Fed Pumps Further $630 Billion Into Financial System

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

This is one of the many bailouts that didn't need a vote from Congress.

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz

"The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup."

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

His culprits are a tax code that has become hideously biased in favor of the rich; a
national debt increased 70 percent; a record $850 billion trade
deficit; record oil prices; weak dollar...just like Ron Paul has been saying for years.

SNL Doesn't Even Have to Change Palin's Words To Make it Funny

McCain Campaign Owns URL VoteForTheMILF.com

John McCain Owns VoteForTheMILF.com? | GOVGAP

Fox News Now Calls Ron Paul an Economic Genius

The Royal Bank of SCOTLAND Will Be One of Biggest Beneficiaries of U.S. Taxpayer Bailout

"Bank of Scotland is to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the
planned $700 billion bail-out that comes courtesy of the American
tax-payer if the US Congress gives the financial rescue package the
go-ahead this weekend."

The Sunday Herald - Scotland's award-winning independent newspaper

Let's bailout the whole world! Then, maybe, they'll like us again!

A shattering moment in America's fall from power

"Here is a historic geopolitical shift, in which the balance of power in the world is being altered irrevocably. The era of American global leadership, reaching back to the Second World War, is over.

You can see it in the way America's dominion has slipped away in its own backyard, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez taunting and ridiculing the superpower with impunity. Yet the setback of America's standing at the global level is even more striking... In a change as far-reaching in its implications as the fall of the Soviet Union, an entire model of government and the economy has collapsed.

Ever since the end of the Cold War, successive American administrations have lectured other countries on the necessity of sound finance. Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina and several African states endured severe cuts in spending and deep recessions as the price of aid from the International Monetary Fund, which enforced the American orthodoxy. China in particular was
hectored relentlessly on the weakness of its banking system. But China's success has been based on its consistent contempt for Western advice and it is not Chinese banks that are currently going bust. How symbolic yesterday that Chinese astronauts take a spacewalk while the
US Treasury Secretary is on his knees.

Despite incessantly urging other countries to adopt its way of doing business, America has always had one economic policy for itself and another for the rest of the world. Throughout the years in which the US was punishing countries that departed from fiscal prudence, it was borrowing on a colossal scale to finance tax cuts and fund its over-stretched military commitments. Now, with federal finances critically dependent on continuing large inflows of foreign capital, it will be the countries that spurned the American model of capitalism that will shape America's economic future."

John Gray: A shattering moment in America's fall from power | Comment is free | The Observer

This writer assumes that the failures are due to lack of government intervention. This is wrong. The Fed is the ultimate in intervention. It affects every aspect of our economy. I post this because he DOES get right the hypocrisy of the U.S.'s say one thing, and do another economic foreign policy.

US House of Representatives approves Nasa buying Russian spacecraft

"Nasa's top achievement in Congress this year boils down to a single sentence - one line in a huge spending bill that would allow Nasa to circumvent an arms-control law and purchase Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft."

US House of Representatives approves Nasa buying Russian spacecraft | World news | guardian.co.uk

Why Didn't McCain Look at Obama?

Support for Bailout Down to 24%

"The more voters learn about the proposed $700-billion taxpayer-backed Wall Street rescue plan, the less they like it. Most voters remain largely unworried about their own money, too.

Just 24% of U.S. voters now favor the plan first proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a week ago and the subject of very public negotiations on Capitol Hill ever since, according to a
Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken Friday night. Fifty percent (50%) oppose it, and 25% are undecided."

Rasmussen Reports™: The most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a presidential election.

U.S. Americans...and South Africa, such as

Ten Things You Should Know About Bush's Trillion Dollar Fleecing Plan

"9. Foreign Banks Can Cash in Too

Or perhaps the fact that U.S. tax-payers look like they might also end up bailing out foreign banks will end up being a fly in the ointment.

Now, the U.S. bailout looks as if it is going global, too, a move that could raise its cost and intensifyscrutiny by Congress and critics.

Foreign banks, which were initially excluded from the plan, lobbied successfully over the weekend to be able to sell the toxic U.S. mortgage debt owned by their American units to the Treasury, getting the same treatment as U.S. banks.

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated in a series of appearances on TV talk shows that an original proposal introduced Saturday had been widened. "It's a distinction without a difference whether it's a foreign or a U.S. one," he said in an interview with Fox News.

He's right, in a way. There are no U.S. or foreign mega-banks -- just multinational financial
institutions with headquarters at home or somewhere abroad. If one accepts the logic of the plan at all, it might as well extend to multinationals with foreign-sounding names. The rabbit hole is only so deep, and we're already way down it."

Ten Things You Should Know About Bush's Trillion Dollar Fleecing Plan

We're going to bail out Middle Eastern sheiks who invested in Citigroup! Cool! This gets better by the second!

Local Entities Want a Piece of the Bailout Action!

"State and local officials, who have seen state pension funds lose
hundreds of millions of dollars in the financial crisis, are seeking
federal help for Medicaid and other programs, as economic woes work
their way through the system."

Local Officials Press for a Piece of the Rescue Plan - WSJ.com

McCain Releases Ads Claiming Debate Win...Before Debate

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McCain camp releases ad claiming debate victory « - Blogs from CNN.com

WTF is going on?! Bernie Sanders against bailout, "free market" Larry Kudlow FOR it!

Sanders: Larry, I’m sure after all of the ranting and raving you have done against government intervention and the virtues of free market I know without saying that you are opposed to the bail out.

Kudlow: No, I’m in favor of it.

Sanders: Oh, you’ve become a Socialist overnight Larry, what happened?….I think your version of socialism is to bail out the rich. My concern is about the middle class and working families who are now asked to bail out the disaster caused by the incredibly greedy people on Wall Street who have fought for this deregulation which is now taking us over the cliff.

The Keating 5 Scandal in 97 Seconds

Bush: Sept. 15, "No More Bailouts!" Sept 23: "We Need $700 Billion."

"The Bush administration signaled strongly today that troubled Wall Street should not expect more rescues from Washington."

Bush: Economy strong enough to handle turmoil - BostonHerald.com

Ron Paul Doing Lots of TV as Media Acknowledges, "Hey, This Guy Was Right!"

Nation Builder - [blog.nationbuilder.org]

I Bet You Can't Watch and Not Cringe...

Brazil's President Mocking U.S. Investment Banks...He's Right

"The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday,
September 18, that he has watched with "sadness" the collapse of Wall
Street firms that made economic policy recommendations in emerging
markets "as if they were the super intelligent and we were the poor
souls."

"Important banks, very important banks, that spent their lives giving

advice about Brazil and what we should or shouldn't do are now broke,"
news agency EFE quoted Lula da Silva as saying in a speech in southern
Brazil."

Brazil - Brazzil Mag - Brazilian President Makes Fun of Wall Street's Super Brains

THIS Guy is our Fed Chair?!

Bernanke Signals U.S. Should Pay More for Bad Debt

"Bernanke's remarks, an unusual departure from his prepared
testimony, come as lawmakers and the Bush administration
negotiate a rescue plan aimed at easing the worst financial
crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed chief said paying
prices higher than the bad assets would fetch in the open market
would help ``unfreeze'' credit markets and aid the economy. "

Bloomberg.com: Economy

He wants us to pay MORE than what they're worth. This is his solution.

Boston Legal Speech

Ron Paul on CNN Sept. 21, 2008

McCain Attacks Wall Street Greed—While 83 Wall Street Lobbyists Work for His Campaign

MotherJones Blog: McCain Attacks Wall Street Greed—While 83 Wall Street Lobbyists Work for His Campaign

No One Charged in Oil-Sex Scandal

"The Interior Department's watchdog criticized the Justice Department on
Thursday for declining to prosecute the managers of an oil- and
gas-royalty program that's been tainted by allegations of illicit sex,
drug use and taking favors worth thousands of dollars."

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 09/18/2008 | Official: Why weren't managers charged in oil-sex scandal?

Total Fed Lending(Guess Who Pays for this?)

Economagic.com

The Social Imperative of Sound Money

"This past week, the government announced that it would take Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the mortgage giants, under conservatorship, which is a nice way of saying that they will be nationalized.

We don't use the word nationalize any more. We can try an experiment and read the new term conservatorship" back into history. In fact, we might say that Stalin and Lenin put Russia's industries under a kind of conservatorship. Or we might say that Mao pushed a kind of land conservatorship, or that Hitler's policy was one of national conservatorship. Marx's little book could be re-titled: The Conservatorship Manifesto.

You see, the government keeps having to make up new names for these things because the old policies, which were not that different in content, failed so miserably. The old terms become discredited and new terms become necessary, in an effort to fool the public.

It's as if a restaurant served a shrimp dish that gave all the customers food poisoning, and so each night it decides to serve the same shrimp but name the dish something new: crangon cocktail, prawn pasta,
scampi salad, or what have you. But no matter what they call it, it is still poison.

Such a restaurant would be out of business in a matter of days. People would not be fooled. But the government gets away with it mainly because we have no real choice about the matter, and because people are predisposed to believe the government far more than they should. It doesn't help that the media are willing to echo the government line on this, adopting every new phrase as if it were the gospel."

The Social Imperative of Sound Money by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

CNN.com - Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S. - Nov 1, 2004

When you're sitting around pondering, "Who is winning the war?", keep this in mind.

Fannie, Freddie Takeover Diminishes Financing Options for Banks

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's
decision to seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may choke off the
biggest source of funding for financial companies suffering from
the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. "
...
"Paulson's ``decision has been devastating to the market,''
said Marilyn Cohen, President of Envision Capital Management in
Los Angeles, which oversees $200 million in fixed-income assets.
``We all thought they would never help exacerbate the banking
crisis and that's exactly what they did.'' "

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive

Gov't interventions don't help. They make it worse and distort the market's natural correction mechanisms.

EU Not Following U.S. Down Socialist Bailout Path

"European finance ministers and
central bankers said they had no plans to follow the U.S. in
stimulating their economy and failed to agree on ways of
rescuing any foundering financial institution."

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive

Anyone Who Claims Palin Is Ready To Be President Is A Fucking Moron

"They just gave their new child two middle names. Why two? Because, they wanted the second one to be Van. Why? Because they thought it would be cute to have their child's name be Van Palin. You know, it sounds like Van Halen. Funny, huh?

No, I didn't make this up."

Today's M/I Report

Honest commentary.

Anti-immigration panic costs $2-$4 million per mile

"With 2,000 miles to fence in we are spending between $2 million and $4
million per mile in order to protect America from busboys, gardeners
and fast food clerks. But it sure makes the nativists, xenophobes and
bigots feel good. Of course more than bigots benefit from the Wall. Add
in the morons who think this Wall is somehow making them safe. It won’t
help the economy -- quite the contrary, it is very harmful to the
economy. But the emotional comfort that bigots and morons get from it
has to be worth something. Unfortunately, like most government schemes
the people who think they are benefiting have managed to pass the bulk
of the cost off on other people. Let’s face it -- the Minutemen types
and their closet supporters are major Welfare Queens. To give
themselves comfort they are ripping off the taxpayers to the sum of
between $2 million and $4 million per mile."

Classically Liberal: Anti-immigration panic costs $2-$4 million per mile.

Over 40 Journalists Arrested in St. Paul at RNC

More Than 40 Journos Listed as Arrested or Detained at RNC Protests

What's going on here? Is Freedom of the Press dying?

US government staff 'had sex and drugs with energy firm employees'

US government staff 'had sex and drugs with energy firm employees' - Telegraph

"You see, taxpayers, you must allow the government to issue permits to allow drilling and mining. We know how to properly allocate these very valuable licenses efficiently and equitably. If you let the free market decide this, it will do things poorly and unethically."

Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan

"A secret order issued by George Bush giving US special forces carte
blanche to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistani
territory raised fears last night that escalating conflict was
spreading from Afghanistan to Pakistan and could ignite a region-wide
war."

George Bush's secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | World news | The Guardian

Factchecking the Palin Speech

Factchecking Palin, By Hilzoy - CBS News

US Military Trained Georgian Commandos Only Months Before South Ossetia Invasion

"The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces
commandos only months prior to Georgia’s army assault in South Ossetia
in August."

FT.com / World - US military trained Georgian commandos

Pakistan Cuts Supply Lines to U.S.-Led NATO Troops in Afghanistan

"He said that some twenty innocent people lost their lives — most of them were women and children.

The US government had accepted responsibility for the attack but did not
offer any apology for the same and instead announced to launch more
such attacks against the militants across the border, if so required in
future."

Pakistan cuts supply lines to Nato forces

Remember, the Global War on Terror is making us safer.

GOP Hiding Sarah Palin From Press for Two Weeks

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

10 Reasons Why We Need a New (Cold?) War

"3. Russia doesn’t play fair. When we get our apparatchiks in Poland to
install missile interceptors on Polish land—the Russkies balk and claim
Poland is now a legit target for Russky missiles. What’s this?
Diplomacy through intimidation? Just because we do it, does that mean
they should? Monkey see, monkey does? Russkovia is full of monkeys with
nuclear warhead missiles!"

» 10 Reasons Why We Need a New (Cold?) War