Hi Ian.

Since I wasn’t born yestidie, I’ll await further updates from you. ;->

paulson should go back to the Adams Family laboratory, and stay there.

Sorry to go OT Ian, but I need moderator help on my diary to fix a mistake. I can’t figure out how to do it myself.

On topic, though, this will be a good situation to test Obama. Eagerly awaiting what he will do.

I wonder if Paulson has another 2 1/2 page plan for Obama.

I think we should hold our fire, keep our powder dry, wait and see BUT MAKE ABSOLUTELY NO DEMANDS ON OBAMA. And keep impeachment off the table but fix up teleco immunity FAST.

The bill was set up so that Paulson would get an initial $250 billion. He would get the next $100 billion with a simple notification of Congress. The only way Congress could block the disbursement of the other $350 billion was by a joint resolution. Since Bush could veto this, it would require a 2/3 Congressional override to be effective.

But what you are saying sounds like there was a deal on the side where Paulson got the first $350 billion and whoever won the election would control the second half. Now Paulson seems to be trying to welch on this? It wouldn’t surprise me. He’s a crook and like everyone else in the Bush Administration will loot the place until the last minute.

“Oh I’m sure that they’ll tell Obama they’ll spend it wisely, and I’m sure they’ll threaten him with economic apocalypse if they don’t get the cash.”

One really has to wonder how much worse it could be right now if they had just taken the time to do it right to begin with.

I hope, no I PRAY, Obama is not a putz!

So I’m sure Obama will tell them to take a hike.

Right?

look, obama was informed this bailout was going to fail, that it was focusing on the wrong segment and that there was no oversite

he wasn’t “fooled” the first time he gave money away on purpse, I see no reason he’s not going to do the same

let’s hope I am wrong but I just don’t see it from this man yet

My Clinton number in the diary was wrong. Correct # is 22.7. Other numbers for Clinton were accurate. Mod fixed it for me. Thanks for picking up on it. I noticed it was higher than I remembered, but thought maybe it was a revision until your comment made me go back & double check.

Saw your comment and really enjoyed your post.

In the new post partisan world why wouldn’t Obama give a thief like Paulson the rest of the bankers bailout money? Hands reaching across the aisle into the pockets of the American public is the change we are supposed to believe in.

OT -
From CQ -

Send Dollar Bill to the CIA
By Jeff Stein, CQ Staff

Anyone connected to post-Sept. 11 “enhanced interrogation measures,” no matter at arm’s length, is apparently disqualified to run Barack Obama ’s spy agency.

Hence the immolation of former National Counterterrorism Center chief John Brennan, the president-elect’s closest intelligence adviser, as the lead candidate to run the spy agency.

The left-wing hit job on Brennan showed that liberals may have a taste for covert action after all, the spooks chuckle.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…..0002993910

i’m surprised paulson is even bothering to ask…

Siun’s upstairs with
We Don’t Leave ‘Til We Get Paid

In truth, don’t you think accountability and all that you are now asking Paulson, etal to be responsible for was something that the Congress should have demanded in writing before they accepted this legislation? With all those legal eagles in the Legislature, all those years of experience, all that expertise in writing contracts, etc., it all seems to just be wasted once they get into office and have to raise funds for reelection every 2-6 years. And btw, that includes Obama!

Paulson is a fairly amazing person. It took Bush 8 years to cement his reputation as the worst President in our history. Paulson managed to become the worst Treasury Secretary in our history in a mere 2 1/2 years.

Here’s my favorite part of that article

“The dirty little secret, “ he added, “is that very little has been going on since [Sept. 11] that hasn’t gone on for the last 30 years.”

Now if I had typed something like that, you all would have accused me of denigrating our great spy agency.

They don’t need someone to run it. They need to disband it.

And he didn’t even start trying until the last 6 months. (He was working on it earlier but we couldn’t see what he was doing.)

No more Bailout Money for Banks – that raise rates on their customers.

Citigroup just raised interest rates on credit cards – some rates now as high as 20.99%, and some even got the max at 29.99%

It’s ridiculous that they are using Taxpayer money to maintain their million-dollar salaries and bonuses – but they still get to gouge the customer – who lost their job – because of them.

Stop the bailout money now!

I really have to hope you are wrong – and Obama does the right thing with this.

a real crisis has a way of separating the people playing a role from those who actully think they have some responsibility for trying to get it done right.

I hope Obama does the right thing, but for the moment I don’t trust him any farther than I can throw Larry Summers.

Here’s my favorite part of that article

“The dirty little secret, “ he added, “is that very little has been going on since [Sept. 11] that hasn’t gone on for the last 30 years.”

Sure! Next y’all be tellin’ me that Valerie Plame is not a saint! /s

Perhaps Paulson could use his sidekick Geithner to whisper into Obama’s ear.

Or Bob Rubin.

Why the Dems continue to be fooled over and over again by these shysters is beyond me. We could have every single Democratic constituent tell them not to do what these shysters say, and they would do so anyway.

NotonlyButalso: CITI’s increased rates will apply to EXISTING balances on purchases, advances, etc., you thought you made (in good faith) at a lower rate. What’s the Latin for Buyer’s Grandchildren Beware?

Surely any and all on the left who study neo con “principles” and agendas can see that Paulson only stated that about half of the initial bailout money would be left for the new administration was just a diversionary tactic. The Bushies, sucking up to neocon/Norquist ideas, are near gleeful that precious little money will be left for the Obama administration to fund social programs and infrastructure rebuilding.

Anyone who even imagines that the right doesn’t bathe with glee in the notion of a well off landed elite to lord it over the proletariat is smoking crack.

It is class war, deliberate and intentional, and they are dedicated to winning.

It’s not a matter of being fooled; it’s a matter of collusion.

Why the corrupt morons in the Bush Administration ought to be taken at their word for anything is beyond me. Nobody, apparently including themselves, knows where the money they already spent went and they’re asking for more? Paulson’s a panic stricken idiot, not the kind of person you want in charge of rescuing a kitten from a lilac bush, much less the nation’s economy. We’re going to be lucky if the country’s still in one piece by the time these fools get booted out the door.

Paulson has used the TARP money as a personal slush fund to bail out his friends and make sure no one important loses their job

s

anyone Paulson feels is important

I don’t know if it’s true, but one report/rumor that floated after JFK’s assassination was that after he became president and found out their (CIA’s) dirty secrets and that he was planning to do away with it, so he was done away with.

I’m older than water; my view is that the lunatics have taken over the madhouse.

(wearing my 1950s aluminum collander hat and have my great-grandaddy’s hay fork handy by the front door…..)

I tip my collander to all of you here at FDL – you’re the greatest!

I hope Obama does the right thing, but for the moment I don’t trust him any farther than I can throw Larry Summers.

I totally agree with you.

I’m really disappointed about the contrasting way the “financial institutions” bail-out has been handled vs. that of the auto industry. I have no love for auto company executives and the crap they’ve pulled over the last 30+ years, but $30 billion or $60 billion is a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to what sloshes out of the TARP trough.

No more money for those investment bank pigs, and no $400 million for naming “Citicorp” stadium!

If we make it through December, everything’s gonna be alright I know………

I’m trying hard not to think of them as colluding criminals, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt…by thinking of them as incompetent gullible rubes.

Not much of an improvement, I’ll grant. But I’ll take it.

Obama agrees to help Paulsen and give him the last 350.

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has agreed to accompany Treasury Department officials to meet with Capitol Hill leaders to help the Bush administration gain access to the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package, government sources familiar with the matter said.

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot…..asury.html

So much for Dems gaining a backbone …

Why would Bam give it away 45 days or so before he takes office. Sounds incredible to me.