[Peace-discuss] Tell them No

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Glenn Greenwald
	MONDAY SEPT. 22, 2008 07:47 EDT
	Growing right-wing opposition to the Paulson plan

"...Congressional Democrats, while largely on board with the fundamentals of the
bailout plan, have been making noises about demanding some limits and oversight
on how this fund is managed ... Democrats typically make noises of this type and
then capitulate at the end if they stand alone. This Paulson bill can be stopped
only with widespread opposition that cuts across the standard
ideological/partisan lines, and it shouldn't be that hard to argue why handing
over $700 billion to the very people who caused this disaster, while allowing
them to walk away soaked with profits, is not a good idea, and that vesting
unlimited power in the Bush administration to manage that is a particularly bad
idea...

"A Rasmussen Reports poll released today found that "most Americans are closely
following news reports on the Bush Administration's federal bailout plan for the
country’s troubled economy, but just 28% support what has been proposed so far."
Thirty-seven percent oppose it and 35% are unsure ... this bailout -- like the
FISA gutting and telecom amnesty which preceded it -- has no real constituency
beyond the Washington establishment. That the public is so opposed and/or primed
to oppose it more doesn't mean this won't pass -- we don't exactly have a
substantial connection between what Washington does and public opinion -- but it
does provide an important foundation for derailing this if political leaders
decide they should or must."

Read the whole article at http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/


E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
> I am told that the number $700 billion for the presently proposed bailout is
> because that is the maximum amount that can be held on some balance sheet 
> because of some rule or statute, and once this proposed bailout power is 
> enacted, the bailout can be invoked in $700 billion chunks (*little bites*).
> The total amount of the accumulated bailouts would then spiral into the
> several trillions.
> 
> ***
> 
> And...War is a Racket, too.
> 
> 
> C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>> "This is an impressive crowd: the haves and the have-mores. Some people
>> call you the elites: I call you my base." --George Bush to a white-tie
>> dinner in New York in 2000
>> 
>> More than war and the deaths of hundreds of thousands, the presidency of
>> Bush has been about enriching the small minority of the very wealthy.  From
>> war contracts to Supreme Court appointments, the paramount concern of this
>> administration has been returns to the top tier of big business.
>> 
>> The result has been growing and accelerating inequality, with the 
>> concomitant impoverishment of Americans and people around the world. Now,
>> in a final act of expropriation, the administration plans to enrich the
>> bankers beyond the dreams of avarice by investing the secretary of the
>> treasury with financial power that fascist governments didn't possess.
>> 
>> Tell them no.
>> 
>> Senator Durbin 202.224.2152 Senator Obama 202.224.2854 Representative
>> Johnson 202.225.2371
>> 
>> --CGE