Email Your Congresscritter

The American Freedom Campaign has made it easy to tell your representative just what you think about this insane bailout that Bush and his fat cat friends swear we must give him.

Everything I’m reading today makes it abundantly clear that this bailout as it stands is noxious on a variety of levels. It’s going to cost us far more than $700 billion in the end. It’s going to ensure our national debt is so insanely high that we won’t have anything left over for the social programs that could have made our lives better. Once again, the Republicons bring us to the brink of bankruptcy and walk away with their sacks full of cash, laughing while the Dems tighten the nation’s belt, count its pennies, and tell us that in order to balance the checkbook, we’re going to have to make sacrifices.

It’s not even clear this is necessary in the first place.

And now the fuckers are talking about how they can demand we do this, and then vote against it so they can use it against the Dems in the election (h/t Digby):

Every Democrat should read Patrick Ruffini’s post from yesterday at NextRight. He is, I strongly suspect, perfectly reflecting the game that Republicans, including Team McCain, want to play with the Paulson Plan:

Republican incumbents in close races have the easiest vote of their lives coming up this week: No on the Bush-Pelosi Wall Street bailout.

God Himself couldn’t have given rank-and-file Republicans a better opportunity to create political space between themselves and the Administration. That’s why I want to see 40 Republican No votes in the Senate, and 150+ in the House. If a bailout is to pass, let it be with Democratic votes. Let this be the political establishment (Bush Republicans in the White House + Democrats in Congress) saddling the taxpayers with hundreds of billions in debt (more than the Iraq War, conjured up in a single weekend, and enabled by Pelosi, btw), while principled Republicans say “No” and go to the country with a stinging indictment of the majority in Congress….

In an ideal world, McCain opposes this because of all the Democratic add-ons and shows up to vote Nay while Obama punts.

History has shown us that “inevitable” “emergency” legislation like the Patriot Act or Sarbanes-Oxley is never more popular than on the day it is passed — and this isn’t all that popular to begin with. All the upside comes with voting against it.

Ruffini is exactly right about the politics of this issue, especially for Republicans. Think of this as like one of those periodic votes on raising the public debt limit. It has to pass, of course, but there’s zero percentage in supporting it for any one individual. The speculative costs of the legislation actually failing are completely intangible and ultimately irrelevant, while the costs it will impose are tangible and controversial from almost every point of view. For McCain and other Republicans, voting “no” on Paulson without accepting the consequences of that vote is the political equivalent of a bottomless crack pipe: it will please the conservative “base,” distance them from both Bush and “Washington,” and let them indulge in both anti-government and anti-corporate demagoguery, even as Democrats bail out their Wall Street friends and big investors generally. You simply can’t imagine a better way for McCain to decisively reinforce his simultaneous efforts to pander to the “base” while posing as a “maverick.”

Democrats are right to demand significant substantive concessions before offering their support for the Paulson Plan. But just as importantly, they need to demand Republican votes in Congress, including the vote of John McCain. If this is going to be a “bipartisan” relief plan, it has to be fully bipartisan, not an opportunity for McCain to count on Obama and other Democrats to save the economy while exploiting their sense of responsibility to win the election for the party that let this crisis occur in the first place.

I cannot express to you my outrage that these goatfuckers are planning to use the crisis they encouraged in order to score politically. They’ve proven that they’re nothing more than common fucking criminals. This is what criminals do: blame the victim for their own lawbreaking. We need to do everything in our power to ensure they don’t get away with this.

So send your emails. Make your phone calls. And be sure to tell absolutely every right-leaning friend, acquaintence, and stranger on the street just how stupid the cons think they are.

***

In case you’re interested, this is the email I sent my Congressman, attached to the pre-made one from the American Freedom Campaign:

The more I read about the consequences of this bailout package, the more it terrifies me. The lack-of-oversight concerns attached at the bottom of this email are only the most obvious.
1. There’s a lot of crowing in right-wing circles about how this can be used to destroy Democrats. The basic premise is that Republicans will vote no while you vote yes, and then they’ll put on their fiscal conservative hats and run against you.
2. Every credible economist – right, left and center – despises this bill. And all of them are saying that $700 billion is only the beginning.
3. Paulson demands you pass a “clean” bill, and yet spent this weekend stuffing it with extras for his Wall Street pals.
4. And the saddest part: by simply bailing out the rich kids who got burned, we’re doing nothing to ensure that the rest of America has anything left over. If we don’t attach requirements that ensure the American people get something out of this deal, how are we going to pay for health care, for science, for social programs? How are we going to afford a better future if all we buy are toxic, worthless assets?
Congressman Inslee, as I sit here, I’m watching our future die. And I am bitterly, bitterly angry that the greedy bastards who murdered it are about to walk away scot-free, not a penny poorer.
Please, please fight this. Please fight for us. Make sure that there is oversight, make sure America gets a chance to earn back some of that $700 billion, and make sure that the irresponsible idiots who brought us to this pass are responsible for helping set things right.
I know I can count on you. You have never let me down. Thank you for all you’ve done, and all I know you will do.

Feel free to steal any/all verbiage for your own efforts.

Email Your Congresscritter
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Throw These Fuckers Out. Never Give Them Power Again.

I don’t have enough profanity for these motherfuckers who are killing my country and quibbling over the carcass. I just don’t.

You need to read the entirety of Devilstower’s “Three Times is Enemy Action.” It lays out the whole history of the Republicon rape of this country’s economy, from Keating to the present day. I’m just going to share the paragraphs that left me incandescent with rage.

One:

Following the S&L crisis, the Resolution Trust Company was formed to swallow up the debt of Lincoln and 746 other S&Ls gone wild, and taxpayers were left with the $125 billion bill. The resulting budget deficit forced cutbacks in other programs. The artificial real estate boom collapsed and housing starts fell to their lowest levels in decades. Finally, the whole nation settled in for a period nasty enough that three years later someone could still campaign around the idea “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Two:

Thanks to this fortunate trifecta of Gramm-crafted legislation, Enron was able to create “EnronOnline” and trade electricity in California with absolutely no oversight or transparency. They quickly worked out how to game the system. Previously, there had been only one Stage 3 rolling blackout in the history of California. Within months, the system had been manipulated by traders to generate 38 such blackouts and wholesale electrical prices had gone up more than 3000%. Despite production capacity equal to four times the demand during winter, energy traders even engineered a blackout in mid-January.

During the confusion of these deliberate “shortages” and “price spikes,” the California administration of Gray Davis — blind to speculator manipulations because of the walls erected by Gramm’s legislation — was forced to sign energy contracts at enormous rates. There was little choice, because most of California’s public utilities were on the brink of bankruptcy from the rising wholesale prices.

Three:

Credit default swaps did allow the banks to share risks. So much so, that banks raced each other in an effort to find more risks. They made it possible for the down payment on homes to become 3%, 1%, 0%. Skip the credit check, avoid the employment requirements, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! We’ve got a credit default swap, we can do anything!

[snip]

How big did this market become? Here’s business correspondent Bob Moon and host Kai Ryssdal on American Public Media’s Marketplace from back in the spring.

BOB MOON: OK, I’m about to unload some numbers on you here, so I’ll speak slowly so you can follow this.

The value of the entire U.S. Treasuries market: $4.5 trillion.

The value of the entire mortgage market: $7 trillion.

The size of the U.S. stock market: $22 trillion.

OK, you ready?

The size of the credit default swap market last year: $45 trillion.

KAI RYSSDAL: That’s a lot of money, Bob.

As in three times the whole US gross domestic product, Bob. And the truth is that Moon probably underestimated. The unregulated and poorly reported credit default swaps may have actually passed $70 trillion last year, or about $5 trillion more than the GDP of the entire world.

So, are you starting to get an idea of just how big a genie Phil Gramm and his pals unleashed?

Bang.

This is enemy action. This is a bullet deliberately fired into the economy by men willing to exercise their ideology regardless of the cost to taxpayers. Men who have every expectation that they can plunder the system again and again, while the public picks up the tab. John McCain may not have had his finger directly on the trigger, but he was there. He assisted. These were his personal friends and philosophical comrades. He may not be the high priest, but he has been a loyal acolyte in the cult of deregulation.

They destroyed our standing in the world. They eviscerated our civil liberties and our Constitution. They’ve laid our economy to waste.

Three times, Republicons have pulled the trigger, and America bleeds. I’m staring down the barrel of a gun aimed at my country, and it’s held by smiling Republicons getting ready to deliver the coup de grace into America’s head.

If our country survives this assault, we can never again place these criminals in charge of her again.

Never. Again.

Throw These Fuckers Out. Never Give Them Power Again.

Want to Attach Strings to that $700 Billion? Sign Here

Credo Action has put together a good petition in an attempt to head off this madness at the pass:

We strongly urge you not to issue a blank check to the Wall Street giants who have steered our country into financial dire straits. We must address this crisis quickly and prudently. Do not give these companies a dime of taxpayer money unless they agree to the following conditions:

  1. If the taxpayers are shouldering the risk, the taxpayers should reap any eventual benefits. We accomplish this by giving the government an equity stake in every company we bail out proportionate to the amount we give them.
  2. If we’re paying (more than) our fair share, the CEOs and executives should have to, too. All of the fat cats who got us into this mess should relinquish their stock options and salaries until they start showing us, their investors, that they can once again be profitable. Future salaries should be linked to profitability.
  3. No more campaign contributions from Wall Street executives and PACs. Taxpayer dollars should be used to get our nation out of a crisis. They cannot be used to fund giant, powerful lobby operations that will be used to strong arm Congress into making bad policy.
  4. Better regulations start right now. Wall Street can’t expect to take thousands of dollars out of your paycheck without agreeing to increased transparency and more stringent oversight – the kind that might have helped avoid this mess to begin with.
  5. Bankruptcy judges get broader leeway to help homeowners. Why should we lose our homes so the CEOs can keep theirs?

A blank check without these conditions would be nothing more than a reward for bad business practices. If the bailout does not include these conditions, you must oppose it.

Sound good? Does to me, too. You can sign here.

You can add your own comments to this petition. Here’s mine:

Don’t let Bush’s obscenely poor leadership stampede us into another terrible decision. There is absolutely no reason why this administration should be handed unlimited money and power to clean up a mess they made. This is like giving a burgler the money to replace the items he stole without ensuring he will make the victim whole.

Stop. Think. Protect the American people.

Want to Attach Strings to that $700 Billion? Sign Here

McCain Proves His Economic Ignorance for the 2,438,956th Time

McCain’s recent economic assessment:

On her radio show today, conservative talker Laura Ingraham asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) what he believed should be done to address the struggling U.S. economy. Ingraham listed several economic indicators that have declined in recent years to make her point. McCain dismissed the premise of Ingraham’s question, saying, “I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong”…

What wonderful news! Let’s have a look at those strong economic fundamentals, then:

It’s not clear which fundamentals McCain is referring to. Eight years of conservative management have left the economy with something other than “strong” fundamentals:

Inflation is rising. The U.S. economy is currently experiencing “the worst 12 months of inflation in almost three decades.”

Real wages are declining. Americans are experiencing a “de facto pay cut.” “Almost everything costs more, even as [Americans] have less money to pay for it.”

Unemployment is increasing. Americans have experienced “seven consecutive monthly declines in employment.”

Cost of food is rising. Food prices are quickly increasing and even school lunches across the country will be more expensive in the coming year.

Optimism about economy is declining. “Optimism in the U.S. economy among CEOs of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies” is at a 16-year low. Americans are similarly pessimistic.

Foreclosures are still increasing. Home foreclosures were up 55 percent over last year in July and “17 [percent] of all homes for sale in the U.S. are repossessed properties.”

Yup. Them thar’s some really strong fundamentals. You just keep right on believing that, Johnny, and we’ll keep right on calling you a total fuckwit. Fair enough?

McCain Proves His Economic Ignorance for the 2,438,956th Time

Heckuva Job: Economic Edition

So, how have ordinary Americans fared under eight years of Republicon rule? Allow Think Progress and The Center for American Progress to draw you some pictures:

Check out these charts from Scott Lilly’s report:

Household incomes are down:

Wages Down

Corporate profits are up:

Corporate Prifits Up

The richest 1% of Americans experienced the greatest income growth:

Richest 1%’s Share

Go back up to the top and scan that first picture again. Note the dramatic comparison in economic health between the Clinton years and the Bush years for regular Americans.

Flatlined rather fast, didn’t we?

Now, you may wonder what Obama and McCain respectively plan to do about this. Let’s have another picture:

According to Tax Policy Center figures, McCain’s plan is worse than his opponent’s for the bottom 80% of American families with children and far, far worse for the bottom 40% of families with children.

Candidates Tax Effect On Families With Children

We’re the ones on the left, there. Think hard, now: who’s going to get the middle class’s heart beating again? Who’s going to prevent poor families from becoming even more desperately poor?

Hint: T’ain’t McCain.

Heckuva Job: Economic Edition

Vintage Market Bullshit

Back when humans rode dinosaurs and God was busy stuffing fossils into geological strata as part of his elaborate plan to punk scientists, I took Western Civilization I from a Calvinist named Ken Meier. He started the course by handing us a quote and asking us to date it. It was one of those “damned kids these days” moans. I, being prone to reason and highly suspicious that this was a major set-up, plumped for the 1500s while most folks in class were guessing the 1950s and Professor Meier just smirked at us all.

I was off by 2,000 years: it was from an ancient Greek, and it sounded exactly like what every generation of adults has said about every generation of teens since time began.

One day, I may extract myself from the gravitational anomaly otherwise known as my chair and go look the quote up for you. Today is not that day. But it comes to my mind because I’m in the midst of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, and it’s a long treatise on “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Digby’s “Deep Insight” source has a stellar example:

The Fed has now become a merger and acquisitions specialist for investment banks. After the public has been put on the hook for $29 billion in highly questionable securities in the Bear Stearns debacle, there is an acknowledgement by the Treasury that there should be just a bit more regulation. Maybe start with minimum capital requirements in the investment banks and hedge funds. The political system has allowed this financial behavior to flourish, so now there are fig leaf reforms proposed by the Bush Administration. John Kenneth Galbraith once said that once the last of those who steered the country through the financial regulatory framework after the Depression were dead, the financial system would find a new way to implode. Capitalism, he explained, could not help itself.

The financial sector broadly defined is now over 20% of the economy. The addiction to risk and debt in the financial sector has dragged down the whole economy. Miracle returns at some private equity firms and hedge funds are built on cheap leverage. Meanwhile, the small investors saving for retirement are like lambs being led to slaughter. When measured in Euros since the peak in 2000, the Dow has lost nearly 40% of its value. Many of those baby boomers can forget about those extended European retirement trips.

This kind of insanity has been happening since markets came into existence. I refer you to Tulipmania, the South Sea Bubble, and this depressing list of notable stock market crashes. In America, a bubble sprang into being nearly simultaneously with the creation of the First Bank of the United States:

“When trading in shares commenced, prices promptly took off, buoyed by a money fever such as Americans had never witnessed…. So frenzied was the trading in scrip that many investors doubled their money within days, and the resulting madness was dubbed “scrippomania.” [Chernow, page 357]

Revolutionary war soldiers who had been paid in bonds sold those bonds to speculators for a pittance: one of the first American instances of “small investors” being “led to slaughter,” as Deep Insight so starkly puts it. Speculators made money. The country went apeshit. Thomas Jefferson, a dyed-in-the-wool misty-eyed agriculturalist, moaned. He frequently denounced the stock market as “gambling.” He complained to George Washington that paper money was “withdrawing our citizens from… useful industry to occupy themselves and their capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which had introduced its poison into the government itself.” James Madison was beside himself with outrage. Invective and accusations flew, political parties were born, and North and South squared off as Alexander Hamilton played Federal Reserve with the economy and stablized the markets nearly by himself. Under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street, a group of gentlemen met to bring some sanity into the markets and created the New York Stock Exchange.

What’s happening in the markets now has happened before. It’s pure vintage bullshit.

What’s the history we’ve learned over and over? Markets crash. Perfect laissez faire leads to rich bastards and wanna-be-rich-like-now bastards creating chaos. The government has to step in to pick up the pieces. Reactionaries wish we’d all go back to milking cows. Small investors get dismembered and left wondering where all their fucking money went. Oh, and when you remove government regulation, people get incredibly stupid and think that things like rampant speculation and subprime mortgages are fantastic ideas. This time, the bubble won’t burst! Ohshit.

I imagine Ken Meier’s still wearing that smirk. It’s the history professor’s patented “nothing new” smirk, and it makes me wonder: when the fuck are we going to learn?

Vintage Market Bullshit

I Hate to Pwn My Own Dear Stepmother, But…

All right, Mom. I didn’t want to do this. I really didn’t. But you gave me a number, and what choice do I have but compare some numbers? That’s what us libruls do. We worry facts to death.

Shelly said,

That bitch cost us over 150 million dollars and that was when she was the freakin’ First Lady.


All right. Fair enough: Hillary Clinton cost us some cash. I won’t even ask you to back up that statement because I know you’ve got some evidence for it – one of the many things I’ve always admired about you, you’re not one for making unsupported assertations. So let’s just take that number as a given: Hillary Clinton cost us a cool 150 mil.

Hmm. Interesting. Let’s just have a gander at what Bush et al have cost us:


I dunno… maybe I’m just a liberal or something, but doesn’t it look awfully like the blue’s shorter than the red in this picture? And don’t it just seem like the red all the way to the right, representing George “What the Fuck Do I Know About Economics” Bush, is the tallest of them all?

If we’re talking about costs to the country in purely economic terms, how much has Bush cost us?

Oshit:

The Bush administration said the war would cost $50bn. The US now spends that amount in Iraq every three months. To put that number in context: for one-sixth of the cost of the war, the US could put its social security system on a sound footing for more than a half-century, without cutting benefits or raising contributions.

O-kay. 50 billion per month, some projections put the total cost at $3 trillion, but hey, who’s counting? And, well, you know, war’s expensive. Bush had to spend on that, right? But he’s done a great job otherwise, I’m sure.

Or not.

The following figures appear in the official U.S. Financial Report, released by the Treasury Department:

  • The true national debt is $49 trillion, not the $8.3
    trillion Bush reported

  • That’s $156,000 for every citizen, or $375,000 for
    every working American

  • This figure has more than doubled in the past five
    years

  • We paid $327 billion last year on interest alone

  • The true 2005
    deficit was $760 billion, not the $318.5 billion Bush reported This is 6.2% of the GDP, not 2.6%

  • It’s all getting worse

No shit?

Look, Mom. My patience for Hillary Clinton has run out faster than a creationist fleeing the evidence of evolution, and I’m not the only die-hard liberal who feels this way, but let’s look at reality here. We’re headed straight back to the Great Depression. We’re aiming for having to shovel our money into wheelbarrows to buy a loaf of bread. We’ve gone from world leader to world laughing-stock, and all John “Don’t know much about economics” McCain’s promising is to grease the slide to get us to the bottom faster. Given these numbers, I’d be insane to vote another Republican into office.

I hope it doesn’t come to this, but fuck yeah, I’ll plump for the Antichrist.

A few hundred million compared to trillions? There’s no fucking comparison.

I Hate to Pwn My Own Dear Stepmother, But…