This gave me a laugh… 30 September 2008
Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, WAR!.trackback
An image of the US president (C) and Indian leaders is displayed at a protest in Hyderabad against an India-US nuclear deal. [AP via BBC]
From the SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle coverage (I laughed all the way thru it, rich in quotes and characterisations!):
Members have described themselves as hostages. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks (Los Angeles County), who voted against the bailout, said the original Treasury plan was “a ransom note that said if you ever want to see your 401(k)s again, send us $700 billion in unmarked bills.”
Dennis Byrne from Chicago Trib…
That an upstart public would flood Congress and the administration with unscripted, immediate and overwhelmingly negative reaction was, itself, considered a disaster of unprecedented proportions. You could read in the faces of the Wall Street types on CNBC and elsewhere their astonishment that anyone would dare defy their wisdom. Jim Cramer, the popular stock guru, expressed it best when he stated that the folks who opposed the deal are “not knowledgeable or sophisticated.”
As if everyone who disagreed with him is stupid.
Just hearing none other than O Reilly pushing the Bail Out… LOL… gotta love the bird feathers that get stuck together…
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Bay Area delegation’s roll call
By a vote of 228-205, the House defeated the $700 billion bailout package. How the Bay Area delegation voted (a “yes” vote is a vote in favor of the bailout):
Voting Yes
Anna Eshoo D-Palo Alto (14th District)
Mike Honda D-San Jose (15th District)
Zoe Lofgren D-San Jose (16th District)
Jerry McNerney D-Pleasanton (11th District)
George Miller D-Martinez (7th District)
Nancy Pelosi D-San Francisco (8th District)
Jackie Speier D-Hillsborough (12th District) part of her district runs thru a SF neighborhood as well..
Ellen Tauscher D-Walnut Creek (10th District)
Voting No
Barbara Lee D-Oakland (9th District)
Pete Stark D-Fremont (13th District)
Mike Thompson D-St. Helena (1st District)
Lynn Woolsey D-Petaluma (6th District)
… and Pete Stark has been happily going on all the Bay Area talk radio, deee-lighted to chat. What a hoot! He was just ready and waiting this am on KGO, on another line was supposed to be George Miller (confidant of Ms Pelosi) who was then… not on the line!
Fun.
^^^^^^
Hey! Alla youse! Cheer up!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left), Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. (center), and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. (second from right), head for a news conference after the bailout was voted down. (Getty Images)
^^^^^^
halfway between sleep and wake this am, I caught a stray comment about this, off early am local TV news, later searched both SFGate.com and SJ Mercury News, nada. Supposedly Sheehan will join them… Finally I googled and found the PR at the Nader/Gonzalez 08 site…
Monday, September 29, 2008 at 12:00:00 AMNews Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Mehta, 408-348-0681, rmehta@votenader.org (National HQ);
Lynda Hernandez 714-803-9676, (Local)PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RALPH NADER TO HOLD PRESS CONFRENCE AT FED
WHO: Ralph Nader and Matt GonzalezWHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Tuesday September 30 at 10:00am
WHERE: Federal Reserve Bank, 101 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
On Tuesday September 30 at 10:00am, consumer advocate and Presidential candidate Ralph Nader will host a press conference with his Vice Presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez at the Federal Reserve Bank, 101 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
The Nader/Gonzalez campaign will speak out against the unjust, restrictive, and undemocratic Commission on Presidential Debates. The CPD, a corporation headed since its inception by two former chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties, shuts third party candidates away from public view, maintaining a stranglehold on the two party system and stifling the political conversation in this country.
The Nader/Gonzalez ticket is encouraged by AB 1945, which has passed in both the Assembly and the Senate. If signed into law, the bill will make it illegal for insurance companies to cancel the medical coverage of their clients for accidental mistakes in their medical history. This loophole is currently sometimes used throughout the country in order to deny legitimate claims on the basis of medical history technicalities. The bill would require the insurance companies to prove that a client intentionally misrepresented their medical history.
Proposition 6, the so-called “Safe Neighborhoods Act,” * would make prisoners out of children. In the country with the most per capita citizens in jail already, this would be an unacceptable further step in the wrong direction. Care should be taken to instead invest in rehabilitation for criminals generally and of course children specifically. The money spent on sending children to jail could be used in various other productive and beneficial ways. It could be used to improve the destitute healthcare system in California which leaves 6.6 million Californians uninsured, according to the California HealthCare Foundation. It could be used to fund public schools in California, which receive one-fourth the money per student as prisons do per prisoner. Instead of locking California children in jail, Nader/Gonzalez believes we should secure their future with single-payer healthcare and increased funds for public education. ::snip::
It’s practically illegal to be a child now. Or a youth……………. and, while you are a youth, be certain to dress like a Mormon missionary…
* all I could find was a YES on Prop 6 site, it seems to be the old Stop Gangs Now, Cops Will Save You! Give Us Money! Now!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Via Ambinder, just a full text snag… 😉
Pew Research, which last week found that 57% of Americans support government intervention to save the economy, finds this week that public support has dropped; only 45% support a “government plan to invest or commit billions to secure financial institutions.” 38% say they’re opposed; the rest don’t know.
Independents are the least likely to support it (42%); Republicans are the most likely (49%) Two thirds say they’re “angry” about the plan, which independents being the angriest and Republicans being the least angry.
Note that Pew does not poll the term “bailout.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ObRama Speaks.. in NV (I am sure McC is being just as useless out there, but Ob’s quotes are riding at the top of The Page):
“There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out.”
“Right now our job is to put out the fire, and we can’t forget that.”
Adds:“This financial crisis is a direct result of the greed and irresponsibility that has dominated Washington and Wall Street for years now.” [but is nowhere near Chicago!! NONE!! — Mcat ]
Some more!
“What it means is that if we do not act, it will be harder for you to get a mortgage for your home or the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college.”
“What it means is that businesses won’t be able to get the loans they need to open new factories, or hire more workers, or make payroll for the workers they have…Millions of jobs could be lost. A long and painful recession could follow.” [pick up your garlic and crucifixes on the way out, it is what we have to offer! …Mcat]
Stiglitz this am is out with a quote, he predicts we get ObRama AND a long recession. Lessee, the alternative is McCain and a long recession?
Cancel the confetti and balloons, at least! No? But She told me the party was OVER!!
Marisacat 
Tell me about it. I certainly would have been thrown in jail if I was growing up now… in a related note, due to my unhealthy connection to ND sports due to my youthful experiences, I’ve noticed a rash of articles in their student paper complaining about police enforcement surrounding both football games and campus in general. It appears that they are randomly throwing people in jail if they even suspect them of being drunk! And of course cops are targeting known student houses off campus for raids looking for that greatest of evils – underage drinking! Is there a new temperence movement afoot? If that’s the case – I’m outta here…
Oh we are moving heavily into a long period of prohibition. And mere suspicion that one might possibly, given circumstances, do something or other… Not just abortion, everything.
My mother used to say, “when I was young stealing a car was joy riding, now it is grand theft auto”.
Here, kitty kitty…
on “underage drinking” I do thnk the 100 or so college deans did try, a few weeks ago with their letter to please investigate and talk about the issue of drinking, and consider and discuss lowering it to 18.
And of course MADD rose up, as a oppressed virago, ready to save the nation… I don’t know where the effort from the universities might end up…
1. Yes but to be fair it’s not underage drinking, it’s the loud parties the cops are going after. And it isn’t fair to the neighbors to have to put up with that crap every weekend, particularly when the neighbors have been there for decades and the students are transitory. Why can’t these kids act their age? You can enjoy alcohol without being a total a–hole. Going to college does not make you “special” in that regard.
And one more thing: Get offa my lawn! 🙂
I thought the college letter about the drinking age was silly. It’s the rampant sense of entitlement that produces this behavior much more than the drinking age. For other reasons, I think the age needs to be lowered back to 18… but not because college deans are having a rough time of it.
3
LOL what a hoot, I expected a pic of some 30 pounder…. looking baleful as he was not near his food bowl… 😉
6
well the conversation has to start somewhere.. with Fed regs that withhold highway transportation funds, if a state lowers the age, there is little hope of change.
Frankly I could care less personally, I am opposed to silly regulations and when I was growing up I was never denied either watered down wine at home or once I was 17 ro so a drink out in the world.
Ambinder on a new Plan apparently coming from some of the NO! and Hell NO! votes… LOL… and he comes right out and calls Open Left a site that is ‘whipping support’ for it (with a link, I spared myself)
From the top rec’d dkos diary:
lol
sounds like Bloomberg is going to push for a third term. Wonder what party, LOL….;)
Reuters: Bank bailouts around the world
Which is why universities should do a better job of using their endowments to create student neighborhoods… That said, the great thing about going to a Quaker school was that everybody drank on campus and the local cops weren’t allowed in… hell we even budgeted for kegs in our student activity fund…
4 – I remember the links here about a month back.
Back to the neighborhood thing though – even as an adult I think that at least in younger urban neighborhoods, there should be an expectation of and tolerance for noise. If someone wants quiet, there are plenty of quiet places to live. There are people like myself who find solace in noise.
11 – why can’t he just retire and go back to counting his money…
14
I did nto bother to follow the link to the NYT, but the indication was he is going to use the market instability to sort of endorse himself.
gah.
I took a look. He’s just going to overturn the term limits laws supported by voters twice by imploring a city council of which 2/3rds will be forced out in 2009 due to the laws to eliminate them… The sad thing is, with the change in demographics in the city, he might actually get away with it.
btw – I’m sure all the Kossacks for Bloomberg will be just thrilled!
Hi ya’ll — long time no type…it’s good to see you still here.
Been dealing with the various idiocracies that come with the start of a new school year.
2 kids in the malpractice ridden K-12 public schools and me trying to actually teach students [what a concept, eh?!] in the midst of the institution calling itself a university but holds as its highest priority protecting the people making 6 figures, most of whom don’t teach…..
and along came the bailout….
Marisa, I have a huge rant/spew that has been building for a while, but can’t remember if there are any length restrictions on posts here….mostly, I’d just like to get it out of me head, but I am also interested in hearing what others might have to say. Let me know if it’d be welcome at this point! 😉
LOL via Tapper
18
brinn
sure, fire away… it may land in Moderation or Spam, but I will g et it out…
Oops, brinn, almsot forgot to say HI!
Just an added caution, make a copy of your rant before you hit, post or say it or whatever, jsut in case WP is in hiccup mode.
Which is why universities should do a better job of using their endowments to create student neighborhoods…
I agree. That would be a good use of money.
But, you can’t expect longtime residents to feel like selling their longtime homes because students are giving loud parties. They’ll fight, they’ll enlist the police, and students will always be at a disadvantage because… well, people who are stone drunk every other weekend aren’t exactly a coherent political bloc. But that’s the age old town-gown struggle for you. Students come in, they’re there for four years, think they’re moving into a “college town” that caters to their every wish. Not always true. I’m in Syracuse, which has a college in it but is not a college town (there are still a few other industries hanging on… and frankly, colleges are going to be scraping by not too long from now, as well), and there was just a big party raid over the weekend which hadn’t happened for a while.
I just think the culture in this country has to change a little… since when did people become adults at 25 years old plus, and not at 18? if you want to be treated as an adult you need to act like an adult. It’s a trust issue.
I do think the drinking age ought to be lowered, just because of the “old enough to kill but not for votin'” thing.
But actually, if I were a college student today, in debt up to my eyeballs and having fallen for the “pay now, play later” ploy with visions of nonexistent jobs dangled in front of me… I’d want to be stone drunk all the time, too.
from The Trail
21 – I guess maybe I’ve always been on the side of the noisemakers because I’m a musician. For the most part I’ve been lucky enough to have understanding neighbors, but I have run into a few problem ones along the way… Had a guy living upstairs from me for 6 months in the LES in 2002 who complained when I watched a friggin’ movie at a reasonable volume after midnight… so the recording guitars in the afternoon thing kinda sent him bonkers… I mean, come on dude, you moved to the LES – the land of Lou Reed and punk rock. Deal with it.
“The answer is both yes and no.”
Yep, that’s his whole campaign… straddle ALL issues…LOL.
24
LOL reminds me of an interview Kerry gave during his run… just light stuff, he was asked fro his favorite movie star. he picked a Blonde AND a Brunette. Even koswhacks hung their little heads…
Not that it mattered… 😉
Grieder on fail and fall out…
26.
I don’t know how anyone could have believed him when he repeatedly said in committee meetings and interviews last week that of course he expected oversight!
And wasn’t part of this bailout bill that was voted on the power granted to the president to okay the release of another $100 billion after the first injection of cash? Who, in their right mind, would grant that kind of spending power to any president? Once again, congress bailed on its responsibilities.
This really is insanity. Fear and panic-based insanity. And Obama’s right in there pushing it. This “pass something now, we’ll fix it later” bullshit shows exactly how much spine he doesn’t have.
Yikes. What’s next? A nudie of McCain?
I don’t think anyone wants to paint Biden, in any way at all… and Obama only permits portraits of him as a New Age – pastels please! – Jesus::Savior or MLK or FDR or Lincoln or Mandela or………………………………….. McC will sign a pic of himself in bed in Hanoi, if you like.
That pic in the red hallway is perfect! Blood on the walls.
redrum
From the Center for Responsible Lending: Subprime Loan Foreclosures & Delinquencies versus Lender Workouts
Stress does kill people. Lotsa ways it happens.
They are bringing out the Really Big ‘Liberal’ Guns now. James Galbraith in TAP.
Stress kills lots of people, but they refuse to REALLY look at it.
I think resentment and resistance to this bailout is only going to grow, and Wall St. helped kill it today with their huge arrogant rally. Where is the instant disaster they all warned of? It didn’t pass, and what happened? The rich guys all yelled, “awwww, they’ll pass it anyway, and in the meantime — BUYING OPPORTUNITY!”
And once again, it’s worth noting that it’s not just the subprimes defaulting.
Credit Market: Even Scarier than Stocks
34 – Cortisol . . . adrenalin . . . testosterone . . .?
Laaaaaather, don’t bother to rinse, and repeat!
😉
Senate sets vote on financial bailout – Wed nite.
How can they vote on it when it didn’t pass the house?
Cheap shot to the (more sentient) gents, I realize.
Sorrrrrry!
Seniors Citizens Watch the Debate
38 – Anything they can do, we can do better!
I love how we’re supposed to treat the psychological disorders of the politico-economic marketplace with massive infusions from the common treasury, but perish the fucking thought of funding actual public health. (Not to mention decriminalizing homegrown herbal remedies for widespread human dis-eases!)
38 – each chamber votes on its own schedule, and often on different versions, then the legislation goes to conference committee, where they sneak on lots of bullshit. The House will usually vote first, because their system works more quickly and has fewer ways for one member to block something, but it doesn’t have to go that way.
Thank goodness for Schoolhouse Rock!
41 – OMG, LOL, etc!
Oops, meant 40, I guess. (Florida Seniors on Jon Stewart.)
The Daily Shows I’ve caught lately have been pretty sharp and lively, must say.
This guy is crossing the country in an RV drawn by four Percherons…
http://www.wagonteamster.com/
By the time he gets to California, we might all be traveling that way…!
45 – Was preparing this comment when I saw yours on the Percheron traveler. Bon voyage, Bob Skelding! Hope he and Joyce and Deedee and Doc and buggy find happy trails!
Words of wisdom, in general?!
:::
In memorium to Nyac, longtime survivor of the Exxon Valdez: Famous Sea Otter Dies.
Nyac and Milo: Otters holding hands at Vancouver Aquarium.
CTV story on YouTube sensation of Nyac and Milo.
One more time, with pop song?
Otter / Beatles Remix.
Drat! Otter/HTML accident at comment 46!
(Intended quote quits after strong enough to last.)
47
I think I fixed it… let me know if not………… 😉
Thanks, MCat.
:::applause of grateful otters:::
You da best.
Peeling the Onion, from Subrealism: liminal perspectives on consensus reality…
Clear the highways… and the streets, shake the leaves from the trees! Hide the dogs, cats and kittens!
ObRama and McC are heading back to DC — to vote.
We are blessed……. [amen ramen]
40. Seniors Citizens Watch the Debate
I saw that last nite. Hilarious! 🙂
42. Thanks for the explanation, MitM. (screwed up system that it is…)
50. Wow, IB, great find…
we chose, as we struggled to keep our lifestyle intact on the backs of the world’s poor, not to see that we stand on their backs, and it is people…all the way down.
What a quote. Thanks for sharing.
52 – screwed up?!?!?!
it’s PERFECT!
We’re PERFECT!!!!
We’re the SHINING CITY ON THE HILL, THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH, JAM ON TOAST, PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE, TOGETHER!
America is the schizzle!
If you all would just become the 51st state, as you should, you would KNOW this!
*** pant … pant ****
Are you sayin’ we aren’t. That they LIED to me in school?!?! How could that …
… *** wimper *** ….
>>>> madman crawls under desk, curls up in fetal positions, cradling a copy of Time Magazine w/ Ronald Reagan on the cover and tattered ole’ America Bear, his bestest friend <<<<
it’s morning in America, yes, it is AB, yes it is … don’t listen to that nasty Canuck … they all drink skunky beer ….
Tom Friedman endorsed the bailout.
I vaguely remember some other intervention he endorsed a few years ago, but it escapes me at the moment.
54. Speaking of meltdowns…
Want some poutine?
55. I vaguely remember some other intervention he endorsed a few years ago, but it escapes me at the moment.
Starts with W, ends with hundreds of thousands of dead people?
57. Yes yes, that’s it. Thanks for reminding me.
56. Je vous en prie? Poutine ou, (je n’ose dire quoi)?
58. tourtiere?
Yup. The debate should definitely be fun.
tortionnaire?
tortionnaire?
Hey now, my tourtiere isn’t that bad!
60. Y un trago de un vino chileno para celebrar (o olvidar el desastre)
63. lol…you could pick up a bottle of that for the drinking game. 🙂
I’ll stick to my tea.
Oh that pic…and those bloody walls….
yeah, why youse look so sad?
lemme go see see if I can find some hankies for youse from my shopping cart.
theyse not too fisticated, and thems gotta few holes in em, but youse gonna get some boogers on those silk soots….
hmmmmmm I thought there was no more money to be borrowed:
Blackstone and JPMorgan in $1bn cinema deal
“….Blackstone and JPMorgan will brave shrinking credit markets by attempting to raise more than $1bn to fund the conversion of up to 20,000 US cinema screens to digital projection systems, in a deal due to be announced on Wednesday….”
I loved this, a short discussion of one of Wall Street’s boogeymen: Kicking It With The FASB
”….
FAS 157 “defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and expands disclosures about fair value measurements.” In other words, it tells you how to count. When to count. What to count. When to recount. And when to count down to zero.
Occasionally, authorities (and those lacking any authority in the topic at all) can be seen pointing suspiciously accusing fingers at FAS 157 with an eye towards blaming the rule for the many ills that presently plague the financial system. If it wasn’t for FAS 157, the argument goes, banks wouldn’t have to admit that the assets on their books were actually either worth next to nothing, or were impossible to trade and therefore were actually worth something like nothing at all.
Of course, the mistake here is in assuming that simply not disclosing that the bank is insolvent keeps it from being insolvent.
….”
Fas 157 is the rule that the no voters on the Republican Side want to to do away with completely, Section 132 of the failed House Bill, didn’t go far enough for them:
….
(a) AUTHORITY.—The Securities and Exchange Commission shall have the authority under the securities laws (as such term is defined in section 3(a)(47) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a)(47)) to suspend, by rule, regulation, or order, the application of Statement Number 157 of the Financial Accounting Standards Board for any issuer (as such term is defined in section 3(a)(8) of such Act) or with respect to any class or category of transaction if the Commission determines that is necessary or appropriate in the public interest and is consistent with the protection of investors.
….”
FYI – Grieder on Democracy Now this morning. Also Murray Waas on US Attorney firings report.
Thanks for the alert IB
Grieder is up in transcript, so far…
CNN blurb: “Financial Crisis Drives Down Americans’ Opinions of Leaders”
I didn’t know it could get any lower.
Tapper has a longish but very readable piece on the new vote, re vote, toss it to the senate vote on the “crap sandwich” .. What a hoot… the close:
70
LOL I guess it could go to single digits…………………. 😉
Drinking age in Germany:
16 for beer (and wine I am guessing)
18 for booze
Very reasonable. I was informed these laws were only recently enacted due to an upsurge in kids drinking themselves to death or something. Previously, if I understood, there were no laws of any kind regarding drinking ages.
Stop Crime – Legalize Everything
Previously, if I understood, there were no laws of any kind regarding drinking ages.
… and slowly the will learn too, that ”illegal” is not some magic potion…………..
Obamalama on the floor ending his bailout sales plan shilling with lofty rhetoric intended to create some kind of inspirational teevee news hour soundbite.
Spend money now!
74. ”illegal” is not some magic potion…………..
It is for Lou Dobbs. It turned him into a paranoid delusional Godzilla-like alien buster.
76
…alien buster…
didn’t it ever. His whole fake populist, throw the bastards out/both parties, I am an Independent! rhetoric, is to sell his top to bottom anti immigrant, anti foreigner, anti anti lines.
Bernie Sanders is giving a firebrand anti-bailout speech complete with the names and pics of the Wall Street mega-millionaires – “the bandits” – and the amounts of their golden parachutes. Go Bernie!
This brainfart of the day brought to you by, who else, a kossack:
You wouldn’t be amazed if you’d been paying attention.
So what if America’s financial system is collapsing… Bollywood is on strike!
And billion people on the Indian subcontinent are going to be out on the streets… not in movie theaters. Kuch to hua hai, indeed.
77. Dobbs really is a one-trick pony – the darling of the circus of freaks.
Bollywood on strike.. I am actually surprised. I hope they get better pay, it’s a globally marketed business they work in, after all.
I was right. $250 bn first. $100bn at the discretion of the president. $350bn later. Pure insanity.
81. Yeah, one story I remember hearing (as example of bad working conditions) is how a stagehand got electrocuted by a wind fan on the set of Devdas in front of the film’s star, Aishwarya Rai.
Those speaking in favour of this bull (not a spelling mistake) have somehow morphed into psychics. “I predict we’ll make money on this!”
Maybe if they lose their seats they can start their own psychic hotlines to pay their bills.
Paulson Bank Rescue Proposal Is `Crazy,’ O’Neill Says
Ob full text speech on the floor of the senate, via Ben Smith.
Susan Page on TNH is saying USAToday/Gallup polled and only 20% support The Bail Out. a full 70% want it defeated or very much re worked.
Well ………………………
LINK
New Thread…………………………….
………….. 8) ……………
Where’s Robert Byrd? I’d like to hear what he has to say about this (just because I like the way he talks about things – as if he’s the glorified godfather of the senate.)