Never Again Is What You Swore The Time Before

Last week's Friday afternoon news dump included this little gem - "Text of Draft Proposal for Bailout Plan". Thankfully I'm in decent physical condition because this is truly lexicographic cholesterol.

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

...

Sec. 8. Review.

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.

There is of course more where that came from. This week they've tried to tack on allowing payments to foreign holders of illiquid mortgage-backed securities, abandoning even the pretense that this plan is somehow good for the country. Bush has also come out strongly against cutting the pay of executives. But, but, then they couldn't afford their penthouse on Central Park West, and the summer house in the Hamptons, and they might have to trade in the Lamborghini for a Lexus... how proletarian!

I was most indignant and perturbed upon learning of this development, so last Saturday evening, I wrote an email to the Senate Banking Committee. The text of that message follows:

Dear Honorable Senators,

I have read the bailout proposal that was posted on Friday the 19th, and I find it extremely disturbing. It essentially gives the secretary of the Treasury sole authority to spend seven hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money on pretty much anything he wants, and to do with it as he wishes. The oversight provisions are laughable too: he must report to Congress twice a year. There is no accountability whatsoever in this proposed legislation. Knowing how the Bush Administration operates, there will be precious little transparency as well. Lack of transparency and accountability is what got the financial markets into this dire situation in the first place; I hardly think that more of the same will get us out.

This bailout plan is deeply flawed in another way as well: it punishes the taxpayers, does nothing for distressed homeowners, and rewards the financial elites whose sociopathic greed and cosmic hubris led them to gamble trillions of dollars of other people's money on the belief that *this* time was different - that the value of real estate would go up and up for ever. This is a fundamentally immoral plan as currently presented.

I freely admit that I do not have the answer. I do, however, have some principles that I believe any acceptable plan should follow.

1) What is being done with the taxpayers' money should be absolutely transparent to all of us. That means constant disclosure: daily, not every six months.

2) The money should not be under the control of an appointed ideologue. Congress should create an organization under its control analogous to the RTC that mopped up the S&L crisis.

3) The bailout organization will be held accountable by not giving them all the money at once. If they want more, they need to come before Congress and explain in public hearings why they need it and how they spent the last batch.

4) The erstwhile "Masters of the Universe" that absolutely did know better - did know what the eventual consequences of their actions would be and didn't care should also be held accountable. At the very least, they should forfeit most of their pay and bonuses from the past five years. The people on top should become acquainted with the inside of a prison cell.

5) The bailout organization should be charged by Congress to put the sanctity of the taxpayers' money as its highest priority. The taxpayers would be the investors in this organization, and it should make acquisitions and sales to benefit them, not the corporations being bought and sold.

I hope very much that you take the time to debate this very serious situation, and not be bullied or pressured into approving a dangerously flawed piece of legislation.

Sincerely,

...

Since I wrote that, there has been some good pushback from the Democrats, and it seems that even some Republicans are realizing that this is not in their best interests. Their reasons may be a little different than mine, but I think there's a good chance that we can beat this back and maybe even put forth a progressive alternative...

Senator Obama, are you listening?

Beware the Ides of October:

The October Surprise is an honored if somewhat disreputable tradition in American politics in which some negative information comes to light just weeks before the election in November. The affected candidate does not have time to properly investigate and/or rebut the information, and is severely affected at the polls. The current gang of criminals occupying our government has shown themselves to be very adept at the use of political dirty tricks having stolen one election and lied their way to victory in the next. The ’06 midterms and the Libby verdict have raised the (faint) specter of accountability. Deep in the recesses of their primitive reptilian brains, a red light (incandescent) blinks: “Danger, Danger. Accountability Warning.” the alarm shrieks. Heaving their pustulent mounds of putrescent blubber up from the wounded body of a once-proud nation (guess which one), they prepare to meet the threat.

I’m still not sure how the American people cannot see what’s happening: these people (Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzo, et. al.) seem to work off of a predictable script, just changing the details to fit the situation. Compare the run-up to the war in Iraq with the current drum-beating in the direction of Iran; does anyone doubt where they are going with this? When threatened in elections before now, they have simply put out a story, which is repeated loudly and ad nauseam by the right-wing media, and usually sets the tone of coverage by the MSM. This tactic has usually proved to create an insurmountable barrier of negativity for the opposing candidate. The tactic failed in 2006. Enough people were angry, and wanted change to make it through Rove’s rhetorical shitstorm. It is clear that the Administration cares not for real democracy, for ordinary citizens, for real economic progress, for anything except power and money. They will not go quietly. If lies and propaganda don’t work, then expect them to try something different to achieve the same goal: the slow bleeding of our economy to enrich themselves and their cronies, all the while controlling the population through fear (perhaps they’ll “thwart” an anus-bomber and we’ll all have to undergo body cavity searches if we absolutely must fly...that’ll show us who’s in charge...and we’ll thank the bastards for “keeping us safe”. Aargh.).

Institutionalized rape however, is not the surprise; that is merely a taste (mmm nutty) of what awaits us after the unveiling of our shiny new police state. Several years ago, when I did not understand the true extent of the Administration’s depravity, I still expected a surprise: the capture and/or killing of Osama bin Laden. If they’ve managed to invade Iran by then, providing a new and improved enemy for us to fear, then disposing of the old enemy might yet be useful: an electoral boost plus ensuring that he never talks. For a long time I have been dismissive of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and while I don’t buy it being a complete inside job, it would not shock me to find out that certain highly-placed, pale, bloated, bespectacled members of the government with severe anger management problems who may or may not be part of the executive branch knew about it and allowed it to happen. If this is the case, then the surprise could be much, much worse (a nuclear anus-bomber).

There’s not much time, but there is a way out: Impeachment. Now. Or better yet: Yesterday. Open, public, maximally transparent hearings (and hopefully trials) of all the kingpins of this criminal gang, if done soon, could preempt whatever hellish surprise they have planned for us and start the country back on the path to recovery.

I hope I’m wrong about the October Surprise, but even so, there is ample cause for impeachment. I don’t believe that any administration in US history has so richly deserved it (and besides, I think they’d all look lovely in orange jumpsuits).