Bank bailout bill

Vote the damn thing down again.

Get the crap out of it.

If this is a real crisis there wouldn't be earmarks in this bailout.

"[M]any parts refer to amending or deleting 'section ___ without saying section of what statute."

How does this work? For one thing, the plan as originally presented was [only] three pages long. Not good. Too easily understood; besides, such a brief proposal would be unworthy of such a "big" problem.

Now, as the bill grows and grows, no Congressperson/Senator has the time or inclination to actually read it. They depend on their staff(s) to brief them on it; and, as politicians, their primary interest is talking points. The small, arcane provisions - the amendments and deletions referring to other laws - are added by the weaselwonks on staff who know how to obscure preference.

In brief, "The devil is in the details," and the staffers are his minions.

I believe it is financial stability for our time.

Like flies circling a corpse, each legislator leaves behind a few eggs to hatch.

Maybe it's the only way to get things done in Congress ... but it seems damned inneficient.

Our government and the big boys are scared. They have far more to loose than we do if the financial system crashes.

The people have a great negotiating position if they can only be made to recognize it and use it.

We've told Congress what we don't want. Now its time to tell them what we do want. We can demand pretty much anything of our government.

1. Full acknowledgement that the government can't work the way its been run.

2. We want our rights back. Just make the list of whatever pops into your head. There is so much to choose from. Reforms to grand juries, Fully Informed Jury Amendment, restoration of the 4th Amendment,...

3. Deep meaningful reforms to the Fed. and the monetary system.

4. Add your own here.

Ace of Spades had the explanation of this this morning.

Remember, the Senate can't initiate a spending bill, only the House.

But the Senate can amend bills with great abandon.

So they took a previously considered porksicle (which had passed 93-2) and brought it back up for further consideration, i.e., the tacking on of the bailout. The 75-24 vote was for the amendment (bailout bill) not the porksicle itself.

So, as Ace explained, they didn't add pork to the bailout, they added the bailout to the pork.

Questions about the porksicle itself are left to the reader.

We all need to send the following to our congresspersons and senators:

Due to unwise decisions and ineptness on my part I find myself in dire financial straits. I would appreciate a bill being presented to the congress of the united States of America on my behalf requesting a gift of one million dollars to be paid to my account by the U.S. taxpayers. Oh! I forgot, I’m a taxpayer – make that 2 million dollars.

Thanks, That should do it.

W. W Woodward
Spur, Texas, CSA