centralized “fixes” are sure to result in black holes, no-bid contracts and other scandals.

(8) The bail-out drains the real economy, rather than invests in the real economy.

The US economy can’t be productive or grow if consumers don’t have jobs and can’t afford to purchase goods and services. Real stimulation of Main Street is accomplished through productive investment, not bail-outs that shift money to unproductive sectors. We should use all of our precious resources to reinvest in our people in the real economy.

(9) It props up sectors that need to downsize and consolidate.

There is significant overcapacity in the financial and banking sectors. Brainpower and talent needs to stop blowing financial bubbles and shift to economic activities that create real value.

(10) It is a temporary “fix” to keep Wall Street afloat until after the election.

Our resources are better invested in permanent, long-term solutions. This bail-out will not fix anything. Rather, it will help the perpetrators get away and ensure that the ultimate day of reckoning is worse.

The Administration wants to drain the real economy to bail out Wall Street. It seems to us that the more appropriate plan would be to require Wall Street to return the $4 trillion plus that is missing and use that to rebuild the real economy.

We think the time has come to reverse the flow. Go to any business school in the country. That is what they teach. Money should move out of unproductive sectors into productive sectors. The bail-out does just the opposite.

“Just say NO!” Ten Reasons Not To Bail Out Wall Street You can Comment at Hearlink Blog

Few things shock me anymore, I'm sad to say. However, Monday, September 29, 2008, was something to behold. Not only didn't the insidious "bail out" pass in the U.S. House of Representatives, but a substantial number of Americans put up such a ruckus, it had to have had a very chilling effect on the shadow government. As I watched the DOW tank to -777, I wondered why the Bush Administration's PPT (Plunge Protection Team) didn't step in and stop the dive. It occurred to me why the money cartel may have decided not to intervene. The American people would come home from work, already worried about the economy, see the stock market had tanked big time and panic.

Immediately following the vote, all the finger pointing began with what can only be described as behavior attributable to kindergartners. Pelosi went on record saying the Democrats would not pass this "end of the world legislation" unless they got "cover" from a bipartisan vote with a large enough number of Republicans. I kid you not, that's what this flaky female upchucked. Not to be outdone, millions by now have seen Republicans respond to allegations that some of them voted against the bill because of Pelosi's rancorous criticism of Bush and the GOP right before the vote.

Both sides began a propaganda campaign, aided and abetted by fact challenged media and cable news network hot shots like Bill O'Reilly and McCain pimp, Sean Hannity. Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, must be cackling from Hell. The mantra took on a form and text that has been virtually unchanged for three days as I write this column; it has been repeated by Obama and McCain shamelessly. As I write this, Obama is on the senate floor spewing the same propaganda: If this rescue plan doesn't get passed, small employers won't be able to make payroll on Friday. College students won't be able to pay tuition. Businesses can't borrow. Americans won't be able to buy a car or home. Commerce will stop. These key sentences have been repeated over and over and over.

Without question, the situation is bleak as thousands of us have written for years. Maria Bartiromo, CNBC financial expert (whose credibility came into question regarding her cozy relationship with Citigroup), stated on MSNBC, September 30, 2008, and I'm paraphrasing: Banks aren't lending and until the banks are "recapitalized," they won't loan. Couples with perfect credit will have trouble getting a home mortgage, never mind those with 'a problem.'

In other words, because these massive lending institutions and banks have been caught with cooked books and gross mismanagement, the American people must bail them out to "recapitalize," reward incompetence and perhaps even criminal activity. Americans who should never have qualified for home loans should be given special treatment at the expense of those who have never been able to buy a home (or don't want one), or who make their loan payments on time.

I called our federal credit union today to inquire about a car loan; I'm not buying, just doing research. They said they're loaning and happy to help me out. I called our federal savings bank to inquire about a home mortgage; I'm not buying, just doing research. Well, they certainly are making loans. I see Countrywide's current ads seeking home buyers. I have no doubt that credit has tightened up considerably, but banks and lending institutions are supposed to be cautious with depositors and stock holders money. If they make bad loans and bad decisions, like any other business, they fail. Yes, we're talking about banks here, but in a free market system which works best, government bail outs, while not only being unconstitutional, will never solve the problem.

While the majority of Americans are at work (or school) during the day and with time at a premium, many are not able to see anything other than the scare tactics we've seen this past week. While millions of Americans (Bravo!) hit the phones, faxes and emails to Congress, many more don't see the big picture or understand just how complicated the system has become: A behemoth bringing down our country, drowning we the people in debt. Please remember that while you and I and our children are "recapitalizing" these lenders and banks, the bad debt is still there. With this vote, the government is going to unconstitutionally buy all this used toilet paper.

Since my last column, the national debt has now risen above $10 TRILLION dollars. The people's purse is overdrawn in numbers most people can't comprehend, yet Congress is jumping out of their skin to write even more hot checks to bail out bad businesses and the list will continue to grow. Despite the new "loans" given the big auto makers last week from an empty treasury, the outlook is bleak: June 20, 2008. General Motors Death Watch 181: Bankruptcy. "Meanwhile, despite their political influence, the United Auto Workers will not be happy; the Mother of All Health Care VEBAs will not be funded. Period. The union will have to make do with what they have. DT figures the rest of the OPEB (Other Post-Employment Benefits) also face a grim, under-funded future."

Why the shrill insistence that "something" get done before Congress adjourns? Why the massive push to "cobble" together a bill before Congress goes out of session for a three month vacation? The DOW took a dive on Monday, but on Tuesday closed up 485, recovering much of the loss from the day before. While Congress was closed to celebrate the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hosana, the market worked on its own. Back on October 3, 2006, Michael Nystrom, penned an excellent piece titled, The Dow's Phony High, where he pointed out:

"But look beyond the headlines, and you see a different story. While the Dow hit a new high today, not a single of its component stocks did. Interesting, isn't it? The index is at a new all time high, but 70% of its components are down 20% or more!"

Where did this $700 billion dollar number come from? It's been repeated ad nauseum. When one considers these inept public servants (both parties) turned a blind eye until the problem blew up in their faces right before they were ready to adjourn for the year, don't they wonder how this $700 billion dollar price tag was suddenly thrown out there? Perhaps this will solve the puzzle for them:

"Our buddy from two lifetimes ago, Carl Lavin over at Forbes.com, points out a fascinating paragraph buried in a story on his web site late last week by Brian Wingfield and Josh Zumbrun.

"You know, this $700-billion figure that exploded into everyday political parlance almost as fast as Sarah? The $700-billion "cost" of resolving the financial crisis and restoring confidence and liquidity in the credit markets starting this morning?

"The $700-billion figure that Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid first said he could really use McCain's help with, but then the Arizonan took him up on it and Reid suddenly said the Republican would only get in the way and anyway, Reid said, he already had a done deal, except he didn't and the Nevadan ended up being the embarrassed one?

"The $700-billion figure that won't really end up being anywhere near the actual cost because no one knows what all those mortgaged properties are really worth now anyway? Which is the whole problem in the first place because the institutions holding that paper don't know the value of what they're holding either, which is why everyone suddenly got so frightened?

"That $700-billion figure that won't really last because eventually the feds will sell off what they're buying and might even make a profit in the end as they did with the Chrysler bailout warrants years ago? You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?

"Here's a quote from that Forbes story: "It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number." They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone into rapid action. And it worked."

A Treasury spokes mouth said the $700 billion dollar figure was made up. The number is fake! These elitists who run our lives believe in their arrogance they could simply pluck a big enough number out of the sky and the American people would swallow it out of fear. It sort of worked because as the old saying goes, You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Headlines around the world the past week have screeched bank bail outs in many other countries blaming the U.S., and demanding our Congress pass this $700 billion dollar hoax. I don't think enough Americans understand just how convoluted and massive are the connections between the unconstitutional, privately owned "Federal" Reserve and other global financial institutions. How many Americans know this private banking cartel is being audited by another corrupt mega outfit called the International Monetary Fund --- unlawfully funded with billions annually from the sweat and labor of the American people: "In fact, the United States now supplies $27 billion of funds to the IMF at an annual cost to the taxpayer of $1.9 billion--an expenditure conspicuous by its absence in the Federal budget and a hidden element in our deficit and debt."[1]

Pretty neat magic trick since there's no money in the people's treasury. Every penny has to be borrowed from the FED and handed over to these international banker barons while you, me, our children and grand children will be forever saddled with the compounding debt. As if this dark comedy couldn't get any worse, these craven individuals who serve in one Congress after another, continue to "forgive" debt owed to we the people while they play their vile games (bold is my emphasis):

"Consistent with a plan arranged last month at a meeting of top industrialized nations, whereby the countries would eventually relieve approximately 80 percent of the debt Iraq is said to owe them collectively, Friday's move was the first among many planned to eventually forgive the bulk of Iraq's crippling debt burden. In exchange, Iraq will surrender its economic sovereignty to global financial institutions, provide foreign investors greater access to Iraqi natural resources, and increase investment opportunities for multinational corporations.

"According to the three-stage agreement reached last month at a meeting of the Paris Club -- an organization seating representatives of nineteen economic powers, including the United States, Japan, Russia and many European countries -- 30 percent of Iraq's estimated $40 billion (USD) debt to those nations is to be relieved outright, with no strings attached."

Come April 15, 2009, as you struggle to write that check to the IRS on top of what was stolen from you throughout the year in the scheme called withholding, remember where that money is going. Remember that a portion of what you work for today will be sent without any legal authority under the U.S. Constitution to fund these world banking conglomerates while you struggle to turn on the heat this winter and buy warm clothes for your family.

What is it? Basel II is a continuation of the first agreement reached between several countries:

The full title of the accord is Basel II: The International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards - A Revised Framework.

"Higher risks assets are moved to unregulated parts of holding companies. Alternatively, the risk can be transferred directly to investors by securitization, the process of taking a non-liquid asset or groups of assets and transforming them into a security that can be traded on open markets.

"Basel II has resulted in the evolution of a number of strategies to allow banks to make risky investments, such as the subprime mortgage market. Higher risks assets are moved to unregulated parts of holding companies. Alternatively, the risk can be transferred directly to investors by securitization, the process of taking a non-liquid asset or groups of assets and transforming them into a security that can be traded on open markets."

"The Committee's members come from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Countries are represented by their central bank and also by the authority with formal responsibility for the prudential supervision of banking business where this is not the central bank...

"The Committee encourages contacts and cooperation among its members and other banking supervisory authorities. It circulates to supervisors throughout the world both published and unpublished papers providing guidance on banking supervisory matters. Contacts have been further strengthened by an International Conference of Banking Supervisors (ICBS) which takes place every two years. The Committee's Secretariat is located at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland."

Right now the IMF is putting pressure on Congress to approve this massive fraud and theft. A foreign entity demanding our Congress jump when they snap their fingers. The foundation for a world currency controlled by these operations, IMF, BIS, etc., has been underway for a long time and the blatant push for completion is now out in the open.

And, now for the kicker which I covered in a recent column. Please watch this eight minute video in which you will find out one of the hidden reasons for this massive push to get these bills pushed through: hundreds of billions of dollars will go to bail out foreign investors like communist China. This short video contains a brief segment from CNBC (1:46 seconds into clip) and you can bet key "leadership" in Congress, Obama and McCain all know the bottom line. Remember the headlines last week? China stops its banks from lending to U.S. banks. Either Congress pony's up or no more credit. How does it feel to be pushed around by the Reds?

The vote passed in the counterfeit U.S. Senate last night. (Roll call of votes here.) Not for the fake figure of $700 billion, but $850 billion dollars with loads of pork --- including funding for mental health issues! The final senate bill is over 400 pages; few senators had time to read it, but voted for it. Feinstein's office received 95,000 calls; 85,000 against the bail out, but she voted for it anyway. Why wouldn't she? Her and her husband, Richard Blum, are tight in the sheets with commie China.

After the vote, Sen. Harry Reid had the gall to hold a press conference to say "it wasn't a perfect bill." Once again, these incompetent public servants are handing we the people another dirty diaper to "hurry up and get it done" so the little guy on the street can borrow more money! He also said it wasn't a Democrat or Republican bill, but an American one. Cover their collective backsides by sharing the blame when this one blows up in their faces.

The House is expected to vote on their latest version of rape and pillage, Friday, October 3, 2008. Get on the phone and tell your House member NO. Every call counts until the vote in the House takes place. We have to stop the house because the flood gates are about to burst: "One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company -- a major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about." Sen. Harry Reid, October 1, 2008; he then back tracked realizing what the big gap on the front of his face let loose.

And, don't forget to send a tube of cheap lipstick to your house member and counterfeit U.S. Senator who voted yes on this grand larceny. Send a deep red like hookers wear as they ply their wares on the street corner and send it to their district offices since Congress should adjourn for the year as soon as the house sells us out Friday (barring a miracle). Let them return to their district offices to tens of thousands of tubes of red lipstick. Get as many people as you can, call the media and make the delivery of the tubes of hooker lipstick a real event!

Section 8 - "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

September 20, 2008

Now We See It: The White House Bailout Proposal - by Adam Davidson

We will, no doubt, spend the rest of the week analyzing it and watching it transform as it moves through Congress.

I would guess that this has to be one of the biggest peacetime transfers of power from Congress to the Administration in history. (Anyone know?). Certainly one of the most concise.

The Treasury Secretary can buy broadly defined assets, on any terms he wants, he can hire anyone he wants to do it and can appoint private sector companies as financial deputies of the US government. And he can write whatever regulation he thinks are needed.

I understand that they wanted freedom to respond and an ability to move quickly, but to designate the Treasury Secretary full power to oversee the, uh, Treasury Secretary's decisions seems unusual. Especially given that Congress only gets a report twice a year:

So, for the next three months, and then an additional six months after that, the Treasury Secretary can do anything he deems appropriate without anybody anywhere looking it over.

That seems like an awful lot of absolute power. Am I wrong? Is this typical bureaucratic language? Or is this as strange as it seems?

The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt "de-leverages."

Does anyone seriously think that our public and private debts of some $45 trillion will be paid? That the administration's growth of the federal debt from $5.6 trillion to $9.8 trillion while borrowing another trillion dollars from Social Security has nothing to do with this? Does anyone not see that when we spend nearly $16,000 for every family of four in our society for the military each year that we are heading over the cliff?

This is a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. Just as FDR had to save capitalism after Wall Street excesses, we have to re-invigorate our economy with real - not imaginary - growth. It does not address the never-ending war on the middle class.

The same corporate interests that profited from the closing of U.S. factories, the movement of millions of jobs out of America, the off-shoring of profits, the out-sourcing of workers, the crushing of pension funds, the knocking down of wages, the cancellation of health care benefits, the sub-prime lending are now rushing to Washington to get money to protect themselves.

The double standard is stunning: their profits are their profits, but their losses are our losses.

This bailout will not bring real jobs back to America. It will not bring back jobs that make things. It does not rebuild our schools, streets, neighborhoods, parks or bridges. The major product of this financial economy is now debt. Industrial capitalism has been destroyed.
In the next few days I will push for a plan that includes equity for every American in any taxpayer investment in this so-called bail-out plan. Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, I have proposed the creation of a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American.
I will also insist that all of the following issues be considered in whatever Congress passes:

And, most importantly, some mechanism for direct assistance to homeowners saddled with unreasonable or unmanageable mortgages, as well as protection for renters who have lived up to their obligation but fall victim to financial tragedy when the property they live in undergoes foreclosure.

These are just some thoughts on the run. You will hear more from me tomorrow.

Dennis J Kucinich
www.Kucinich.us
216-252-9000 877-933-6647 You can Comment at Hearlink Blog

As the members of congress explore solutions-- and I hope they are really exploring, not just working from the the proposal Paulson has submitted-- they should be keeping one thing foremost in their minds-- "How will this help taxpayers and stabilize the economy-- not "How will this help the failing financial entities?"

We're not just talking about the $700 billion bailout. There's also the $50 billion loan to the auto companies and now the auto loan companies have started to come begging too.

The fact is that We the people are in the drivers seat, negotiatons-wise. The question is, who are the members of congress taking care of? Nowadays, when you buy or sell a house, you have a realtor who must identify his or her self as performing just one of those functions. Well, we need to be really clear that our legislators are representing the taxpayers, not the massive corporations.

When it comes to the $700 billion bailout, which many are beginning to predict could be more like three or four trillion dollars, the negotiations should be aiming to keep the loans flowing and the dollar up, not getting the most money to the corporations that gambled away their right to profits or stability.

We're seeing scavengers like Barclays and Nomura buying up parts of Lehman bros. We need to make sure that as this bailout unfolds, the Fed is not left with the most devalued, worthless parts. Naomi Klein was half joking the other day, on the Bill Maher show, when she said that instead of socializing the losing parts, we should nationalize Exxon. Well, maybe not Exxon, but at least, let's grab and governmentalize the strongest, most valuable parts of these companies that are drowning in their own debt. Allowing Barclays and Nomura to cherry pick is another way of giving corporate gift handout.

Let's look at the bailout as a way to help taxpayers from the bottom up. That means that those hundreds of billions of dollars must flow through taxpayers hands to reach the banks. Use coupons that taxpayers can use to help themselves with their problem mortgages-- or to help them consolidate their debts. Why punish the people who were more cautious and responsible, saddling them with the debts the whole nation will be carrying.

Put out coupons for borrowers who meet the credit criteria and let the borrowers decide where the money goes. This is what Jeff Howe describes in his book, Crowdsourcing, or what James Surowiecki described in Wisdom of the Crowds. What, you want to go with the experts-- the ones who got us or allowed us to descend into this mess? Trust the tens of millions of Americans to invest their money in a smarter way than any group of capitalists. We have faced the time where the wisdom of the market-- trusting capitalism-- has passed. Now we need to trust our own people.

When it comes to the Auto Manufacturers and now, the auto financiers, we need to get tough with them and do the same thing-- help them through the bottom up-- coupons or programs that American consumers participate in-- and require that those programs only apply to vehicles that provide at least 35 MPG fuel efficiencly. They're coming to us begging. Don't give them a handout without getting anything back.

The big corporations that have been ruining America, corrupting the political process, despoiling the environment, globalizing our economy at the price of American Industry, is coming to congress now on bended knees. Bush and Paulson are trying to pull another rush job like they did with WMDs, using them to sell the Iraq war. The members of congress, at least some of them, are smarter this time around. And we have better tools for raising our voices and letting them know, NO FUCKING WAY!

The democrats who have been rubber stamping just about everything George Bush has thrown at them have an opportunity now to play hardball. They should be not only looking at ways to approach this from the bottom up, really taking care of the American people, but they should be agressively figuring out how to use this moment of crisis and opportunity to make something magical happen-- and give the American people something they really deserve-- universal single payer health care. There's an economic reason for it too. The current system, with insurance companies-- and it looks like even the non-profit "Blues" are converting to for-profit- are in the process of parasitizing and bankrupting the country from another direction.

If the congress is smart it will come back to Paulson, Bernanke and Bush and DEMAND that they put the Auto Maker Loan and Universal healthcare into this package, and put all of it into a bottom-up model that gives the taxpayers a real share of the benefits as well as the risk this disaster capitalist assault on America has inflicted.

Chris Dodd, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Dem senators need to really show that they are covering the taxpayers backs. Bernie Sanders has taken a solid stand, saying that any business so big that it can't fail is too big to exist. That's the way all the senators need to be thinking-- the smaller the better. It's one thing to make sure CEOs don't take golden parachute payouts or outrageous salaries for doing bad work, but that's small change. The big picture must include the senate and house totally revising the Paulson plan so money for corporations flows through the taxpayer. It's the best, smartest, fairest way to keep the taxpayer in the loop.

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RESPONSES

*Actually, you left out a very important reason: the politicians calling the loudest for the bailout have all been getting huge amounts of campaign monies from the very banks they want to bailout. This is a horrible instance of clear corruption.
Check out the Chumpzilla award that Senator Dodd won in order to see just who is paying him off: - 1 Roman

http://chumpzilla.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/senator-chris-dodd-wins-chumpzilla-award-for-buyout/

*They actually have the same members of congress who are guilty of putting laws in place to allow this to happen, in charge of fixing it. Isn’t this like putting the fox in the hen house? I have called Frank and Dodd’s office and told them they need to resign and bring back every penny they reaped from Fannie and Freddie. I got hung up on by Frank’s office and a “thank you” from Dodd’s, and they didn’t bother to take my name or state. They are going to do what they want to. If you are a democrat, you can do anything and skate, witness Frank and his house of ill repute and fixing parking tickets of the johns who visited it (Frank says he didn’t know about it, yeah sure), Rangel who is a tax evader, Jefferson with the $90,000 in his freezer, Wexler who gave a phony Florida address to run for congress, but actually lives in Maryland, and Pelosi using her pac money to pay her husband (they are independently wealthy on their own, but I guess when you get to congress, greed takes over). This was supposed to be the most civil, ethical, bipartisan house ever, yeah sure! Bet Tom Delay and G. Allen wonder what they did so wrong. Their sin was being a republican. - Hadenuf

*Reason 11: It is a Bail-Out for zionist bankers and yet another infringement on our rights by the gov’t. Add it to the ever-growing list of violations:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon, Wikipedia and Facebook.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing at Gitmo.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting illegal wars without declaration.
Impeach them all (both parties) and save this great country.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov’t and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000083883 - Peter Warren II

READ Most U.S. Corps. Don't Pay Income Tax & Ralph Nader for president

Kucinich: We Had Alternatives

October 3, 2008

Ten Reasons Not To Bail Out Wall Street by Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts, Esq.

September 20, 2008

Now We See It: The White House Bailout Proposal - by Adam Davidson

Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN