Bush Plan To Bail Out Wall Street

Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke want the largest financial bailout in our nation's history with no oversight and no accountability. I have watched the Banking Committee hearings on CSpan today with growing fear and agitation. There were moments of reason and sanity, mainly from Dodd, Hagel, Schumer and Tester. Newcomer John Tester was a star in insisting that there be a benefit to the homeowner whose house has lost it's value through now fault of his own, the farmer, the main street small business owner, the small town rural citizens who have played by the rules and worked hard all their lives--they should not be forgotten as the stake holders in this debacle. I am paraphrasing, but Tester and the others expressed incredulity that we, the innocent victims of misleading sales pitches for refinancing our homes and small businesses are now being asked to pay for Wall Street's excesses and Bush administration's determined lack of regulation and oversight. Paulson and Bernanke are giving us five to ten days to fork over our futures and any hope we ever had for a better life for our children, without rules in place and no idea what we're buying, and whether we will ever see a return on our investment in Wall Street's glutonous, greedy, frenzy of bloated bonuses and Golden Parachutes--which sounds every bit as obscene as it, in fact, is. Just for starters they want a trillion dollars of our hard earned. And we get nothing in return, and if they run off to Argentina with the loot, too bad, sucker!

Seize These Bastard's Assets

From the New York Times:
This link gives you all the CEO's of the entities we have bailed out so far, and the amount of their bonuses and golden parachutes. If you or I had a business and ran it badly, would we get bailed out? I want someone to explain to me why these bastards are rewarded for their failures. Not just failures, but failures that are putting our entire economy at risk, our future as a nation at risk. If you know the answer to this question, please tell me.

Not So Funny Money

Cash For Trash is the title of the op-ed piece written by Paul Krugman today in the New York Times. It speaks for itself.

Krugman was on Keith Olbermann tonight trying to explain why giving anyone in the Bush administration total control over roughly a trillion dollars in tax payer money, borrowed from China and other big stakes holders in our adventure in Iraq with no oversight and no recourse to remedy if it's merely stolen, lets say, for instance, is a really, really, colossally bad idea. Henry Paulson has come up with a three page plan outlining how we the people don't need to know how this trillion is going to actually be spent to prop up a bunch of crooks and liars in the failed financial industry. And oh, don't worry, trust us, we know what we're doing, so there can be no legal remedy if we fuck you over once again. Why not? We have fallen for the neocons fucktardary before. Maybe we really are that dumb.

I sure as hell hope our elected Representatives are not that damn dumb, but I've been wrong again and again betting on the Democrats in Congress to block this kind of crap. Please Congress, do not screw us once again. We are sore and tired, and about to lose our homes, our savings, our jobs, our retirement and health care.

"... a significant problem that will affect the average citizen ..." WTF?

How much would universal health care cost? I dunno, but 700 billion might be a good start. Now, I know there are other variables involved, it's not just an item on display at the supermarket of things, but ....

I read this curious quote from dickface, er ... bushfuck, er ... well you know who, over at Democracy Now and I thought WTF?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, this is a big price tag, because it’s a big problem. I told our people I don’t want to be timid in the face of a significant problem that will affect the average citizen. You know, some say, well, this is—we could contain this to just the financial community. In my judgment, based upon the advice of a lot of people who know how markets work, this wasn’t going to be contained to just the financial community. This problem could—would spread to the average citizen. You know, you hear them talk about Wall Street and Main Street, well, this is Wall Street plus Main Street, and I’m worried about Main Street.

Like lack of health care doesn't affect the average citizen on Main Street. What an asshole. I was convinced long ago that the man is really just too stupid to know that he's completely full of shit. Two weeks ago everybody in this administration would have laughed at the idea of coming up with 700 billion dollars to do anything. This is why I don't like following politics. The lies and hypocrisy are so thick it defies logic and boggles the mind. And it's all done with a straight face.

Thanks Unconventional Conventionist for Giving Me Something Worth Stealing Once Again

This may be the best new band I've ever seen or heard. I love the hair, the chicks, the old boys in their Communist Uniforms, the songs they cover. But most of all they did it my way.

Women Against Sarah Palin

Please read the words of the women who have contributed to this blog. I too am a woman against Sarah Palin. I am a woman against John McCain. I am a woman against deregulation of our financial institutions. I am a woman against the War In Iraq. Please add you voice to this blog. It is simply called Women Against Sarah Palin. I have been a fiminist all my adult life. I support women where ever I can, but I will not support a woman who is a proponent of the failed strategies and policies of the eight long years of the Bush Administration. It has been the worst goverment in my life time. I am sixty four. We have to go back to Herbert Hoover to find another governing style that has been as disastrous for our country.

The Ageless Hippie Chick Is Putting Her Money Where Her Mouth Is

Linda Sama, our friend and soul sister, is going to Iowa to volunteer for the Obama Campaign. Which means she will be shutting down her blog until after the election. I applaud this activism and wish we were all going to Iowa to help. I am going to volunteer at the Obama HQ in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake might very well vote for Obama. But it's the rest of this state that will go with the war mongering, privatizing, break the government so we can dispense with it crowd. Sadly, Utah is the reddest of the red states. Thanks to the far right's neanderthal "family values," that want to take away women's rights to choose. Mormon's want to teach creationism in the biology classes, and give vouchers to "alternative" schooling, (i.e. home schooling, and religious educational institutions). Besides that, Mormons do what "The Church" tells them to, like a lot of other states where there is one strong paternalistic religion that dominates. I guess it is a bit redundant to use the word "paternalistic" in reference to organized religions.

We will miss you while you're gone Linda. But I know you will make a difference. If I lived in your neck of the woods, I might very well join you. If it turns out Colorado or Nevada are going to be very close, I may go do what you are doing in Iowa.

So, to all of you passionately committed liberal bloggers out there, if you can't volunteer somewhere, or make calls on your cell phone to help get out the vote in a state that's going to be close, please, please donate ten or twenty or thirty dollars to the Obama Campaign. I have been doing that since Barack beat Hillary in the North Carolina Primary. Every month when I see what I have left from my Social Security check (which feeds me and pays my utilities) I send that amount to Barack. Please join me. Every dollar helps.

And to you my dear friend and soul sister, Linda Sama, The Ageless Hippy Chick, Brava! for having the courage of your convictions. I know that your energy and passion will make a difference. Thank you.

We Privatize Wealth and Socialize Debt

Chris Dodd said this on Hard Ball this afternoon. Under the republican leadership in the first six years of the Bush administration "We have privatized wealth and socialized debt." Wall Street titans who have lobbied hard and heavy for deregulation have become the Robber Barons of the Bush years. They have hijacked the economy and reaped the rewards. Now they have raped our financial institutions and repossessed our homes. And they all get bonuses and the golden parachute bail-out at our expense. It will be our great great grandchildren who will pay for the war in Iraq and now the mess that is the economy. Thanks John McCain. Thanks little George, and you too, Dick Cheney. Thanks also to the dearly departed Saint Reagan, and George the first (who at least had the good sense to put the coastal waters off limits for oil drilling, and not try to occupy Iraq after the first Gulf War). And I'm not forgetting you Bubba, you too had your part. And thanks to you, The Hammer, indicted money laundering, gerrymandering bastard, Tom Delay, and to all you other money grubbing thugs and liars without a shred of decency, voting to privatize everything you could get your hands on, while cutting medicaid and medicare benefits. And all the while you lower taxes on the uber-rich, you want to tax insurance benefits for working class Americans??!!! How can you sleep at night? You want to invest my social security in the what!!?? Not so fast. I have been paying close attention all these years. How dumb do you think we are??!!!

You call health care for everyone "Socialized Medicine." But an unregulated "free" market economy that fails colossally? It gets a bail-out on my dime, and all the generations to come will be paying for the Iraq war and your greed long into the future. Your bank accounts should be frozen, your assets seized, and you should be tried and convicted for crimes against America.

This Little Piggy Is Broken

I've hurt myself. Last weekend I worked in the garden getting ready for the city's scheduled Neighborhood Clean-up. I capitalize this because it's a big deal to have the city come pick up all the crap you need to get rid of. There is a cottage industry in trading junk and selling this cleaned-up, rehabbed junk to the trendy little used furniture stores scattered around the city. Folks in pick-up trucks cruise the area scheduled for junk removal looking for anything old and/or maybe broken that can be fixed and used or sold or traded. I suspect this cruising for cast-off crap will intensify as the economy gets worse. I'm thinking anyone with a car that gets parked on the street without a lock on the gas-cap will soon be finding the tank emptied over night.

Anyway, while working to get all the tree limbs and big trimmings, the digging up of unwanted volunteer trees, then dragging them to the curb, I acquired some gnarly bruises and a couple of puncture wounds which now have turned almost black.

Then there was the pot luck party that was a send off of one of the sons of the Ventura family who lived next door to me when I was a kid. Those boys used to spy on me when I was in nude sunbathing mode (I think I was sixteen). I was enough older than they were, that in their minds it was Maggy they now think they were spying on. (oh how I ramble on). Anyway, this now middle aged man is getting ready to move to Barcelona, where his lovely wife and three dogs and two cats now await. It was a fairly large neighborhood party. And for the first time in a long time I have nice though used duds that fit to wear to a party. So dressed in my new nice casual, I take my freshly baked peach cobbler and off I go.

It was lovely, but sometime in the evening I got a small cut that bled like crazy--it's the coumadin, so I was bleeding on my nice new clothes. I decided to quietly leave, walk across the street to find a bandage.

I keep bandages, hydrogen Peroxide, and other first aid remedies under the bathroom sink. So while squatting on the balls of my feet, rummaging through the mess that is that compartment looking for a bandage, when the rug I was standing on slipped out from under my feet and down I went, hard on the tailbone and lower back. But the worst of it was what happened to my arm. The back of my upper arm came down hard on the toilet seat. Really hard. That didn't break my arm, but I do now look like I have an abusive husband.

Then, the next evening I was typing away here at my desk, when the phone started ringing. It was in the evening, in the late part of the news hours. No one calls me them. I'm on the "Do Not Call List. I capitalize that because I think it's supposed to mean something. The base of my phone is a short roll away when I am sitting on my typing chair. If the phone isn't in its cradle, it's on my bed. I turned and hurried to try to locate the phone in the mess that is my bed. And in so hurrying, broke the little toe on my left foot. It is the third time since early spring that I have broken this particular toe, but it is the worst, most painful break so far, and I am on Coumadin, and the bruise and swelling, not to mention the pain, is heinous.

NY Times/CBS Polling

Times/CBS News poll suggested that Ms. Palin’s selection has, to date, helped Mr. McCain only among Republican base voters; there was no evidence of significantly increased support for him among women in general. White women were evenly divided between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama; before the conventions, Mr. McCain led Mr. Obama among white women, 44 percent to 37 percent.

By contrast, at this point in the 2004 campaign, President Bush was leading Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic challenger, by 56 percent to 37 percent among white women.

Among other groups, Mr. Obama had a slight edge among independents, and a 16-percentage-point lead among voters ages 18 to 44. Mr. McCain was leading by 17 points among white men and by the same margin among voters 65 and over. Before the convention, voters 65 and older were closely divided. In the latest poll, middle-age voters, 45 to 64, were almost evenly divided between the two.

The latest Times/CBS News nationwide telephone poll was taken Friday through Tuesday with 1,133 adults, including 1,004 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all respondents and for registered voters.

The poll was taken during a period of extraordinary turmoil on Wall Street. By overwhelming numbers, Americans said the economy was the top issue affecting their vote decision, and they continued to express deep pessimism about the nation’s economic future. They continued to express greater confidence in Mr. Obama’s ability to manage the economy, even as Mr. McCain has aggressively sought to raise doubts about it.

This poll found evidence of concern about Ms. Palin’s qualifications to be president, particularly compared with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. Obama’s running mate. More than 6 in 10 said they would be concerned if Mr. McCain could not finish his term and Ms. Palin had to take over. In contrast, two-thirds of voters surveyed said Mr. Biden would be qualified to take over for Mr. Obama, a figure that cut across party lines.

And 75 percent said they thought Mr. McCain had picked Ms. Palin more to help him win the election than because he thought that she was well qualified to be president; by contrast, 31 percent said they thought that Mr. Obama had picked Mr. Biden more to help him win the election, while 57 percent said it was because he thought Mr. Biden was well qualified for the job.

This poll was taken right after Ms. Palin sat down for a series of high-profile interviews with Charles Gibson on ABC News.

Over the last two weeks, Mr. McCain has increasingly tried to distance himself from his party and President Bush, running as an outsider against Washington. The poll suggested the urgency of Mr. McCain’s task: The percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is conducting his job, 68 percent, was as high as it has been for any sitting president in the history of New York Times polling. And 81 percent said the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Watching the News

I have taken a couple of hours dancing to Diva and Randal's tunes. It was swell. Then I tuned my attention back to the news. And what is the first thing out of my mouth? At the top of my lungs, I shout, "You Lying Sack of Shit!"

I don't even know who the hack is that elicited this response from me--just some shill for McCain. Just some dude in a dark suit.

Diva & Madame NJNRR Have Tagged Me For Tunes

One thing you can be sure of is that this meme will be coming to a blog near you. I have to do something first, but believe me I'm looking forward to composing this particular meme thingy. If you want to start bitching at the man responsible for it, see Randal. But here is a small taste for you Randal you bastard, and you Diva, my darling friend and you, resourceful expat you, Madame NJNRR

Amy Lavere, Killing Him
Diana Krall, The Look of Love
Bill Evans Trio, Emily
Nina Simone, Ne Me Quitte Pas
Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
Miles Davis, So What
Keith Jarrett Trio, My Funny Valentine
Herbie Hancock, Cantelope Island
Tom Waits, Temptation
Madeleine Payroux and K.D.Lang, River
John Coltrane Quintet & Eric Dolphy, Impressions
Randy Newman, You Can Leave Your Hat On
Diana Krall, Let's Fall In Love
Bill Evans Trio, Elsa
Etta James, At Last
The bonus with At Last is the lovely visage of Audrey Hepburn in the video
Bill Evans, My Foolish Heart
Amy Lavere, Pointless Drinking
Fiona Apple, Criminal

So I didn't do 25, so what (which happens to be one of my tunes). At least I linked mine.

Now the fun part--spreading this musical virus.

I Tag:
Enigma4ever
DK Read
Ghost Dansing
Okjimm
E, the StarSpangledHaggis

Doctor Doctor

I have hurt myself. It was accidental. That's not the reason for todays doctors visit. But maybe he'll feel sorry for me and prescribe something for my aches and pains. Bruised all over, but that's mostly because I'm taking blood thinners.

More later. Then I'll tell you why I haven't been visiting lately.

New Deal or Great Depression?

Which would you rather have? F.D.R. has always been a hero of mine. My mother was a child of The Great Depression. I heard her tales of poverty. And I lived with the neurosis this deep, frightening poverty carved into her psyche. She never threw away anything. She saved tin foil, rubber bands, twist ties, old clothes, plastic bags, and on and on. Occasionally there would be an intervention, but into the sorting for the trash can, she would burst into tears and say, "You don't know what it was like. You didn't live through it." And she was right. I was not old enough to really understand what it was like, but I do remember the rationing after the end of WWII. And in every way those two experiences defined my mother's behavior for the rest of her life. It made her deeply stingy, even with her love. And unless you weren't a student of history, or had a parent or grandparent who lived through both those events tell you about it, you need to read something like this. It's fundamental. And it's not just the economy, stupid.

This is one of the saddest songs I ever heard. Thanks for reminding me, Ghost.

And this is my favorite performance of it.

Holy Crap!!!

It was during the Clinton years that I did well enough to invest in the stock market. Within the first year of the Bush administration I lost 1/3 of my investment. I pulled my remaining money out of the market and put it in savings. Seven years later I have no savings and am struggling month to month to pay the utilities and feed myself. Every year since '06, I've been having to make payments on my property taxes instead of paying them all at once. Insurance for my home and car are automatically deducted from my checking account, but I've been thinking I won't be able to keep paying auto insurance for long. I'm your average older American. I've lived through good times and bad. But I've never seen anything like this. And I'm scared.

Merrill Lynch goes belly up? Lehman Brothers files for chapter 11? And John McCain says, "The fundamentals of the economy are sound?" Holy crap!!! And still the polls say the race is tightening? Holy crap!!!

Gardening

This photo is the spring garden.

I have planted, over the years, Iris, Tulips, Larkspur, and a number of flowering perennial plants whose names I forgot long ago. Now in early Autumn, the vines are full of berries, as is the Mulberry. Here and there are old clumps of mint in various flavors, most have bolted. Soon, the color will be extravagantly red.

I wish I were more the May Sarton type who used her garden well. The Iris beds bordering the front walk have become an embarrassment--too crowed. They have started to invade the little patch of lawn. If I were the May Sarton type I would dig them up every fall and spread those tubers around. Then I would have glorious bursts of fragrant, deep purple, tall, velvety Iris germanica throughout. But no, I'm not that type of gardener. Same with the Tulips in their many varieties and colors. I have some very fancy tulips. But my reason for planting so many bulbs and tubers was to eventually have the busts of seasonal color without the back breaking work.

Another type of gardener I'd like to become again, is a gardener like Colette's mother. If memory serves me well, the book or story I read long ago is called "Sido" or "Sidonie." I ran across it in an English translation in a small bookstore in Milan. It was early winter 1965. That was also when I read Henry Miller and Anais Nin too. But Sido was my favorite literary gardener, and I think I'm rather more her type. Never wanting to leave home, and claiming it's the needs of my garden that keep me here. Even so, Sido was certainly more attentive to the actual needs of her garden. (It was also the only non-fiction written by Colette I ever ran across. But with a writer like Colette, I'm rather sure most of her fiction is written from memory.)

I read when I'm depressed. I tackle reading as if it were a full time job. I have been known to read two or three novels in a day. Mind you, that's full time reading. Now I need that focus to lavish on my garden. I'll be sore from actually doing any physical labor. It will be good for me.

Another Day, Another Doctor

Today's visit with a doctor was the clotting factor check and the summing up of news so far. Wednesday next week I see the heart rhythm specialist about my fibrillating heart. We shall see. To ablate or not to ablate. That's the next question.

When I got home from today's long wait in another doctor's office, there was a message from yesterday's cardiologist informing me that I have to go to the sleep clinic and pick up my apnea checking equipment Monday afternoon. My dog Cyrus has an appointment with our house-call veterinarian for a refill on Cyrus's Rimadyl and a nail clipping. I'll have to try to reschedule one of our appointments.

I finished off the day with a shopping spree at my favorite thrift shop. And from the looks of my new winter wardrobe I'm going to be better dressed this year. These are the clothes of a woman who has a life. Who knew. I might start wearing lipstick and mascara again.

I Talk Politics At The Cardiologist's

I just spent about forty five minutes getting to know my new cardiologist. This is the "hole" in the heart specialist. It turns out that it's more a flap than a hole. In my heart (as is the case with about twenty percent of the population) this flap has not closed. Adults with this condition often have sleep apnea and chronic migraines. I have sleep apnea and used to have migraines. Now I have chronic headaches that are not classic migraines, but are debilitating none the less, so I have three options for headache pain--all pharmaceutical, all effective if taken at first inkling of pain.

But the thing that most interested me about this relatively young man was his willingness to talk politics with me. Now I have two cardiologists who like talking politics and tell me they are probably farther left than I. Do you think they are blowing smoke? If my two cardiologists, living in the wing-nut capital of America, are both Democrats, how many secret liberals might there be in the medical professions? I have a neighbor and friend who is a lefty lawyer. One of my neighbors just came back from the DNC (she was a delegate). I live in the heart of the Mormon Holy Land. Could there be hope? Even here?

Speaking of smoke... He looked at my chart and said, "You smoke" very neutrally. I said, "Yes, but I've been smoking since I was five. I'm sixty four. My quitting is highly unlikely. So far, I've tried every method of quitting. Nothing worked. I think you have to really want to quit to quit." He said, "Nuff said. Let's schedule a sleep test."

He talked about the research done on the issue of "to close the flap or not to close the flap," and said the results of the studies done so far are leaning toward "doesn't make much difference and can cause problems far worse than the unclosed flap." I said, "Good, well, lets not do that."

I'm gaining a couple of pounds every two weeks. I get that this works out to a pound a week. Oh yes, I get that. I asked the assistant, Lynn, if I was fat. She stood back and actually looked me over and said, "Nope. You're not fat."

I said, "Hallelujah."

Another Award to Pass Along, Thanks Naj

Naj from Neo-Resistance has honored me with this award. I'm sorry that it took me so long to discover its existence. I have been avoiding my short stories. In fact I have been avoiding most writing. I'm in the avoidance phase of editing. Some people call it
"Writer's Block," but in reality it's more a blank space when all ideas go away. I'm in that dormant phase of the creative process. I'll get over this soon and then I'll wow you with my razzle dazzle once again. But for the moment (in my case a moment could be years) I'll be roaming da blogs stealing good ideas from all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And just so I don't have to do it when I rip you off--I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll be sorry for the rest of my days. Because, I'm guilty, oh yes I'm guilty, and I'll be guilty for the rest of my life.... Because I never do the things I'm supposed to do...

Randy Newman tells the story of how an old writer feels when he runs out of material and finds he's dead...

Here is Randy Newman's take on Writing

I pass this award along to:
Randal Graves
Dcup
Diva Jood,
Linda Sama
Frieda Bee
Beach Bum

Swampland

Time Reporter's piece on the sleaze in the McCain campaign.