Jane:
Do you know how to play poker? Even a cursory knowledge? If so, you could probably take both to the cleaners. I wonder if Harry even steps foot in Las Vegas.

Digg

“I’m Harry Reid, and I disavow this message.”

Jane!
What a week for FDL. This election is like a very loose slot machine!

in league

Nancy looks as if she is about to hurl and Bush looks as if he is about to cry. Maybe Harry dozed off.

i think Contessa Nancy has a soft spot for shrubbery

Harry looks suitably defeated.

‘Course, he didn’t really need to go to the WH for a shot of that….

Add these to my collection of Dead-Enders.

Which one’s Moe, which one’s Larry, which one’s Curly?

Oligarchs are us

Who thought this was a good idea? Republicans, including Bush.

Meanwhile, according to WaPo, small banks are thriving.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..id=topnews

Is that what it’s called…

absolutely…there is no accounting for taste

Time for Nancy and Harry to spend more time with their families.

and now morpheus calls………..i trully adore yall,nite nite

Jane, did you see the Dodd presser after that little WH get together? He seemed pretty disgusted. (p.o’d)
I also saw shots of everyone at that table and No One looked very happy.

Who thought this was a good idea Bush he needs to appear to have Democratic support for his bailout.
But what was Harry and Nancy thinking?

Their gameplan is coming clear. Separate Repubes from Shrub and attach DimSon to Dems at the same time. This picture is a perfect example, and the whole dog and pony show today was orchestrated just to have that photo.

Here’s McInsane’s spokeshole tonight:

You kind of have the Administration talking to the Democrats in Congress but maybe not working as closely as they should have with the Republicans. … I don’t know why people are shocked that that’s how it played out tonight. …
The conservative Republicans have been very, very focused on taxpayer protections, and one thing that Sen. McCain has been clear on from the beginning is that that’s absolutely essential. …

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/219841.php

They are attempting to salvage whatever they can of the Repub “brand.” They’re hoping it still can give McInsane a bump up, but more importantly this’ll give down ticket candidates some talking points in their tight races in addition to laying groundwork for 2010 and beyond. Conglomerate Media will help spread this theme far and wide…

We’ve known for years that they’ll try to separate from Shrub, blame everything on the Dems as we take the reins, and reclaim the fake theme of being the “responsible” Party. Shrub was never really a Repub they’ll claim. It’s happening in earnest right now. We gotta stay out in front of this, and as pointed out in this post, the stooges “leading” the Dem Party are not helping.

The full picture also has Boehner and McCain in it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

ta dear.

Can we use this picture after the election to push to replace Harry and Nancy?

Insanity in DeeCee, insanity in Corvallis, OR.

True that was the plan but if the bailout does not happen before the election then they can’t use that plan.
However if the economy does tank the McCain gets the blame. I like it!

Sorry my comment at 24 should read

then McCain gets the blame

Banks in the heartland are with one exception not just thriving but flourishing. Record profit for the Bank of North Dakota. Why? Sticking with sound accounting practices…following ethical standards and practices.

Yeah, I know. It’s a shock to think that kind of thing still goes on in Bush’s Merka. Awesome.

Night Sadly

Nite Sadly

The conservative Republicans have been very, very focused on helping unscrupulous liars fleece taxpayers protections

Corrected copy.

nice thought!

Is there any way we can get rid of Helicopter Ben?

Yes, that’s all becoming clear, and it explains why Reid and Pelosi look like that in the photo — they’re realizing they got played. But I am very much doubting this maneuver will be enough to turn back the tide. Seen http://fivethirtyeight.com lately?

Even Krugman has bailed on him. I think departmental loyalty had him giving Ben the benefit of the doubt, but that is now entirely gone.

oh by the by

In particular, Rice wrote in the Sept. 12 statement that officials discussed simulated torture techniques that elite U.S. soldiers were subjected to as part of a survival training program, and that she and other officials were told that such methods “had been deemed not to cause significant physical or psychological harm.”
Rice, who was serving as national security advisor at the time of the discussions, did not identify the source of that assertion. She was referring to a U.S. military program known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, or SERE, which at times has included waterboarding and other controversial methods subsequently employed by the CIA.

. . . Rice did not disclose who at the meetings, but said that she had “asked Atty. Gen. [John] Ashcroft personally to review and confirm the legal advice” being prepared by the Department of Justice on the CIA’s interrogation plans.

Other senior officials who routinely attended so-called principals meetings included then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Alberto R. Gonzales, then the presidential counsel; and David S. Addington, the vice president’s counsel.

I certainly hope they keep Congress in session rather than going home as scheduled.

Viewing Note: Dodd is slated for the Imus Show tomorrow morning. It’s on WABC or RFD TV or livestreamed at the WABC website. Dodd has always been candid in his comments on Imus, unlike say Hatch or Lie-berman who are busily checkin’ off the talking points as they weave ‘em in. May be interesting listening for those awake early…not likely moi.

G’night, pups.

nitoll again”g”

Night, PS.

Think I will head out as well. One more day of warping young minds this week.

night PS. night SY

night Dr D

Yes, I think they know the Prez race might be lost. It’s more about any close down ticket races right now, and rehab of the Repub image for future elections. They’re pretty good at thinking long term, and they know they’ll have BigMedia helping them every step of the way. The key has always been to separate from Shrub and claim he wasn’t REALLY a Repub….”Honest and truly, we’re really responsible and simply want to let you keep your money…and guns…and those gays from marrying each other.”

fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck

Hilzoy might not like it, but FUCK!

This crap from Obama –

This is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem –

doesn’t help either.

Truer statement: This kind of problem always happens when Republicans get in power.

Dunno, they seem to be setting Mc up solely as the savior, and all the Congressional Rs are obviously running interference. If Mc goes down, the story becomes why the hell were all the Rs running around fucking up the deal. They don’t come out of this looking better than they did before, in short.

Chris Dodd on Rachel tonight was literally frothing at the mouth. He as much as said that McSlime was responsible for the whole deal going south by interjecting that ’new proposal’ almost as everyone was getting up to leave. Then Paulson told McSlime that his proposal would never work and everyone else threw their hands up and said I’m out if that’s where we’re going now and walked out.

McSlime’s proposal would have left the current CEO’s and top management basically calling the shots, and it would have removed the requirements to renegotiate the housing mortgages, etc.

John McSlime – the de-regulator has showed his true colors yet again.

I don’t know where McSlime went afterwards – probably to stir up more mischief – Rahm Emmanuel said that the House Banking Chair was pointing McSlime away from the House and toward the Senate.

Obama had already stated yesterday that as soon as the meeting was over he was headed back to Florida for the rest of his debate prep.

jane, do you think pelosi and reid and others consent to this type of stuff for “our enemies abroad?” you know, to show that all sides can come together in times of crisis? somehow i think maybe that is the rationale despite the fact that to their base of support here it makes them look like jellyfish.

A big fuck-up on the part of their staffs. The correct move would have been to say, “We’d be happy to meet, but only in private, with no camera crews. We want this to be an open discussion, not a photo op.” What the hell were they thinking?

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President says Paulson bailout is fatally flawed.

Bernanke and Paulson are toast.

McCain is one lucky sumamagun.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Bernanke has messed up his reputation.
His fancy theories have gone poof, or he mis-applied them, so his judgment has goon poof.

And, he tolerated being involved in whoppers. And he committed a few himself, though they might have been spontaneously generated out of desperation and real time public humiliation rather than planned. Hanky Panky told calculated and premeditated whoppers. Or he is just out of it and insane from his free unregulated financial market worship.

They were not thinking. This was a thing between Bush and McCain to supposedly show McC parachuting into town to save the day. Unfortunately, he didn’t arrive until after the principles of agreement had already been announced. Bush staged this meeting (Obama came because a “Presidential Invitation” is not something you normally turn down unless you are at death’s door or been held by masked gunmen or something). I guess he and McC’s campaign thought it would help.

But as usual – they mucked it up. The deal was announced before McC got there. He didn’t say a word throughout most of the meeting – and then, because he now has to save face from all the lies he has told for the last couple of days – he threw that ‘new proposal’ out there and scuttled the whole mess.

Nice Job!

What happened to SC?

Sir, you defame jellyfish, who have many important functions to perform, including but not limited to the stinging of swimmers, keeping their numbers down. Whereas Congressional Ds… (completion of this sentence is left to the reader as an exercise).

Gaah~! My head is going to plotz! Why did the two (so called) DemoRats agree to be seated next to The (L)oser Bushmeat when they’re not in front of the curve on this spend-fest of my hard taxed dollars? Where are the DNC stylists? Even McCain’n’Abel could afford $5,000+ for his make-up in front of Katie-bar-D’Door. Catch up~~!

(:>.

My personal feeling is that McCain was showed for what he is – a craven hack who cannot see beyond his own ambition.

That said, I’m glad the deal is scuttled. I think the next President (Obama) should be the one to deal with this. And that will mean Paulson will be gone, it sounds like he will ask Bernanke to resign, and hopefully will get some different leadership. After all – how could anyone believe the people who are almost entirely responsible for this mess should be left in place to ’solve’ it.

And as for Bush’s doom and gloom. They apparently had this little “bailout” plan sitting around for weeks or months – so it sounds to me like this whole bailout is not that much of a crisis that it cannot wait until the next administration.

They were not thinking. This was a thing between Bush and McCain to supposedly show McC parachuting into town to save the day.

No, I don’t mean about Bush and McCain. They’re both complete fuck-ups, so I have no problem understanding what they did. I mean Pelosi and Reid. Why the hell would their staffs allow them to get anywhere near President Anvil when there are cameras around?

If they don’t find a way to give the taxpayers some kind of leg up, it won’t matter what the big cheeses do – broke consumers can’t spend money, and it is consumer spending is what keeps the economy moving. It was when we finally stopped spending because the credit maxed out that the spinning plates fell to the floor and broke into a million pieces..

People are seated around the table in order of their position in the government. Since Cheney wasn’t there the ranking is President, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, House Minority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, and of course McCain with a CAMPAIGN aide, and Obama, with his Senate legal advisor. No choice in the seating arrangements. Sorry.

South Carolina? Big ol’ storm.

EPUed, so I’m reposting my comment from below:

Not only did McCain get the taxpayers off the hook for Big Shitpile, but the big bonus is that he did it in such a fucked up way that he’s now going to get the blame for anything bad that happens from here on out. He could have just made a bold statement about how he simply would not support a bailout that takes from the poor and gives to the rich. That would have buffed his “maverick” credentials and increased his standing with regular folks. Instead, he threw his weight behind some bizarre 11th hour “insurance” scheme instead of the Great Bipartisan Compromise. David Broder’s going to be pissed, and you can bet your ass that any plan the House Republicans come up with will cost us more than whatever they’d “agreed” to tonight.

“McCain is one lucky sumamagun.”

How? Or maybe you were joking. How can McCain spin his plan? Which is more deregulation, more government insurance expsoure (which is another form of bailout with no regulation) and more corporate tax cuts.

McCain’s bailout principles from earlier this week was vaporous, and had to be padded with a ‘no earmarks’ demand in order to match Obama’s number of bullet points.

They are all in a mess now. The question is only who is least damaged and has the credibility to sell their ideas to the pubic.

Will being in league with the most nutball GOP reactionaries help McCain?

This will be interesting.

No choice in the seating arrangements, but they should have had the sense to kick the photographers out of the room. That should have been a precondition for the meeting.

Good night friends. Happy debate tomorrow.

Presidential ‘invitations’ are more like command performances. You do not say no.

Seating determined as my 58.

Heh, the boyz of Troy took one to the chin, tonite…!

Ah yes, the Congressional Republicans are the ones, along with McCain who’ve ‘blown up the deal’. The deal that has switchboards lit up, letters and e-mails flying fast and furious by 90% of the Americans who DON’T WANT THIS DEAL!

Yes, the Democrats are trying to cut a deal with Mr. 19% against the wishes of 90% of Americans.

How can the Democratic leadership be so fucking stupid?

-G

From a DK diary:

After the cameras left, Boehner started ranting about the right wing “plan” (deregulation, capital gains tax cuts, and an insurance plan that Paulson said won’t work). Bush was silent, and McCain said nothing. It seems as though Obama was the only one who tried to lead the meeting to some productive conclusion. CNN said that Obama first tried to reason with Boehner, and ask him to detail what his plan was. After he did this, Obama calmly asked Paulson if it would work, and Paulson said that it definately would not work (which was why house republicans didn’t ask him about this at the meeting yesterday). Obama continued with his attempts to salvage the mess that McCain created and refused to correct, but was unable. Again we see how much we need Obama and his leadership, and how disastrous McCain would be.

So Barry at the center of it, sez CNN. Why isn’t anybody else reporting it that way? Why is Mc getting all the headlines?

Yeah, but in this meeting the top guy decides – and that would be Bush. Unfortunately.

Ah, I sense dimly that you speak of Sport. I know nothing of Sport, my mid-Pacific friend.

(Well, maybe sumo.)

EXACTLY! (That got epu’d too.)

Obama continuing with campaign, and keeping some distance from this whole mess might have been a good move. But, it is on him to sell his ideas. Hope he does a good job.

McCain is almost crapped out. He should have brought one of his casino lucky charm crap game babes to the meeting. A nice leggy blonde sitting on the table. That would have cheered up the picture big time. I would even have liked looking at it.

Katie Couric (or someone) said that Obama and McCain had been “summoned” to the White House.

BTW on what legal basis did FDIC “seize” WaMu exactly? Sounds suspicious.

McCain is getting the headlines – but if you look at it most of it is pretty negative. The press is mad at him for his attacks on NYT for printing ‘facts’ about Davis, hiding Palin, etc. And a lot of people are pretty upset about him dissing Letterman to try and upstage Palin with Katie Couric.

I’m glad Obama did try to do something. And I’m glad someone – even if it was CNN – reported that he did. Yay!

I’m still glad it went no where though. This needs a LOT more thought and some time, and a helluva lot more expertise in the room than a bunch of sold out politicians being threatened by the Chimp.

That is true. But the polling shows that the public disagrees with the GOP reactionary crazies too. The public is NOT going to say “Oh goody, more financial market deregulation, more government insurance protection for greedheads and more corporate tax cuts. THAT’s the change I can believe in”.

I think everyone comes out of this stinking like cat doo.

An interesting quote via Mish:

“I suspect that part of what we’re seeing in the freezing up of lending markets is strategic behavior on the part of big financial players who stand to benefit from the bailout,” said David K. Levine, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis, who studies liquidity constraints and game theory.

Presidential ‘invitations’ are more like command performances. You do not say no.

I’m sorry, but any “respect for the office” has been completely squandered by now. They could have negotiated over the window treatments if they’d wanted to.

Where did you see that? The last thing I saw was they were in the process of being bought out by someone…

It’s not just that they are being gamed but we ALL are. Finally remembered where i read how this is a no win for the Dems. As much as I despise McCrazy, I am glad that the Repubs stopped -at least temporarily- the rush to pass this robbery.
People need to read this interview:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/g…..index.html

It’s not an economics primer but a political analysis.

But why were they even in that meeting? They should have known they were being set up? Even some of the dead enders are giving up on Commander Codpiece.

Insolvency. Just like any other bank they seize.

actually, i recognize that look on harry’s face. i sometimes get that look when i’m thinking “i don’t believe i’m listening to this embarrassing load of crap.”

nancy, i’m not so sure about. she’s probably thinking “you poor dear. just shut up.”

Yes, and then for the next two weeks we would be listening to the bobbleheads discuss who won and who lost and why they picked this rather than that and did that color do something to the color of so-and-so’s eyes. You know. More lipstick.

I think US Americans, such as, are totally screwed.

-Ms. Teen South Carolina

Frank, while yer precept is sound, it ignores DC Insider Ways To Play The Game.

Big Chief Title is in front.
Other Big Chief Titles sit to either side.
And on down the line.

Party don’t matter.

It’s the Big Chief Title that matters in photo ops of these sorts.
And it’s a time honored tradition in DC.
It just.
IS.

Like seating at a VIP International Function . . . Title, and size of country, get you closer to the host Big Chief.

*G*

Dugg it!

I don’t even want to say what Harry Reid looks like he just did.

Ok, so that’s the DETAIL of my analogy . . . THANKS! lololol

good night friends

The Decider Chimp looked like the dumbest guy at a Rotary Club Board Meeting.

nite betsy

All over. For example, here.

Free advice
1) Make sure McCain is nailed down on his apparent position of having torpedoed this plan. So he can not take credit for future improvements.
2) Try to make the failed plan not sound so much as a give away of billions of dollars.
3) Wait
4) If financial system melts down, you win. If it doesn’t, you’ve gained time.
5) Having gained time try to fix the problem at the root. By all means include bankruptcy provisions to reneg the mortgages.

congressional dem’s only purpose is to play washington senators to the republican’s harlem globetrotters?

What does “seize” mean? Having control, assimilating assets, ceasing operations, etc.?

McCain has a bind.
Will End of the Financial World occur noon on Monday if the ink aint dry?
If not, McCain, along with Palin and her Depression comments look like fools.

If so, he rode in on is White Horse and took a dump on the our last chance to avoid Doom.

I think it will be former. I thnk the fear of immeditate meltdown is overblown (but… we are in uncharted territory, so who knows really?)

It took repeated mistakes continued for over a year to turn the financial panic of 1929 into the Great Depression. A McCain administration could do that trick.

I would perfer a month of financial panic to a McCain administration. That would really be dangerous.

JP Morgan bought their deposits and brick and mortar.

Good answer! Who’s next?

late late nite up at the mothership

Republicans – Bush Family in particular – have a fine track record of robbing banks and having tax payers bail them out.

Can someone explain to me the worst case scenario if we don’t do anything at all? Because the big Doomsday Scenario that everyone is talking about is that no one will ever be willing to lend anyone any money ever again. I just don’t see that happening. It looks to me like the problem is that a lot of banks gambled their money in the housing market and went bust, so they simply don’t have money left to lend. I find it hard to believe that there won’t be anyone else on the planet willing to lend money to Americans if these institutions all disappear. Furthermore, if the government really needs to throw $700 billion into the economy, why not just make $700 billion worth of loans to the people who supposedly can’t get any money? You could even dictate the terms of the loans, like “You have to actually be able to pay this money back.”

NelsonAlgren @ 80

Well, they probably still think there are some legislative things they’d like to get done (other than this) and of course, for that – they do need Shrubs signature on the dotted line (for all the good it does if he attaches a signing statement.)

It’s also called CYA. What if something happened God forbid and McSlime actually got elected or something. They’ll have to work with him too. So dissing the ‘office’ doesn’t get you on the good foot anywhere.

I agree, it’s shameless whoring after power on all their parts. But it is what it is.

NPR story top of the news and who do they quote? Frickin’ Mc. They claim the meeting was held at Mc’s request. WTF!!?!

G’nite Betsy. See you tomorrow at the debates?

Suz and Janis Joplin are upstairs…

I think the Doomsday scenario is that the credit becomes so expensive that all lending freezes up. Banks cannot keep business credit lines open. Working capital of small business is severerly damaged. Large corporations cannot afford to borrow and inch towards bankruptcy. Problems extend to smaller regional banks and thrifts that have stayed out of trouble.

So, mass business bankruptcies, wages not paid, layoffs. State and local government cannot pay bills, or make social insurance program payments.

Pension payments can’t be made.

Won’t happen just because a good plan takes a few weeks to negotiate and pass.

A month the election long enough for that -I don’t know.

Until Jan 21 2009? Maybe. It will be interesting.

How many politicians are there who aren’t ‘end timers’. Any? Lieberman is one of them, too. How can a jew be an ‘end timer’? The theory of these freaks is that all Jews must convert at the end, so what’s up with that?

And Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian…so..huh?

http://www.thememoryholehole.o…..n-ifcj.htm

The Bible was written to explain Jewish history, so how did it get turned around that they convert, or die?

National Pentagon Revisionists?

First, on Rachel thonight apparently the $700 billion number is just something they picked out of the air. Most of the economists that Rep Bachus had contacted said what is need right now is more like another $80-$100 billion for bail-outs similar to AIG. Rep Bachus said this group of economists basically said that more time was needed to really figure out how to fix this – and even his group of economists did not have a ‘quick-fix’ prescription at this time. It will take some looking at, and we also need time to assess the effects of what has been done so far. Bush and his doom and gloom speech probably did more damage than anything (stock markets react badly to Presidents saying crap like that). And that will take a little bit to settle down.

Much as I hate to admit it – Bachus is in some sense, more right that the ‘rush-meisters’ right at this point. I also believe that’s another reason why Obama has not been jumping up and down and screeching like McSame. The markets are really jittery and they need some time to absorb what just happened, and settle down a bit. Then it will be a lot easier to figure out the next step(s).

It probably was – requested by McCain to Bush – his joined at the hip twin.

Quite.

…And Lieberman did convert D to I… heywaitaminute!

The Bible doesn’t say any of that.

As you know, the Book of Revelation is a completely metaphorical and allegorical writing. It is open to interpretation. A whole lot of interpretation. It has been used to justify all kinds of crap – and if you read it with that viewpoint it makes perfect sense. But it also makes perfect sense if read with the absolute opposite point of view. And all the ones in between.

So…

I agree, there was no reason for Democrats to be stampeded into this ‘one week to Doom’ nonsense.

On the total funds required -the Democrats did try to limit the authorized expenditures to $100 to $150 billion. I was disappointed that they got snookered or cajoled into $250 billion.

But Hanky Panky was still holding out for getting authority to spend all $700 asap because… it was a really big number.

I saw a calculation somewhere that that $700 billion was also in the ballpark of what was needed if the plan was really a fraudulant recapitalization at taxpayer expense, but that might be a coincidence.

Should have been clearer in my question. How can educated people in the 21st century buy into this? They are going to kill us all with this insanity. There are no borders when we are talking nuclear fallout.

Pander pander..changes his mind about as often as John McCain does. Politics..religion..too intertwined.

If there’s a God in heaven these three and the entire cast of characters will be sitting like this in a future courtroom answering for the war crimes actually committed and those for which the bookends are complicit.

Bush said “no” to Israel bombing Iran, but the US is selling Israel bunker-busting bombs.

If Israel attacks, I am sure that Russia and China are going to get involved.

Http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..raelandthe palestinians

And we all breathe the same air eventually.

again… http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..estinians/

oh my …here I go again..bad day for links…

bluebutterfly, is this the link you were trying to post?

Go to the Guardian and it is there under world news…right at the top of the page….

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world

Yes..thank you…I hit send on the last comment too fast..you beat me!
I am trying hard, but this link stuff is really difficult for me.

This is the ultimate picture of what got us so f’ed up this century. I have always thought that the Chimperor/Darth had the goods on both Pelosi and Reid. From Gonzo’s briefcase to impeachment is off the table, too many tin ear pro shrubbery positions from the “oppostion” part.

This is a disgrace and Pelosi, Reid, Hoyer, Rockefellor, should all resign in disgrace and Fess up. Either that or they were in on it. Witting or otherwise, they sold their souls.

I have Adie’s Tonic Pupil. This distorts my vision, so I hope everyone can bear with me because I will always make mistakes. The letters of urls are hard to ‘get’ sometimes.

Blackmail may be involved. The illegal wire tapping started in January 2001.

I think that the biggest reason she refuses to impeach is because she, and Jane Harmann (sp?) are also guilty of war crimes. They were told about the torture and they stayed silent. If Bush etc. were impeached, I am sure that they would take down everybody else with them that were involved in any way with their crimes. Participants and/or inablers.

Maybe, but I want to see that happen here!

I doubt that any at the top believe in a god..It is interesting how many of the powerful go to the Bohemian Grove. If you have never read about that, goggle for a picture of their sacrifice ritual to the giant owl..just like the one on the dollar bill.

That is why we have to wait for another country to try these people someday.
The US is not a part of the International Criminal Court under which wars of aggression and many other crimes are mentioned.

practice is the only way.. keep slogging at it and soon you will be a link wiz

This plan was ridiculous from its inception. It would have done nothing to save overextended Americans and would have only bailed out a few investment banks without adding anything to the American economy.

Think about we’re talking about bailing out the same investment banks that got us into this mess, all on the taxpayers tab. What do you really think they’re going to do wake up tommorrow and be good corporate citizens.

If we’re lucky they’ll simply take the money and say thank you and use a few other colorful phrases while they gladly take the American taxpayers or US foreign lenders’ money.

A worst case scenario would be the investment banks creating a second mess. , think of it as extending happy hour at the taxpayers expense. If I lost 30 billion dollars and Uncle sam bailed me out, I can say without any hestitation I would probably go out and do it again, after all why should I worry when the US taxpayer will bail me out! The operative term here would be moral hazard.

The best plan would really be an extreme version of the Democratic plan. Bailout out the system by bailing out the homeowners, for a price. Think of as the difference between eating something and stuffing it up your rectum. If you eat something it nourishes you and is inevitably excreted, that’s what would happen if you bail out the home owners directly. Their mortgages would become managable the bonds would be worth something due to their own value.

Of course you don’t want to reward bad behaviour, so if the government bails out a home owner they should be subject to a special 50% capital gains when they sell their house in addition to whatever taxes they are subject to already. In addition if the government bails out the homeowner they should be prohibited from taking out Heloc’s or 2nd mortgages on the home, until the government loan and an appropriate level of interest is repaid.

However all plans to bail out US home owners are flawed because the question of duration risk is present. These mortgage bonds are usually issued with a duration life of under 5 years and most loans have a 30 year life. Since their are caps on what a homeowner can be charged for his loan, it is possible that the bonds may have to be refinanced for less than what a homeowner is legally liable to pay. This happened during the late 70’s and early 80’s when S&L’s were earning 6% interest on their loans but paying 8% on their savings accounts.

For various reasons a bailout simply won’t work. The system had a good run and the American people need to face reality. This game is over and keeping it going for any longer just isn’t possible.

Bush is Lucy, setting up the political football.

The Congressional Democrats are Charley Brown, moronically convinced they have no choice but to once more try and kick the ball.

But this time, instead of Bush snatching the ball away, it’s McCain who intercepts the play, grabs the ball and runs with it to the opposite goal line.

The score: Bush and the Democrats look like a losing “team” while McCain boasts of saving the taxpayers’ $700 billion.

And Pelosi, Reid, and Frank are once again revealed to be capitulating tools.

If they are being blackmailed, they CAN’T resign… because they are there to provide cover.

The Choice the voters in the “greatest” democracy is …

The Republican Crooks

or

The Democratic Cowards.

(And cowards they are. Of course, maybe though, I wouldn’t be so brave if the country’s entire media apparatus was pro Republican. But the media got that way with the massive help of Clinton and Democrats, so they can blame themselves for the place they are in.)

To borrow Robert Llewellyn’s line from Red Dwarf, Reid’s demeanor as captured in the photo above, screams “my intelligence chip has melted.” As has just about everyone else in the presence of His magnificence, Napoleon Bonehead. There’s your meltdown, by Jove.

The Dems were total fools to show up at this joke of a meeting. Give me a break, they shoulda seen the breakdown coming from a mile away.

Suckas!