Congress rejected the 700 billion dollar bail-out!
Not by much, and apparently because of the emails and telephone calls!
Wa-hoo!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vIhHWXek574

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=F5kymM9nixc

The bailout is the slickest of slopes.
While it sickens me to even think about bailing out companies that put themselves into the trouble they are in due to greed, if we do nothing we may very well shoot ourselves in our collective feet.
Whatever happens in regard to the bailout, these problems are MORE than a wake-up call. Deregulation and self policing policies put us in this pickle. That MUST change.
Our capitalist system REQUIRES capital and credit to function. If the system fails, we all fail and the souplines may not be far behind.
When some kind of deal comes together, instead of simply capping CEO and other executive compensation, I'd like to see some way of recouping some that was already paid to them. A lot of this money went somewhere. Obama got it right during the debate in identifing the root causes of the problem. McCain IS part of the problem, in that he has long been a champion of deregulation. Mind you, I run a small family bussiness and HATE OVERregulation, but reasonable regulation of the banking , lending and stock market institutions is a MUST!
Bush has already suceeded in growing the gap between the wealty and the poor, as well as the wealty and the vanishing middle class. We are fast on our way to depression era disparities.
As I've heard said regarding this financial crisis, the is not the beginning of the end, it's merely the end of the beginning.

All of this recent crap has Pete's "Garbage" song running through my mind:
"Their stocks and their bonds all garbage
What will they do when their system starts to crash
There's no value to their cash
There's no money to be made
But there's a world to be repaid
Their kids will read in history books
'bout financeers and other crooks
About feudalism, and slavery
And nukes and all their naveries
To history's dust bin they're consigned
Along with many other kinds of
Garbage"

Whether you were in favour of or opposed to
the bailout of Wall Street,
I hope you find encouragement in the fact
that our emails and telephone calls
actually made a difference in the actions of Congress!
Personally, I was afraid that time was past already.

Don't stop to celebrate!
Now we know which members voted for
and which voted against the bailout
(in other words, which listened to he People
and which obeyed the Boss)!
Call them!
Email them!
Thank them or threaten them, depending on their actions,
but don't let them feel that the pressure is off!

Woman have struggled for years to make men aware
that NO MEANS NO!
We've got that figured out now, right?
So why does a Congressional vote of "Yes" mean "yes"
but a vote of "No" means "let's have another vote"?

Congress has shown us that our voices can make a difference.
This is wonderful news!
So the time has come to TURN UP THE VOLUME!

Just today and tomorrow, my friends.
They will likely vote again on Thursday-
let's see a larger majority voting NO!

Please, for your children and grandchildren,
call your congressman today!
Ten times!
And send him/her twenty emails, too!
And faxes!

Vote NO on the bailout
and stop the deployment of the US military against We, the People!

We may not have a second chance.
Indeed, if we dismiss this opportunity
we hardly deserve another one.

Find all the contact info here

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

As much as it rubs me the wrong way in principle, I fear a bailout is required. It cannot be a blank check. It cannot be without taxpayer equity. It cannot be without reasonable yet severe caps on executive compensation. And perhaps as part of the bill, or perhaps as some other actions, the root causes must be corrected with changes in regulation.

The weird thing about the no vote was that there was a strange coalition of liberal democrats and conservative republicans that killed it, each group citing their principals.
The conservatives killed it because the believe free market forces should cause things to live or die by their own accord.
The liberals killed it because it seems to be corperate welfare.
both sides have valid points.

However, the mess is here and left unchecked in could bring us back to 1929. The cures with be tough medicine indeed. I stress that the long term cure to prevent things like this happening again in the future require real changes in regulations. Real long lasting and prevenative change will be much less likley to occur under a McCain administration, as he has been a champion of deregulation for decades.
I foresee the situation where a small number of fatcats just had a really great dinner, and left us and Obama with the check.
Even if Obama gets in and does everything right, he my not be as popular as he may have been without this crisis. Like I said, tough medicine.

I say let wall st. take the losses. They knew the risks. Now they should pay the price. Bye bye.

I would do a w style pre-emptive strike on all of 'em. Unilateral pre-emptive take over. Fire all execs. Not a buy out, or bail out, a take over.

Only use the $700 B to back new loans for all who need loans, in pre or post repo. At reasonable rates. Cash flow problem over. Give the people who lost their homes a chance at a do over, if they can afford to. I'd rather bail them, then rich republickins.

Sure am glad we did not cave on the republickin idea floated a couple years back to allow them to privitize SS. Guess how that would have ended for so many millions of us.

Its been said "there is no lesson in the 2nd kick of a mule."

Iraq was #1. What did we learn?

Get it in writing. Check the facts. Take time.

I dunno, Larry

The congressmen I saw talking about it
both just before and just after the vote
stressed that they had received
unprecedented numbers of emails, telephone calls, and faxes.
It appeared that that made a significant difference.

Shas - Well Said!!!

I for one, enjoyed the rejection of the "emergency" bail out! Sure I have a lot to lose as I have worked along time now (it seems like forever) but I believe this is a reality check and irrational behavior must be exposed for what it is! This crisis didn't happen last week! This is years of stupidity fueled by selfish individualism sold to America by Slick Willie's in offices with a view! In America, and across the World, credit has become the shot of smack, the ecstasy, the unbelievable last call of the Stoner God! Then there are these giant behemoths looking for a last hit, milking that blood as the poet says to keep from running dry, and its big blood shot eyes are looking at Washington as it threatens to roll over Wall Street if a 700Billion dollar bag isn't made available. NOW, I NEED IT NOW! GW, bark for me my little puppet! Listen Congress, I need a hot shot now and if I don't get it now money is going to roll in and out of those managed funds like you wouldn't believe and all those 401K's across America are going to lose value like you can't concieve!

I guess the concern is, when the money is all gone and the monster is milking blood again, where will it turn?

Russell Crowe, the Aussie actor, reckons just give each of the three hundred million citizens of the United States a million dollars each. They could buy a house and spend to get the economy going. And it would be cheaper than a bailout.

HMMMMMMM does it matter if I live in another country most of the time!?

you see the great flaw in that is that America is the greatest country in the world not because most people have a million dolllars but because most people owe a million dollars!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpuyXdKx9Ws

tell him economics
it's somethin he don't know
and he'll be the chump
that'll float you the dough

Historically it seems to turn outwards and inwards,
devouring both its neighbours and itself.

Here is a group of congress members
with some thoughtful alternatives
to the let's-do-it-today bailout.
Including, for instance,
prosecuting individuals and organizations
whose illegal activities have brought about this crisis
and using THEIR assets to help fix it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7187&hl=en

It's not a short clip,
but then we didn't really expect real solutions
to be presented in a 3-minute video, did we?

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFwRAfkV1g

Senator Feinstein says she received 91,000 telephone calls
about the proposed bailout.
85,000 were opposed.
Her conclusion?
"A lot of people out there are confused",
so she's voting for it anyway.

No comment from me.