NO BAILOUT FOR WALL STREET!

If you have not been following this story, you need to wake up! Paulson & Bernanke are trying to screw the middle class of the United States by adding hundreds of billions of dollars to our debt. Paulson calls the "plan" an "asset purchase" plan. This is PURE BULLSHIT! A BOLD FACED LIE! What is being purchased is paper with NO VALUE! These are derivatives - speculative bets made on the direction of particular stock and commodities markets. This is NOT  a move to save "financial markets." This is a move to protect brokerage firms and their fat cat CEO's wealth. If your senators and representative vote for this bailout, they are voting to put this weight of this "crisis" on your shoulders and mine. Don't let them do it. Go here and send a message to your senators and representative demanding that they reject this bailout. Do it now for the sake of every family in this country.

Republicans Playing Election Year Games

Seen these headlines?

• White House Threatens Housing Veto
• Paulson: Wall Street Needs Stronger Oversight By Fed
• Bush Blames Democrats For High Gasoline Prices
• Fraudulent Mortgage Crackdown

This is such a joke. Let's take a look at each story.

The White House is threatening to veto a bill designed to slow down the spiraling rate of foreclosures saying that it needs to see how large mortgage lenders would benefit from the legislation. WHAT?!? What about the Medicare Pharmaceuticals Bill? How much investigation was done into how the largest pharmaceutical companies would benefit from the bill? Answer: None. The same goes for all of the Energy Bills passed during the past 8 years. Who investigated the benefits that would be reaped by Big Oil? Nobody. This is a farce.

And how about this one?

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged quick action to give the Federal Reserve explicit authority to step in to protect the financial system if its stability is threatened."

QUICK ACTION? Who are they kidding? This administration has caused the current economic conditions. They have had almost a decade to dig this hole and now they want "quick action" and "explicit authority" to save our financial institutions. Sorry, but this is sounding too much like the rhetoric we heard after 9/11.

"Bush Blames Democrats For High Gasoline Prices" - This is probably the most ridiculous headline I have read recently. Bush is more to blame than any other single individual for the rise in gasoline prices. From the lies told post 9/11 goading us into war to the energy bills he has signed into law, President Bush has loaded the pockets of his bedroom buddies in Big Oil who have caused the precipitous rise in gasoline prices.

Finally, the "Fraudulent Mortgage Crackdown" - can you say "too little too late"? What will happen to those who are convicted or make plea deals? Fines - maybe at best. The HUGE majority of them will WALK. Mark my words.

And all of this is just an orchestrated effort by the medical/financial/military-industrial complex - a.k.a. the Republicans - to defame the Democrats in the run-up to the presidential election.

Paulson, Bernanke, & Bush Making Economy Tank

The proposed "economic stimulus package" from the Bush administration is "too little, too late" and actually exacerbates the underlying difficulties that Americans are currently experiencing. What is being proposed are tax cuts that will increase consumer spending, raise prices even further, and be of no assistance in the debt to asset ratio that is already hurting so many consumers caught in a severe mortgage crisis. It is a fact that higher prices in oil have already worked their way through the economy causing the consumer to pay higher prices for practically everything they need to survive. Meanwhile, higher wages are non-existent and healthcare costs also continue to climb.

What does the Bush "plan" actually provide to the average American taxpayer? Some analysts have suggested that most people will see a $250 tax break. Think about this. Two hundred fifty extra dollars in your tax return is not enough to make a mortgage payment. Even if the $250 is put back into the economy in the form of consumer spending, it will not stop the recession (which I believe began last quarter). When everything from groceries to automobile parts cost 30% more than they did 2 years ago, but wages have remained flat, there is no way to stop a recession from occurring. It certainly cannot be stopped by increasing inflation and sinking the dollar to new all-time lows against currencies of other industrialized nations. I don't know about you, but this is the first time during my lifetime that the Canadian dollar has traded at a premium to the U.S. dollar. Bush can talk all he wants about lowering taxes, but THERE IS NO GREATER FINANCIAL TAX THAT YOU CAN PLACE ON THE WORKING CLASS THAN INFLATION. And inflation happens when the dollar's value deteriorates - it takes more dollars to buy the same products.

So, what are going to about this? Are going to allow Bush & Co. to crap on us one more time, or are we going to scream bloody murder until they start addressing the real issues behind this recession? Remember, it was just 8 years ago that we had a balanced budget and no deficit spending. If we can have it under a Democrat as President, surely we can have it under a Republican if he sticks to the ideals of his party.