G’Morning, Christy! Now to read!

Hi there CHS,

This McCain crowd is looking more like the Mafia every day, isn’t it?

Morning Ann! Hope your weather is as gorgeous as ours is this morning…

mo’nin’ christy.

I have really old fashioned ideas about doing actual work for actual money paid, and about profits on actual sales of actual products.

sigh.

The Mafia had a code of honor, I believe. :)

I thought “shakedown” was a particularly apt description for Davis going directly to Freddie Mac and asking them to keep paying his firm in 2006 when he was already working with McCain on his presidential run. It certainly doesn’t say “pure as the driven snow,” now does it? *g*

Clearly we are all behind the times if we aren’t trading our influence for a “no work, all pay” payola gig, eh?

Indeed it is! Would you expect less for fall in Phoenix?

anyone else find it odd that McPain describes regulations as a “burden”? Rules are a burden? Only to a person who plans on taking advantage of people for their own personal selfish one sided gain.

GOP: rules are for the other guy.

bom dia Christy
I heard you yesterday on Rachel’s show. It was great!

Back on topic, hmmmm let’s see paying for access to McCain (how very banana republic)

rent-to-own – wow ! even better than “lay away”

ps – mentioned downstairs there is a total blackout on this story on the rightie blogs – zip, nada, zero, not even the usual “Evil, librul NYT!”

This was my take on the Davis request to Freddie Mac for continued monthly payments without providing work. It was no different in kind from the mob shakedowns fifty years ago portrayed in the movie On the Waterfront. The real difference is the scale, billions of dollars at stake instead of thousands of dollars. Even with inflation, that’s a huge difference.

Well, I consider my firedog friendships priceless and no one paid me to say that! :]

Include in that rule anything remotely having to do with the truth

I love doing Rachel’s show — she’s always so well prepared. :) Thanks much. Glad you enjoyed it!

When is Rachel going to ask you to be on TV?

well, I’m sure they viewed it as basically ‘paying for protection’ — as in protecting their access..

Plus, there are indications that Davis had at least some breakfast meetings (NYTimes says two, I believe) with the president of Freddie Mac within the last two years as well. Did they think that no one would bother looking into any of this? Apparently so.

If I were the media, I’d be combing back through every public statement made about the lobbyists on the McCain campaign team at this point — because the pattern of lies with no thought given to accountability is huge here.

from Glennzilla

. From Professor Sheehan in the interview:
Unfortunately, Mr. Paulson was among those that were creating the problem, rather than warning about the problem. In his role as CEO of Goldman Sachs, Goldman — under his watch — created a whole lot of CDOs [collateralized debt obligations] that now are under the heading of “toxic waste.” So it’s amusing in a twisted way to look at him now as the one who is going to save us from imminent financial collapse, when it was at least in part brought on by the actions of Goldman, in terms of being so liberal in their willingness to create new and improved CDOs.

Where do I send my request to Freddie Mac for monthly payments without providing work? Things are a little tight these days and I could really use it.

In addition, Freddie Mac has had no contact with Davis Manafort other than receiving monthly invoices from the firm and paying them.

I haven’t done anything for Freddie Mac either and they haven’t paid me a dime. They owe me big time. Where do I submit my invoices for work I didn’t do?

I think you can bet the NY Times will do it now. It would be nice of the others follow suit but you’ll forgive me if I don’t hold my breath just yet?

Beat me to it. LOL

Didn’t McShame want to fire the head of the FEC last week

NYT says Davis trotted out his pet Senator for a meet n greet in 2004

ot – i’ve just been listening to some of yesterday’s senate banking committee hearing with bernanke, paulson, cox and lockhart…. and one thing i’ve found quite striking is that the talking points are:

1) must have money now
2) no time to regulate now, that will have to come later.

what this says to me, using klein’s very helpful Shock Doctrine model, is that they don’t have a regulatory proposal at hand. this gives us our opening – if we can pull together a consensus proposal for re-regulation, then our plan will be the “idea on the table.”

imo, regulation ought to be the price for a taxpayer funded backstop anyway. unregulated industries should not have what is in effect an insurance policy for free. and the price of that taxpayer funded insurance is adequate regulation. this has the added benefit of giving a financial incentive for regulation to the industries themselves.

if paulson et al. wants a taxpayer bailout – we can insist they pay a price for it – and the price imo should be: regulation, accountability and transparency – on our terms.

…. just an idea to throw out there ahead of the house financial services committee hearing later today.

Didn’t McShame want to fire the head of the FEC last week

That got postponed because he wasn’t sure if the guy was Sunni or Shia.

Dammit. *wipes tea from front of hoodie* That should have come with a spew warning… *G*

The Reform ‘Doctor’ is covered in Lobbyist Leeches.

Wake Up, America!

imo, regulation ought to be the price for a taxpayer funded backstop anyway.

Ding!

Did they think that no one would bother looking into any of this? Apparently so.
That is The Question, I think. That’s what we in this house were saying yesterday while the Dodd Hearing was going on. “They” really are full o’ gall.
And, there’s an awful lot of other issues on That List. Like No Press Allowed and…well everyone here knows that list.
But, that day is over. People are looking.
(and, btw, got my invite from Begala for Thursday’s Book Salon at 1:30.) Subtle aren’t I?

We also need to impose a transaction tax on the financial entities besides imposing strong oversight

from the Hill
we might have to do a lot more calls

Pelosi won’t jump alone
By Mike Soraghan and Jared Allen
Posted: 09/23/08 07:56 PM [ET]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling Democrats that she will not support President Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial sector unless there is significant Republican support for the controversial plan.

The politics of the bailout are tricky and dangerous for both political parties, particularly since it comes weeks before the presidential and congressional elections.

As a result, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has effectively sent the message that if she is going to jump off a cliff to rescue Wall Street, she wants House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and George W. Bush holding her hands when she leaps.

Bribe the word we are looking for is Bribe Fannie and Fredie were paying McCain’s bagman for protection/favors whatever. This getting paid for no work story is a fairy tale.
BRIBE

It does have a certain corrupt cronyism ring to it, doesn’t it? Bribe…just rolls off the K Street tongue like buttah…

That’s what passes for leadership in Pelosiland! Pity we have such weakness in this party. It’s a very childish attitude: I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.

Here’s the statement just out from the Obama campaign on this mess:

“It is now clear that both John McCain and Rick Davis did not tell the truth about Davis’s continuing financial relationship with Freddie Mac, one of the actors at the center of this financial crisis. It’s troubling not only that Davis’s firm—with which he is still associated and which the McCain campaign paid directly last year—continued to be compensated by Freddie Mac until as recently as last month, but that the firm did little work and apparently was being paid simply to provide access to the McCain campaign.”

“The question that now needs to be answered is this: did Freddie Mac or any other special interests buy access to John McCain by compensating top officials, including Rick Davis?” said Obama-Biden communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Hey Christy, thanks for your posts this AM.

Going a little OT but not quite:

In regards to the bailout. We need a grassroots/netroots movement on this ASAP. Big like FISA. Is anyone in the netroots going to come up with a list of issues to support on the bailout? I think the cap on CEO payouts is just a shiny object to “look” like there is regulation on this. Unfortunately, it still puts Paulson and cronies “in charge”. This scheme borders on taxation without representation. We did not elect officials to turn over our hard earned tax dollars to an unregulated body (individuals who were not elected). My civic understanding is that tax spending falls under a budget approval process and oversight of elected officials.

A bailout should fall under these guidelines entrusted by the public and built by the public as long as public dollars are the foundation to the bailout.

Now, if Mr. Buffet wants to take on some portion of picking up the bailout himself, with his own cash, he can go for it. For that matter, Mr. Paulson is welcome to reach into his own pocket and make a small portion of the bailout on his own and actually “own” it and manage it privately. He can decide whatever he damn well pleases. As long as our tax dollars are at stake (and our childrens’ future) NO WAY should our elected officials just give the money over.

I’m looking for a petition…If there is one up in the netroots…I’ll go sign it and make calls.

If I’m not mistaken, Paulson said yesterday that they themselves had not included any oversight/regualtory models because they deemed it to be “too presumptuous” Not that asking for 700 billion sans oversight, regulation and details is presumptuous

Ron Paul is causing Bernanke’s head to explode right now.

selise,

I totally agree. You beat me to it.

We the People have an opening here. Let’s get our plan with regulatory measures on the table and move it through. The CEO cap/payout limit is just pitiful window dressing to shut us up.

You know, back in May the McCain campaign took a strong stand against lobbyists. From Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic:

After a series of disclosures forced the resignation of two McCain campaign aides with ties to unsavory regimes, the campaign has decided to scrutinize the background of the entire staff to ferret out connections to lobbyists.

This morning, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge, Rick Davis, the campaign manager, e-mailed to McCain’s entire staff a memo entitled “McCain Campaign Conflicts Policy” — Effective Today” that includes a questionnaire asking about previous professional activities.

One of the questions asks: “Have you ever been a registered lobbyist at either the Federal or State level?” Another asks: “Have you ever been a registered foreign agent? A third asks staff members to list all of their previous lobbying or foreign government clients.

All staff members are required to submit the form to McCain’s campaign counsel, Trevor Potter and his staff, for their review.

Employees who lie about their affiliations will be fired. The new conflicts policy prohibits campaign staffers from being “registered lobbyist or foreign agent, or receive compensation for any such activity.”

[Emphasis added above]

I sure hope Rick Davis didn’t lie to the campaign counsel about his compensation arrangements.

Truemajority.org is working on phone calls & protests.

Our pressure is working. Already this week, TrueMajority members have made almost 20,000 calls to tell their Senators “NO” to the Bush corporate bailout. Now news is beginning to come out that some lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, are having second thoughts about going along with the administration’s plan.

We can put the brakes on this.

Tomorrow, Thursday, September 25th at 5 pm ordinary Americans are organizing Emergency Rallies against the Bailout nationwide. Other TrueMajority members have already started 75 rallies in their towns, will you join them?

ATTEND AN EMERGENCY RALLY AGAINST THE BAILOUT

We also need to impose a transaction tax on the financial entities besides imposing strong oversight

imo a transaction tax could be included in the regulation.

wrt to oversight, one thing i’d like to stress is something that 110th congress has taught me: oversight is not accountability. i used to think that accountability was implicitly included when people talked about oversight, but that’s just not true – at least in the way our congress practices oversight. we have all manner of hearings, IG reports, etc and no accountability.

Actually this is not a bad idea. This is potentially a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation that the rethugs will use to attack regardless of if or how it is done. Insisting on their participation takes it off the table for Nov 4.

Should we start the clock on how long it will take to announce Rick is off the campaign?

All of that should have been inside the quote.

is that they don’t have a regulatory proposal at hand. this gives us our opening – if we can pull together a consensus proposal for re-regulation, then our plan will be the “idea on the table.”

Doesn’t Dodd have a counter proposal? Maybe Dodd could bypass the Senate and do question and answer sessions about his plan to the blogs to build up public support for his plan.
Also lets wait until after the election to pass something sure Bush wants to force us to vote on his fatcat giveaway or have the GOP run against a do nothing Congress.
But I think just from the news coverage I’ve seen that Bush’s hopes on that front are fading.
I think the MSM talent finally looked at their stock options.

Great point

Pretty sure that mailing went out to everyone. It was really nice of him to offer to do that for us — the infrastructure for setting up the book salon, and the huge amount of work that goes into the bookings and finding hosts and such takes a LOT of work. Bev does such a great job for us, but with our recent switch to better servers and improved coding, we’ve had to incur some serious expenses.

So I really, really appreciate Paul Begala being willing to make an effort on our behalf to ask for a chip in as thanks for the support we try to give progressive authors and the access we try to give everyone to a number of other folks (like being able to ask Woodward a number of questions yesterday, some of which he actually answered — which puts him higher on the Book Salon ladder than Mark Penn, I believe. *g*)

Good point. Avoid the word oversight and focus on policy and regulation points which would create accountability.

hugh has the start of a list that he has posted here several times. hopefully he is still here to post it, but if not i’ll dig it up and link to it.

Aren’t we skating dangerously close to conflict of interest here? Can he still vote on the financial crisis?

As a result, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has effectively sent the message that if she is going to jump off a cliff to rescue Wall Street, she wants House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and George W. Bush holding her hands when she leaps.

In many ways, this is the essence of what is wrong with Washington. It wouldn’t even occur to any of these clowns to reach out to the American people and ask for their support. This isn’t about support. It’s about cover.

Many sites have petitions. I think I signed about 15 yesterday. Will check to see which ones.

I’m thinking he’ll go out with the trash on Friday evening, during the debate.

“The question that now needs to be answered is this: did Freddie Mac or any other special interests buy access to John McCain by compensating top officials, including Rick Davis?” said Obama-Biden communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Nobody gets paid for doing nothing its up to McCain now to prove that he or his campaign are not guilty of being Bribed.

Biden is on the case!

Is there any unified point by points on these petitions like we had with FISA?

Or is it just a general “no” to the bailout type of petitions?

John McCain: “Rent to Own”. Funniest thing I’ve heard this morning. 707!

McCain’s proof will be that he was a POW so stop asking.

I saw something the other day (CNN perhaps) where the McCain camp was making a furtive attempt to tie David Axelrod to a firm that he was associated with that might have know someone who knew how to spell “Freddie Mac,” or something to that effect.

Any chance the McCain folks continue the “he did it too” vein or is that being proved as an obvious canard?

Real good question

I asked this yesterday – doesn’t Congress go home next week? There’s really no time to do anything half way decent on this bailout thing.

I don’t think there is any provision that can keep a duly elected Senator or Representative from voting on a piece of legislation before the Congress. There may be customs and informal procedures, but constitutionally, if something is put up for a vote in Congress and you’re a member of Congress, NOTHING can *legally* be done to stop you from casting your vote, regardless of conflicts.

It’s pretty general but it gave me great pleasure to sign them all.

OT: It strikes me as the height of insanity to turn over $700B to a lame-duck secretary of the treasury, with less than four months left to serve. IMHO, the people’s interest will not be foremost in his mind. And, with that much of the people’s money in his pocket, he can do a lot to further the future interests of himself and his associates. Just sayin’.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling Democrats that she will not support President Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial sector unless there is significant Republican support for the controversial plan.

I have a better idea for Nancy-Pants, how about she doesn’t agree to support it at all? “Significan Republican Support” means absolutely nothing with these lying, arrogant, greedy bastards. They’d sell her and her family into penury tomorrow if they figured they could make a profit from the deal.

She really needs to get a fucking clue.

I’m not certain that conflict of interest applies in terms of Senators being able to vote on legislation. Otherwise, Ted Stevens would have had to abstain from most of last year. *G*

But yes, it certainly does raise a host of questions on who influences his vote and why, doesn’t it? Especially given that — as US News reported in something I linked on Monday — McCain has more than 20 advisors and fundraisers who were paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alone. Including one of the “deans” of DC lobbying, heading up his “transition team” — William Timmons.

Join the Nation Progressive Book Club and get one heck of a deal.

Shameless plug from a Nation reader

Doesn’t Dodd have a counter proposal?

yes.

i’ve read it, and imo, it sucks. (see my comments on this thread, especially here and here)

don’t want to take anything away from dodd, because i really like his recent work on habeas corpus and fisa. but on this issue, i don’t think he gets it – at all. hopefully, since he seems like a good guy and someone we’ve worked with in the past, he will give us a listen. but unless we (or events) can convince him to change his views, then i don’t see him as someone we can count on to write good regulation.

Has anyone asked the question “Does Rick Davis have a personal consulting contract with Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac?” Seems to me McSames campaign could still hold that Davis Manfort has no agreement, without need to answer if any personal consulting agreements exist outside the partnership.

This isn’t about support. It’s about cover.

exactly.

i don’t think “leader” means what pelosi thinks it does.

I’m pushing for the folloing two bailout principles:

* value-for-value transactions: Corporations that accept bailout money must, in exachange give, the taxpayers assets (realestate plus equity) whose current market value matches or exceeds the amount of their bailout.

* Homeowners’ rights of first refusal: whenever a home mortgage is to be sold, the homeowner gets to acquire that property by matching that price within a certain time limit. To assist homeowners in financing acquisition or pay-off of their mortgages, the government should re-establish the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) of the early 1930s.

They were trying last week to tie a fellow who has not advised Obama at all to the Obama campaign — Michael at Balloon Juice called it crapola, as did others.

They are asking these questions NOW????? Well, given the quality of vetting they gave Palin, I suppose this is only par for the course – definitely a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ group, huh?

they don’t have to go home

IF, this bailout is SO important in keeping the country and global economy from crashing how about Congress decide to not go on recess.

It’s. That. Important.

When I have a huge pressing issue which could “fold the company” as a salaried worker I am expected to put in whatever time it takes to FIX IT. No clock to punch. No weekend. Just an expectation to FIX IT.

Note to Congress.

No recess. It’s FIX IT time.

This is a slightly updated list:

What Treasury should be doing at the moment instead of this $700 billion boondoggle is assessing what the various tranches of mortgages are worth. As the bubble became more frenzied, less and less info and credit worthiness were needed for the loans. Then the individual loans were combined and mixed good and bad to get an acceptable rating from the ratings agencies. So in general the later tranches are likely to be more toxic than their earlier counterparts. The degree of toxicity can also be determined by sampling the various types.

Treasury can start by saying something like the base value of any tranch is the face value minus 40% minus a figure based on a sliding scale of tranches of various ages. Now this may seem arbitrary (because any valuation will be to some extent) but it would allow holders of mortgage backed securities to actually come up with a real value for these assets and provide an agreed upon basis for financial companies around the world to see how good or how poor their positions are.

The 40% is a starting figure but it can be adjusted or added on to with equity in the companies from which the tranches are being purchased from.

Under the current plan, Paulson would be buying the securitized instruments not the mortgages themselves. This is insane. If the money is going to be spent, then the government should get title. This would also help in turning around financing to long term fixed rate mortgages on these properties.

Now if these mortgages are going to be so converted to fixed types, somebody is going to have to write those mortgages. This means forcing regular banks to make such loans and hold a certain percentage of them for their life. If others are passed on, then there have to be strict rules about how they are bundled and rated, and to what extent any leveraging can be done off them.

Next I would plain and simply nullify the credit default swaps. I would require that companies that sold these refund the fees to buyers.

I would then give financial institutions 30 days to assess their exposure based on the guidelines I had set up.

And only after I got a chance to look at and run the numbers would I start talking ballpark figures for the money I thought I would need to address the problem.

Along with this, I would re-impose Glass-Steagall, usury laws, and leverage limits and increase reserve requirements for financial institutions. I would limit derivative exposure of an institution to some figure, say 25% of its net worth. I would require transparency to the government and stockholders on the positions that an institution holds. Finally, more for commodities markets, I would limit who could trade in them, i.e. keep the commercial and physical speculators and throw out the non-commercial traders.

So, there’s no such thing as recusal, like judges do when they are compromised?

One thing for sure is that Section 8 should be taken out of the deal…dealbraker for sure!

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Are we living in a Banana Republic?

Come on he is wearing that get out of jail card out by using it on everything if anything when John pulls the POW card on non vet issues it means that he is desperate.
That and I think that the voters are catching on. I want McCain to keep using the POW card. Like when Dole kept saying the word Liberal when he ran against Bill one word mantras as a response to everything shows….that you got nothing.

OT Biden speech – smack, smack, kerpow, – John McShames judgement is rooted in something I simply cannot understand.

Bluster is the key word he is hanging on McShame

Yeah don’t pass anything until after the election. When we will hav even bigger majorities and can make better deals.

McCain’s Campaign is a Mirror Image of the Problem with Wall Street – Privatize the Profit, Socialize the Cost.

What else should We have expected?

The Top Tier of his Campaign Management Team are Influence Peddlers, many of them from…wait for it…Wall Street.

It’s enough to Make You Suspect McCain is as Owned by Wall Street as Palin is by the Extremists…

The Lobbyists certainly appear to have figured out, long ago, how to Wind the Key on McCain’s Back, and Send him out to do ‘Political’ War – armed with Proposed Legislation that they wrote for him.

The only thing that’s different now is that their ‘Proposed Legislation’ is McCain for President.

This time, the Lobbyists are trying to Buy the Presidency – For Their Benefit – at Our Expense.

Sound Familiar?

hugh has been arguing that “what is important is for the government to get a hold of the mortgages because without clear title it can’t convert them into safer long term fixed rate ones.”

His POW status has zip to do with vets issues.

Ron Paul just pressed Bernanke on where the FED gets the constitutional Authority to create debt from thin air.

Bernanke proclaimed that the Constitution granted the Government the Authority to “Coin Money” – and that Congress had subsequently shifted that authority to the FED…to which Paul reiterated “COIN MONEY!”

Bernanke then went on to say that if Congress wished to revisit that authority, that it was within its right to do so.

DO IT. Ron Paul is right. The FED has NO AUTHORITY under the US Constitution to create debt from thin air. They were only subcontracted the task of “coining money,” which at the time meant silver.

Now is the time to abolish the FED and regain control of our own coining of money…gold and silver money…REAL money.

They don’t have to go but I sometimes think we are better off if they are out of town. The Rs have to madly campaign trying to hold on to the seats they have – many less after the election, I think.

I’m thinking that that lame-duck Secretary of the Treasury just might have in mind spending the entire $700B before a new administration takes over. Also, I have a sneaky feeling that $700B is only the initial downpayment.

thank you.

yes

Damm I like Dodd too, fine then we wait until after the election to pass something when minds are free from the burden of election and Bush screaming pass this now.

No, they were asking them IN MAY, while Davis was cashing his checks from Davis & Manafort.

That’s chutzpah — cashing checks from your own lobbying firm while sending out an email to the entire campaign staff . . .

Also, gang, if folks wouldn’t mind giving this post a Digg, I’d appreciate it. And, if you are so inclined — please consider using the Spotlight feature for this post. Especially to reporters who have been working the national campaign beat quite a bit.

I think media types need to be asking more of these detail and fact questions. Because it’s clearly agitating the McCain campaign to be asked about all of this backroom smarm.

Which says to me we ought to be asking about it more often. Just think of it as doing your part to give Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis a swell day

Ya’ll get that paypal fixed yet?

Ha! I didn’t mean to make it sound like it was a hand delivered, gold plated one to me only. I was just lifting that event up here. *g*
And, I appreciate his doing the tie-in to the FDL fundraiser. He’s a “good un”.

It would be great to get some other organizations and respected finance folks (something big like the NY state bar letter on FISA) to sign onto these. It seems like a Strange Bedfellows moment here folks?

It’s our $$$ and We the People need to give our say. If we do not stand united on policy points, we will only have ourselves to blame for not acting in an organized and informed manner.

Can’t seem to get the House finance committee to work. Links anyone?

The Committee feed is not working here

yes, many less — its a sweet sweet thought, more & better Democrats.

So, how do the dems frame that? We’re going on recess and will deal with this after we have a better understanding of what we’re facing? I don’t know if that will fly. Maybe it will since so many are against this bailout. But if the markets plummet…..

Not sure — I asked the tech folks to work on it, but I haven’t gotten an e-mail back to say they have. Let me check and I’ll let you know…forgot to ask about it after Saturday, because I’ve been digging on Rick Davis. Sorry about that! Hold on a sec…

I am told that it should be fixed now. If you have any problems, though, let me know, please.

OT but PBS’s Now program has a poll as to whether people think Sarah Palin is qualified to be VP – this is a program for informed people and the results aren’t great right now so head on over there firepups.

The Dems need to stay in Washington and not go on recess. Obama should encourage this big time.

I’d like to hear what Elliot Spitzer is thinking. They must have a whole lot that they’re blackmailing him with to stay hidden during this.

Ooops — meant to give you the direct link, Raven — here you go…

Thanks for staying all over this story until the national media is forced to cover it, Christy. You’re like Ed McCaffrey with a bone is his teeth!

then we wait until after the election to pass something when minds are free from the burden of election and Bush screaming pass this now.

not if you believe klein’s Shock Doctrine model is what is operating. the ideas we have on the table NOW are what matter. if we wait, we will have to contend the regulatory proposals the financial industries have come up with and already passed through congress.

Now should be taken to the woodshed over that poll, where you can vote as many times as you like. It’s totally stupid. Don’t waste your time.

I did the Spotlight, Christy. The American People need to know who’s on the take here.

Thanks, Toby — much appreciated!

I’m not sure what stage his case is in (lawyers out there?), but I think that our former governor is a) grinding his teeth and hitting his head on the wall foe being such a stupid git, b)keeping his mouth shut to ‘live to fight another day.”

Grit tv up

Not true (other than in the sense all online polls are somewhat bogus) – try to vote again and a message comes up saying that your initial vote was registered and will only be counted once.

It only just started, try again

It does state that it’s not a scientific poll, however.

Well then they’ve changed it. A few days ago I voted a couple of dozen times.

Worked, as Bill Murray said in Caddy Shack ” a little something for the effort”!

The House hearing is on CSPAN 3. Paulson and Bernanke are expected to testify until 2:30 ET.

Biden gave a heck of a foreign policy speech a few minutes ago. But did he just telegraph all of Obama’s arguments for Friday night?

Luckily, he did it on national teevee, and it will be on tape. The McCrazy camp will never find it.

No more so than both Biden and Obama did in their Denver speeches. I think the Biden speech was a preview, but they saved more back for Friday, I’d bet…

The election is the first Tuesday in November. The new Congress would not take office until the first week of January. If there’s a delay until after the election, it means a “lame-duck” session at which all those who lost will be even more inclined to show their true colors.

Meaning do it now while some of them at least are willing to pretend to be on the side of the taxpayer rather than wait until after November.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

This puts the lie that Paulson thought asking for oversight was presumptuous and that he really really wants oversight. He actively was working against oversight, vs. leaving out any language at all. jerk.

His Foreign Policy shouldn’t be a super secret surprise, should it? I think the public deserve to know what all of the candidate feel about these issues. All of them, even the girl.

Thanks. I wish this stuff was on the teevee machine.

This Friday’s debate will be on national security, but is there a theme for the VP debate, and if so, what is that theme? Anybody?

It would be fun to see McCain’s wiring fail during the debate so that he’s left being more incoherent than usual. bzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzz

Just following the Key Lay model.

Keep telling employees to buy more stock in Enron while you are selling it as fast as you can.

Style. Personal appeal. With whom the American public would prefer to go to a PTA meeting.

There is no central theme. All questions are on the table, as requested by the Dems. Also, the time allowed to respond to the questions is short, as requested by the Reps – presumably to prevent Palin from digging herself too deep a hole.

i didn’t catch who said it (i’m betting it was a replublican), but here’s an alternative proposal that was just made in the hearing:

temporary suspension of the capital gains tax will provide an additional 1 trillion to market liquidity

thanks. i will look for it later. what station?

I’ve been railing about the Enron style of government for a while now. Big fat liars, bushco is.

I just saw this Christy – I’m now doubly in awe of Rachel – she’s a Rhodes scholar. http://www.prospect.org/cs/art…..changer_08

I’m telling ya, the ceo’s should hold their own block party to raise funds from their own community to save their own asses. Hey! CEOs! Paulson!

YOYO!!!!

Lindsay has a brand new post up at Silo entitled: Obama Up 9 Points on Economic Issues

sorry – phone won’t stop

I saw it on MSNBC – they’ll probably have clips throughout the day.

frank is leaving the hearing temporarily to meet with dodd. wish i could listen in on that one.

thanks.

This was mentioned at TPM. It is a proposal by the Republican Study Committee a group of small government conservatives led by Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). It makes no sense since it assumes that those who would so benefit would rush in to do their own bailout.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…..ase_al.php

The Pentagon budget hits new record in spending bill. A bill that is not being mentioned in the media.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/new…..ding-bill/

Kansas senator (D) saying bush MIA.

McCain tends to do really well in a town hall format — so don’t think he won’t be prepped, because he will. It’s dangerous to underestimate. McCain sucks with teleprompters, but he does really well when it’s an extemporaneous back and forth.

Friday will not be a gimme by any stretch. And McCain has done a LOT more of those than Obama has through the years, which gives him an advantage in terms of nerves, I think.

Me, too — would love to be a fly on THAT wall. *G*

I still go back to Dodd biting his lip during the NewHour on Monday as Kyl made his closing remarks on “no time must act NOW” mantra.

I too would love to hear what Dodd and Frank are saying.

Al Green from houston preaching my gospel right now!

why bail out wall street when we couldn’t end homelessness among veterans or vote for schip?

my point exactly! thank you, Mr. green

i’m going by dodd’s proposal and what i’ve heard him say :(

It sounds like a cheap midnight ad, doesn’t it?

Don’t delay! Act now! This “offer” expires tomorrow!

Do you think that is what the netroots should do? Or do we need to add more to his proposal?

I know it’s easy to knock this bailout — I’m not thrilled about it, either.

But it needs to happen. The unforeseen consequences of not acting would be too great.

Of course there should be rigorous oversight by congress, restrictions on executive pay, and warrants for the govt. to participate should any profits be made.

Needless to say, many parts of Glass-Steagall need to come back, and the use derivatives needs to be dramatically scaled back.

Isn’t he awesome?

I agree. My parents would lose their retirement.

The two Kansas senators are both R’s – Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback. I can’t conceive of either of them calling Bush MIA.

Perhaps someone from another state?

sad to say, i think the dodd proposal is not acceptable. not even close. see my comment at 71 for links to yesterday’s discussion.

dosido @137, hugh @142 – yeah, total bs. but was new to me.

McCain tends to do really well in a town hall format — so don’t think he won’t be prepped, because he will. It’s dangerous to underestimate. McCain sucks with teleprompters, but he does really well when it’s an extemporaneous back and forth.

I know that’s the CW, but isn’t that the format where he busted out with “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”, and who can forget “stay 100 or 1000 years in Iraq?”

I agree the Obama camp can’t underestimate McCain, but I’ve long thought McCain’s only inches from public meltdown if the right button gets pushed.

Now I’ve got you. You had me wondering because Dodd’s proposal does not quite fit with Hugh’s list. Now your :( makes sense! Gosh, I miss snark when I’m on serious issues. Forgive me.

Have any citizens lobbied Dodd with other ideas? He was so responsive on FISA. I bet he would be responsive here.

I agree. My parents would lose their retirement.

That’s the type of unintended consequences I’m talking about.

People who are as far away from Wall Street as you can get will lose tens of thousands of dollars they cannot afford to.

And, if retired, they won’t have time to make it back.

Capital gains on 700 billion would be more equity than that. I imagine they were, of course, being conservative as usual.

Now if they are suggesting a temporary (6 months) would do it, without the bailout…Hmmm… I am assuming that figure was with the bailout of course.

Christy, you’re paying too much attention to their distractions. It doesn’t matter whether Davis is or was an employee, or whether the firm paid Davis. Davis owns a large share of Davis Manafort, which is why his name appears first. Every dime that anyone pays to the firm benefits Davis, even while he is on a “leave of absence”.

It’s nonsense to claim that Davis is “no longer receiving income” from the firm that he owns. That’s just accounting. He can benefit by receiving a salary, or he can benefit by having his share of the firm he co-owns become more valuable.

i’m trying to do 6 things at once and am probably even more incoherent than usual. thanks for the effort to figure out what i was trying to say.

will look for you and everyone else on an appropriate thread upstairs.