John McCain suspends campaigning to work on economy, requests postponing Friday debate; asks Obama do the same.

John McCain is "suspending his campaign, temporarily, to return to Washington to work on this economic crisis" and has requested postponement Friday's debate with Obama. He is also calling on Obama to join him in Washington. MSNBC interupted the hearings for this announcement.

earl @ 2:

John McCain suspends campaigning to work on economy, requests postponing Friday debate; asks Obama do the same.

why dont we just postpone the election and crown george king

what work does mccain have to do? hasnt he and his gaggle of crooks fucked up enuf stuff?

What a coward! He's forcing the vote on the Bail-out. Unreal.

The American people are going to see through this political stunt in a heartbeat. Sounds more like the kid who doesn't want to go to school tomorrow because he doesn't have his homework done.

The guy is an absolute monster...inside and outside.

The estimated population of the United States is 304,787,549
so each citizen's share of this debt is $32,120.49.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.16 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!

These guys are paid HANDSOMELY to NEVER NEVER NEVER address the systemic failures over which they so proudly preside.

therefore you must blame the losses on the symptom. The "correction" becomes the cause of the collapse, not the crimes of commission and omission perpetrated by Paulson (while Chief at Goldman-Sachs) and his cronies who were betting all along theat they could fuck things up enough that they could both escape punishment AND reap the huge financial rewards.

NOBODY, exactly NO-fuukin-BODY, 'earns' income in the 7 (post decimal) digits, or up.

Nothing anybody does is worth that kind of money for ANYTHING, when anybody else, at all, anywhere, is forced to work for minimum wage doing ANYTHING...

Man, the McCain camp must be very, very scared. Let's hope the Media doesn't buy into this stunt.

This economic meltdown was planned back in 2000/2001 Joseph Stiglitz (American economist and a professor at Columbia University, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Former chief economist for the world bank.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2001/0101anderson.html

The dramatic resignations in the spring of 2000 of two high-level World Bank employees raised further doubts about the institutions' commitment to poverty reduction and civil-society participation. Former Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz claims that U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and IMF bigwigs succeeded in pushing him out of the Bank in retaliation for his charges that the Fund's policies helped precipitate and worsen the global financial crises that erupted in mid-1997. Stiglitz pointed out that while reckless international investors and domestic banks caused the crises, the costs were borne by the workers.

This was planned.

That's why military brigades will hit America streets in a permanent role Oct 1st.

When they rob us they want to make sure that we don't fight back.

Even Amy Goodman knows something is up!!!

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

P.D. @ 5:

Breaking; McCain wants to postpone the Debate!

Hell NO!!

John McCain suspends campaigning, requests postponing Friday debate; asks Obama do the same. The "excuse": work on the economy; If McCain thinks he will get out the debate this way and run away from talking, it's disgraceful. 9/25

pissed@13, This is bad for McCain. He claims he wants to work on the Financail Bail-out. Yeah right. I think Americans will see this for what it is. A cowardly act by a deparate man.

What I just do not understand is how Paulson can keep getting away with saying that this is about protecting the American Taxpayer. When the original three pages completely left the American taxpayer out and then some.

Why would Paulson have this little tidbit in there if he were so concerned about the American taxpayer
"The Treasury Secretary can buy broadly defined assets, on any terms he wants, he can hire anyone he wants to do it and can appoint private sector companies as financial deputies of the US government. And he can write whatever regulation he thinks are needed."

I know Paulson was not in this position when all of the deregulation took place. How are the Republicans who voted for so much de regulation getting off the hook

"cost us far less than the alternative". O.k. folks now they are turning the gun that Paulson is holding and turning it around and pointing it at the American taxpayers. "Give up the money in the Treasury now, because we are going to get it anyway"

Paulson to the American Taxpayer "the nations balls are nailed to the barn floor and here are the tools that you have to help yourselves. A knife or some matches. Choose"

Breaking news...McCain wants to cancel the debate.......what a load of crap. McCain hasn't showed up for a senate vote in months and all of sudden he is concerned. He is concerned all right, concerned he is down in the polls, concerned his manager has taken millions from the bankrupt banks, concerned Sarah has a Edward's problem, concerned that he is sinking like a rock.

Mr. Blade @ 18:

This economic meltdown was planned back in 2000/2001 Joseph Stiglitz (American economist and a professor at Columbia University, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Former chief economist for the world bank.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2001/0101anderson.html

The dramatic resignations in the spring of 2000 of two high-level World Bank employees raised further doubts about the institutions' commitment to poverty reduction and civil-society participation. Former Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz claims that U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and IMF bigwigs succeeded in pushing him out of the Bank in retaliation for his charges that the Fund's policies helped precipitate and worsen the global financial crises that erupted in mid-1997. Stiglitz pointed out that while reckless international investors and domestic banks caused the crises, the costs were borne by the workers.

This was planned.

That's why military brigades will hit America streets in a permanent role Oct 1st.

When they rob us they want to make sure that we don't fight back.

Even Amy Goodman knows something is up!!!

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

the IMF has been known as a false front for forty years.
usurious loans with rates which guarantee perpetual debt were their only stock-in-trade.

The housing market corrected for a reason and it had something to do with mortgages….

If you are trying to say that predatory lending was the root cause of the housing bubble, you are making a fool of yourself.

The housing bubble caused the irresponsible lending (and borrowing). Sure, there was a feedback loop where one fed into the other, but rising house prices are what first got the mortgage bankers to loosen their standards and irresponsibly (and in pretatory fashion) sell the "american dream" idea to unqualified buyers.

No, really, it WAS the housing correction. Just the market crash of 1929 was due to the "real estate correction," that being that there was only ONE piece of property, and it was being sold twelve times at once. Then when it turned out that the ACTUAL property was only one-twelfth of the properties sold, the market "corrected."

It's almost like these are "reality corrections," where reality keeps impinging upon the schemes of Republicans to manufacture wealth in their pockets out of the pockets of the average workers. Maybe they need to have a magazine called "Predatory Living"

CMINCA @ 27:

pissed off patricia @ 13:

P.D. @ 5:

Breaking; McCain wants to postpone the Debate!

Translation: I know Senator Obama will kick my ass in the debate so I am running away to DC to try to look like I am important.

Or to ensure that Cheney's bidding is done, since Cheney himself was practically castrated yesterday.

So McCain finally wants vote in Senate after 6 months of absence.

I'm watching C-Span 2 live right now, and it sure seems like Rep. Barney Frank is in the tank for Paulson and these swindlers.

helga @ 28:

Breaking news...McCain wants to cancel the debate.......what a load of crap. McCain hasn't showed up for a senate vote in months and all of sudden he is concerned. He is concerned all right, concerned he is down in the polls, concerned his manager has taken millions from the bankrupt banks, concerned Sarah has a Edward's problem, concerned that he is sinking like a rock.

Will election delay come next?

CMINCA@27, When Chaney showed up, they probably run for the doors screaming! Chaney is the most reviled of all Bush's minions. Oh, who am I kidding. Bush is the minion and Chaney is the master.

Kathleen @ 26:

What I just do not understand is how Paulson can keep getting away with saying that this is about protecting the American Taxpayer. When the original three pages completely left the American taxpayer out and then some.

Why would Paulson have this little tidbit in there if he were so concerned about the American taxpayer
"The Treasury Secretary can buy broadly defined assets, on any terms he wants, he can hire anyone he wants to do it and can appoint private sector companies as financial deputies of the US government. And he can write whatever regulation he thinks are needed."

I know Paulson was not in this position when all of the deregulation took place. How are the Republicans who voted for so much de regulation getting off the hook

"cost us far less than the alternative". O.k. folks now they are turning the gun that Paulson is holding and turning it around and pointing it at the American taxpayers. "Give up the money in the Treasury now, because we are going to get it anyway"

Paulson to the American Taxpayer "the nations balls are nailed to the barn floor and here are the tools that you have to help yourselves. A knife or some matches. Choose"

considering the demiocratic party record in congress and the senate, paulsen has no reason to expect anything other than abject cowardice from the dems, especially when spectre and baynor start squealing. nadless reed and spackled pelosi will stand in front of the mike, spout utter crap and then plan the coordinated, if staggered, cave-in.

McCain says he is suspending campaign, will focus on economy
Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced today he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the crisis facing the U.S. economy.

Oh my, McCain can't walk and chew gum at the same time. If he can't campaign and take care of business at the same time, just how is he going to handle the job of the presidency which requires multi-tasking 24/7???

Kathleen @ 35:

Mr. Blade @ 18:

This economic meltdown was planned back in 2000/2001 Joseph Stiglitz (American economist and a professor at Columbia University, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Former chief economist for the world bank.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2001/0101anderson.html

The dramatic resignations in the spring of 2000 of two high-level World Bank employees raised further doubts about the institutions' commitment to poverty reduction and civil-society participation. Former Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz claims that U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and IMF bigwigs succeeded in pushing him out of the Bank in retaliation for his charges that the Fund's policies helped precipitate and worsen the global financial crises that erupted in mid-1997. Stiglitz pointed out that while reckless international investors and domestic banks caused the crises, the costs were borne by the workers.

This was planned.

That's why military brigades will hit America streets in a permanent role Oct 1st.

When they rob us they want to make sure that we don't fight back.

Even Amy Goodman knows something is up!!!

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

thanks. This goes along with Larisa Alexandrovna's theories
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/welcome-to-the-final-s...
In 2000, the long fought for and long admired democracy of the United States of America began a slow and steady decline toward fascism - a Bush family tradition - with the installment of a president - a man the citizens overwhelmingly rejected (although the funny math told a still believed myth) - by a few corrupt judges on the US Supreme Court. That coup is now nearly complete and checkmate is all but unavoidable.

that was a great article by larisa. I read it yesterday.
prescott boosh is smiling up from hell.

I figured that was what this about. Bernanke and Paulson are still pushing this bailout so that if it is enacted those banks can recapitalize themselves. In other words, they know that banks are insolvent and they are trying to head off eventual bank runs.

McCain seeks to delay debate

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26872907/

The real reason acc to many insiders is McCain's health problems and some important developments due to which he needs to be check urgently.

Isn't it curious that the same day McCain suspends his campaign Bush will address the nation. I wonder what's really going on?

Weirded Out @ 39:

You guys are all fucking crazies...

"That’s why military brigades will hit America streets in a permanent role Oct 1st."

A little too much to the left are we??

I see a lot of "group think" going on here...try to pull back and be somewhat rational.

Yeah, you're right. Nothing to worry about. At least it's not Blackwater, innit. If you don't disturb the peace, you've got nothing to worry about, right. Like with the spying? If you got nothing to hide, why should you care if they inspect your mail?

Like your style, pal...

Jeff @ 52:

McCain seeks to delay debate

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26872907/

The real reason acc to many insiders is McCain's health problems and some important developments due to which he needs to be check urgently.

I think the real reason is because McCain doesn't know jack about economics or the economy in general which is the main issue of the day. As soon as he attempts to answer an economic question he will put his foot in his mouth. Palin is the same way on foreign policy and national security issues. He is basically doing what he instructed Palin to do. Answer no questions.

slad @ 32:

The housing market corrected for a reason and it had something to do with mortgages….

If you are trying to say that predatory lending was the root cause of the housing bubble, you are making a fool of yourself.

The housing bubble caused the irresponsible lending (and borrowing). Sure, there was a feedback loop where one fed into the other, but rising house prices are what first got the mortgage bankers to loosen their standards and irresponsibly (and in pretatory fashion) sell the "american dream" idea to unqualified buyers.

There certainly was a degree of predatory lending. There was also a panic that if people did not buy now, they would never be able to afford to, (I heard this from a lot of people in California and this was very true - housing was being priced out of the first-time-buyer market). There was also a lot of buying more than one could afford. For the first time in history, people were placing bets on the equity of their homes increasing and taking the equity out of their homes. These home equity loans are also much of the cause of the crisis we have today, but are often overlooked. Certainly there are many layers to this and all involved are at fault. I've advised people time and time again not to purchase homes they cannot afford, but to no avail. I know realtors and mortgage brokers (yes, there are some moral ones out there) who have done the same.

Since you have to define a problem in order to solve it, oversimplfying it or demonizing only one source of the problem only impairs the solutions process.

P.D. @ 24:

pissed@13, This is bad for McCain. He claims he wants to work on the Financail Bail-out. Yeah right. I think Americans will see this for what it is. A cowardly act by a deparate man.

Hahahahahaha!! What Americans are you talking about? They are constantly tricked into voting against their own best interest in every election.

Sarah Palin has helped McCain turn an 8 point deficit among women voters to an 8 point lead despite the fact that Palin has no experience, is against equal rights for women and even used to charge rape victims for their own rape kits.

Working class folks continue to support Cons even though they have always voted against minimum wage increases and have passed laws that help the rich get richer while the poor gets poorer.

Blacks refuse to go out and register even though they finally have the chance to vote for the first black president in our history (all the while complaining that a black man can't be president in America).

Unions continue to endorse Cons even though they continually try to gut the unions or try to do away with them outright.

Do you really think the American voter is smart enough to understand he's doing it for political points and because he's afraid to debate? If so, you have not been paying attention for the last thirty years.

P.D. @ 42:

CMINCA@27, When Chaney showed up, they probably run for the doors screaming! Chaney is the most reviled of all Bush's minions. Oh, who am I kidding. Bush is the minion and Chaney is the master.

I read there was a serious arsenol of pickforks and torches. Seriously though, there was consensus that Cheney has used up his political capital. No one can afford to align themselves with Bush or Cheney these days.

Kathleen @ 40:

helga @ 28:

Breaking news...McCain wants to cancel the debate.......what a load of crap. McCain hasn't showed up for a senate vote in months and all of sudden he is concerned. He is concerned all right, concerned he is down in the polls, concerned his manager has taken millions from the bankrupt banks, concerned Sarah has a Edward's problem, concerned that he is sinking like a rock.

Will election delay come next?

I hope not. But it sure looks that way, doesn't it?

Now they're saying that it will continue on C-SPAN3.

CMINCA @ 60:

Since you have to define a problem in order to solve it, oversimplfying it or demonizing only one source of the problem only impairs the solutions process.

So very important to remember!

pissed off patricia @ 53:

As my husband just said on the phone, can't McCain chew gum and walk at the same time? Can't he campaign and keep up with what is going on in DC at the same time? How long would it take him to cast a vote when this thing comes to a vote?

Like McCain is going to DC and crack the whip to get this bailout done? It is nothing more than an excuse to try to weasel out of this debate. What next? Will he want Obama to appear with him at a string of town hall meetings to make up for missing this debate?

mccain is planning to do to Obama what Boosh did to mccain: steal the platform, take underserved credit and lie his fucking ass off! he needs to practice and polish the lies. With too many facts that are obvious now, mcKeatingFive can't possibly lie effectively. he needs time for the press to set up the smoke screen by fogging up the issues and create a false equivalence between mccain's glaring faults and Obama's minor flaws.

60 CMINCA Says:

you read it an' tell me it doesn't sound an awful lot like blaming the victims.

with the accompanying sub-text of the undeserving poor somehow getting their come-uppance for their temerity in pretending to prosperity.

People are fed "the american dream" from the womb, and they emerge into a world in which EVERYTHING that matters is measured by where you LIVE (cf, 90210, e.g.) and the goodies you can flash.

They are schooled, not in critical thought buy in unthinking, automatic passivity towards anything except sports and popular music, and thoughtless consumption of any gleaming, glittering bauble they Marketeers can produce and foist off on them.

So the culture tells 'em, and some crooked money guys shows 'em how, to get the Murkin dream--house...and they go for it...

and they bear YOUR blame, incur the punishment, while the thieves get the down-payment, the interest and the property back...

there's asomething fishy--dishonest?--about that, imho

Rep Sherman is the voice of reason!

Kathleen @ 74:

Rep Sherman is the voice of reason!

I agree. I'm watching him right now.

pissed off patricia @ 75:

McCain is trying to grandstand himself out of having to face Obama in a debate. It's as simple as that. All of a sudden the bailout is his top concern? BS! He's using it for an excuse and that's all it is.

Bush announced this morning that he will address the nation tonight at nine eastern time and now McCain sees an opening to try to look important while at the same time walking away from the most important debate of this campaign season. There is only one reason a candidate would do that....that's because he's afraid.

The question isn't why he's doing it. The question is, will it work on the brain-dead electorate. The answer is yes, it will. Watch.

Kathleen @ 70:

Folks it sounds like Congress is going to fold. We are witnessing the biggest bank heist in the history of the world and it is being conducted directly in front of the American people by fat cats on the inside.

Will one of them ask...Why did they wait for so long? Why last Thursday? The timing of this is now delaying debates...what else will it delay?

Taking a break
Oh great so they will have an hour when they get back. An hour to ask critical questions

Rep Sherman was on C-Spans Washington Journal with another plan.

A group of House Democrats headed by California congressman Brad Sherman has proposed several key amendments to the administration's bill to stabilize the markets. They include reducing the initial bank funding from $700 billion to $200 billion and purchasing only mortgage-related assets owned by U.S. entities. The House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hear from Sec. Paulson on the Administration’s plan later today.
http://www.c-span.org/search.aspx?For=Rep%20Sherman

Thanks for the information. I was attempting to watch the hearing, but now that MSM is only covering McCain's BS about returning to Washington and cancelling the debate.

Obama's campaign suggested to the McCain campaign that they come out with a joint statement regarding the bailout. I'm guessing the McCain campaign decided to one up him and instead came out with this hog wash about suspending campaigns all together.

This has got to be the biggest weasel act ever pulled by a presidential candidate ever.

If McCain doesn't show up for the debate, Obama should just go and answer all the moderators questions.

woody, tokin librul @ 49:

River Troll @ 29:

I cannot put all of the blame on predatory lending, but that has played a big part in it. The big financial institutions may claim that they did not actually negotiate the toxic loans, but are merely trying to cover bad loans foisted upon them by con artists and Democratic lending laws. The inescapable fact is that nearly every one has been expecting some sort of 'housing correction' for some time now. For more than two years, I have heard some financial commentator or other talking about a burst of the housing bubble at least once a week.

Mr. Paulson, everyone saw something like this coming. Why are you asking us to panic and stampede now?

What "democratic lending laws"?

Paulson's just the sock-puppet of the system. the system postponed taking action because every hour they postponed the inevitable, they pulled some several billions of dollars out of the pockets of trapped, terrified, bullied, and desperate Murkin families.

Paulson's one of 'em. One of the pirates, the predators, the vicious pack of feral, rabid beasts who drooled and slavered over every loan that stuck some poor schmuck with a tripling ARM...

They weren't gonna turn away from the carcass while there was any meat or fat or blood or marrow to be got. They'll pull back for now, but they'll be back.

Gay-ron-FUCKING-teed, cher, they'll be back, fattening up the chumps for slaughter.

And the American taxpayers are watching this Treasury heist from their living rooms...wondering what they can really do. At Ron Pauls convention Former Minnesota Jessie Ventura stated that our founding fathers were not thinking about hunting when they wrote up the second amendment. They were protecting the right to bare arms in case the time came to take our government back from our "alleged" leaders

Joe O. @ 76:

Kathleen @ 74:

Rep Sherman is the voice of reason!

I agree. I'm watching him right now.

Watching Rep Sherman's suggestions for the bailout are worth listening to.

CMINCA @ 60:

slad @ 32:

The housing market corrected for a reason and it had something to do with mortgages….

If you are trying to say that predatory lending was the root cause of the housing bubble, you are making a fool of yourself.

The housing bubble caused the irresponsible lending (and borrowing). Sure, there was a feedback loop where one fed into the other, but rising house prices are what first got the mortgage bankers to loosen their standards and irresponsibly (and in pretatory fashion) sell the "american dream" idea to unqualified buyers.

There certainly was a degree of predatory lending. There was also a panic that if people did not buy now, they would never be able to afford to, (I heard this from a lot of people in California and this was very true - housing was being priced out of the first-time-buyer market). There was also a lot of buying more than one could afford. For the first time in history, people were placing bets on the equity of their homes increasing and taking the equity out of their homes. These home equity loans are also much of the cause of the crisis we have today, but are often overlooked. Certainly there are many layers to this and all involved are at fault. I've advised people time and time again not to purchase homes they cannot afford, but to no avail. I know realtors and mortgage brokers (yes, there are some moral ones out there) who have done the same.

Since you have to define a problem in order to solve it, oversimplfying it or demonizing only one source of the problem only impairs the solutions process.

if there were enforcement of the usual criteria for lending, there would be no problem. in the black community, a favorite ploy used was called "red-lining", wherein blacks had to go through many costly turns to get a mortgage. many buyers were trusting and inexperienced, allowing them to be victimized.

When I and my wife bought our home, the real estate agent and the loan agent colluded to expire my application twice, attempting to make us pay multiple times. my 6'8" lawyer promised to personally sign our applications with their blood and suddenly the process got smoother. Thankfully, my lawyer also communicated with the bank and found that my application was coded with initials "bm/bw" for blackman/blackwoman.

Now let's extend that analogy to many people of all ethnicities and backgrounds, some of whom are unsophisticated.
Lenders preyed on them to create this crisis. Ignorance is no excuse, but that works two ways.
It means that the lenders who relaxed the established standards for loan approval were unethical and should be charged for violating their fiduciary trust by exposing their institutions to bad loans.
The lower management should be penalized for not doing due diligence.
senior management should be penalized for not following sarbanes-oxley and verifying that the numbers they put on the books were solid.

There is some distribution of blame to be done, but there should also be some distribution of the remedy.

why should banks be the only ones targeted for relief?

Can you say "Lying Bastard!" It's Wall Street GREED and Paulson is as dirty as the rest of them!

"The debate is on," a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News.

I disagree!

The root cause of the problem is the lack of oversight in all levels of the industry. When the fundamental regulations where LIFTED by the BUSH policies; that allowed the flow of credits to virtually anyone who wish own a home (or multiple homes); that is when the problem began. The root of the problem was GREED. Greed from flipping real estate which artificially raised the price of real estate.

Who lobbied for these deregulation? Financial Institution

Why? To make it appear that our economy is robust; while Bush and the Oil industry was looting our treasury to fund for an illegal war.

What were they thinking?

They were thinking that homeowners were going to keep up with the mortgage; while WALL STREETS were betting on these HIGH RISK portfolio.

Who was going to benefit from the deregulation?

The CEO; and the financial gamblers; AND the political GAIN had these INSTITTUTION survive LONG enough until the 2008 November Election is won by a Political Party that is willing to BAIL them OUT.

There was alot of speculation going on in this past 10 years from the Dot.Com bust to the occupation of IRAQ and attempt to control the largest OIL reserves to ENRON; to Halliburton; to FINANCIAL Crisis we see today.

HOW was the perpetrator going to benefit?

They simply TOOK the MONEY and RAN. Bush Regime was able to gain POLITICALLY by concocting this ARTIFICIAL show of a ROBUST and HEALTHY ECONOMY for a short while in order to win the 2004 election. The unsuspecting AMERICANS bought the lies and deceptions with the help of the high bidders in WALL STREETs and the HELP of the Corporate MEDIA to SELL to the AMERICAN PEOPLE the DECEPTIONS.

THE BUSH REGIME (with his corrupt CEOs) was hoping that the collapse and chaos would happen AFTER they leave OFFICE; but the SCHEME did NOT WORK. RECESSION was already IMMINENT when the BLANK CHECK CONGRESS and SECRETARY OF STATES (FORMER CEOs) cave in and gave in to virtually everything and anythin the BUSH fuck-ups wanted.

The distruction was already began and WAS happening. Bush/Cheney regime was the dealer in this HIGH STAKE GAMBLING with WALL STREETS. And some of the Congress persons were playing along with it and RISKING tax-payers money.

Did anyone ever question what stake the POLITICIANS has in this? Everyone of them has some or MORE at stake than the regular working people. They HAVE vested interest in this. Real Estate Deals that they too have become victim to the REAL ESTATE bust. Mc Cain owns SEVEN HOMES. These homes LOST its value, too. How many of the other POLITICIANs have a HIGH STAKE in this? Virtually everyone of them.

THE BAILOUT will mostly HELP those with the higher STAKE. Like McCain and others.

The Average American will simply lose ONE house to foreclosure if they decide to walk away from paying their mortgage.

The ROOT cause is far deeper than Paulson is alluding to. That is being dishonest. I don't buy the idea of GIVING this administration one more BLANK CHECK.

It is the lenders responsibility to make sure that the barrowers ACTUALLY can afford to manage to pay the mortgage according to the terms of the loan. That responsibility includes verifying the barrower's income; reserve funds in their account and their credit-worthiness. This fundamental regulation has been CORRUPTED by the loan officers, the brokers that brokered the mortgage; the underwriters that accepted the loan, the lender that bundled the loan and the investors that accepted these high risk mortgage package.

FOR crying out loud, AMERICA, Paulson was the CEO from 1999 to 2006 for Goldman & Sack. He can not even construct the fundamental oversight needed in a broad term when asked by the SENATE during the Senate Hearing. Should we trust $700 to this man? NOOOOooooo.........

The fundamental oversight must be done by INDEPENDENT AUDITING FIRMS in ALL levels.

These are the same people that said that the stimulus plan was going to get us out of a recession. REMEMBER THAT?

AMERICAN market has the upper hands. AMERICANS will survive. AMERICANS will rebuild.
AMERICAN has MORE confidence in their OWN actions than our GOVERNMENT and CORPORATE that CHEATED us.

I have complete TRUST that AMERICA will do the right thing. It is just a matter of whether their REPRESENTATIVE will listen to them. For now they have NOT. And AMERICA will speak their mind in November 2008 election.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

Right.. And Pearl Harbor was a little military assets correction, Watergate was a slight constitutional hiccup... The Keating scandal was another little market correction... Can any of these motherfuckers ever just tell a straight story... I know, I know, its the Bush administration and Pauly is definitely a Bushboi... nevermind....JD

And who was it that created the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Sub-Prime Mandate?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be required to increase financing to low- and moderate-income home buyers and to increase their commitment to underserved areas under new rules by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD is requiring the two government-sponsored enterprises to make 56 percent of their mortgage activities in loans written to low- and moderate-income borrowers by 2008, up from the current goal of 50 percent. They will have to increase mortgage activity in underserved areas from 36 to 39 percent by 2008.

To meet the new goals, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae would have to purchased 400,000 more qualifying home loans during the four-year period, HUD said in a statement.

The new goals become effective beginning Jan. 1.

This would be HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson...remember him?

But, but, but McCain said the economy is fundamentally sound.

theWalrus @ 37:

Oh, this is good. McCain is showing that he's a complete tool for the Bush administration. The Dems should really dig in now and put off the scam bailout as long as possible. Let McCain stay "suspended" until November 9th!

We all know that he will vote with any majority that exists to show that he has a capacity to make a vote. He may even have a stand at the podium behind the intelligent fool that makes the announcement to the press. He will then follow script and seem to have wherewithal to the dim-witted masses. Obama must show that the debate can be managed, put out ads showing McCains weakness in the economy, and if McCain don't show up to the debates brand him as the nitwit he is and leave McCain on the defense through the interim to election.

Do you people know that in Florida if you don't have at least 5 dollars in your pocket you are arrested for loidering.

The more this unfolds, the more suspicious I am becoming. As I have said before there might come a time when The People need to believe what Bush and his cronies are telling us, but no one will listen because of their well demonstrated penchant for cooking the truth to grab more power for the executive branch and more control of Our money. Is this that time?? A Senator asked Paulsen why so much money at one time...why not 150 billion instead of 700 billion? Geez it it billions or millions these people want, I can't keep track. Then Granpa McBush goes on teevee and says that the economy is going to dry up completely. Sounds like a classic scare tactic to me. Either way I think something stinks about the whole thing. Let these fat-cats bail themselves out. If they can't... then let it crash, which I think is inevitable anyway, so we can get it over it and start kicking out the crooks and picking up the pieces. Are We being manipulated again and getting ready to waltz right into it, just like we waltzed into Iraq?

Expect matial law and a cancelled election, any time now. This is one of those "emergencies" they had Halliburton build the internment camps for.

And, from CNN:

Quickvote
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes the U.S.'s power is waning, do you agree?
Yes 69% 9254
No 31% 4179
Total Votes: 13433

It was inevitable and can't be stopped, but it will be much better in the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBT052jHnmE

Paulson gives new meaning to the term "Crooks and Liars". He exemplifies both. It is crooked to shift responsibility for this mess upon criminal lenders and hapless consumers. It is a lie to suggest that the reason for all the trouble is us. Deregulation is the mother of all these ills. It's something hatched by the "new" republicans under Regan, supported by hapless McCain, and continuing with a vengeance under the current maladministration.

Clearly the economic system, built on vapor, will break unless it's propped up. Once that's attended to, perhaps Team America can scrap/jail the architects of this demise, put back in place regulations and protections that were crafted for very good reason, get us on a sensible currency standard, and flush the Federal Reserve.

Noah @ 105:

Sorry, John. Predatory lending is just part of the problem, and not the biggest one either. First is the deregulation of the banks in 1999 - protections put in place after the Great Depression were there for a reason. Second is the utter failure to regulate according to the laws that stand. Third is corporate malfeasance. Fourth is the cozy relationship between Wall Street and Washington (i.e. Paulson). Then add in the lack of oversight in the mortgage industry, BS paper trading and mixing of assets that created a financial Domino Theory. Add all of these together and throw in a crisis - any crisis you choose, and PRESTO, you have the President of the United States, the single most powerful man on the planet, the leader of the 'free' world, standing in front of the UN General Assembly, hat in hand, asking the same institution and countries he shit on for the past 7-1/2 years for help.

I am embarrassed to be an American.

The whole "subprime mortgage" theme is being used to demonize the poorest who took out loans to buy homes. Never mind that the banks were making too much money to refuse anyone a loan, or that the practices were fraudulant. Never mind that these fraudulant loans were then packaged up as other financial products that were sold around the world. The system was set up to collapse, as all PONZI schemes are, and the end result is our children and grandchildren will be literal debt slaves to international bankers. It is important, however, for this fraud to succeed to pin the blame on someone other than the real guilty party. Therefore the evil American public, who allowed Bush to go into Iraq and who wouldn't impeach him after it was clear he broke numerous laws, will take the blame rather than the international bankers who are using this to kill off what is left of America.

The Democrats, who receive copious amounts of campaign funding from these international mobsters, are just as responsible for what is happenning today as Bush is. Period. This didn't happen overnight, and Congress has done exactly nothing to stop it. Neither Obama, who again is a puppet of Rockafeller and Soros, nor McCain (Keating 5) will propose anything of substance to deal with this crisis because they are both bought and paid for, as is basically the entire Congress with the exception of a few men like Ron Paul and Dennis Kusinich. Notice how Paulson says all his decisions will be above any court of law, and oversight. This is a financial 911 with Paulson being declared the banker's candidate for dictator. Notice as well that troops are soon to be deployed in American streets to "quell rioting". This is serious news, folks. The men who think they own this country, and by extension all of us, are making their move to consolidate their power. This is economic blackmail.

And never mind that the next massive wave of defaults involving things like credit card debit and commercial development debt is about to explode, meaning that even if they get the 700 billion (plus) AND all the new powers they are seeking, this situation will still deteriorate. The $1,000 trillion derivatives market, which JP Morgan has as much as $300 trillion, dwarfs the productive capacity of the planet. (The US GDP is $15 trillion.) But at least then they will have all the police state powers they need to crush dissent. And given that they had this "bill" currently being debated prepared a few months back, it is hard not to think this collapse has been engineered.

Time to take a stand for America and forget the left/right divide. Or soon your choices will be made for you.

Think of Government Regulations (as passed by our representatives at whatever level of our democratic form of government) as a Red Light at an intersection.

Traffic lights have Green, Yellow and Red colors. Green for GO, moving traffic flow along, maybe even synchronized to make traffic flow even more smoothly through multiple intersections. Yellow for CAUTION. Red for STOP.

Getting rid of all Red Lights (Regulations), thus leaving only Green Lights at intersections would lead to a whole lot of wrecks...or in the case of the de-regulated Wall Street, a blazing financial wreck and meltdown.

If you've noticed, crooks fleeing from cops in high-speed car chases don't observe Red Lights at intersections. Wrecks and deaths often ensue.

So criminal-minded Reaganite Republians, like former Sen. Phil Gramm of Enron infamy and John McCain, have been pushing for almost thirty years for removing all the Red Lights from financial markets, energy trading centers and even our federal agencies.

Why?

So the corrupt conservative Republicans could give the "Green Light" to all their crony corporatist pals, letting them rob our country for as much as they could rip-off without silly "Red Lights" or government regulations impeding their rush to obscene riches...at the expense, the wreckage of everyone else.

And the Yellow "CAUTION" Light?

Treasury Secretary Paulson, formerly of Goldman Sachs, no doubt saw the Wall Street intersection's traffic light flashing Yellow faster and faster, but blew off the warning signs. (Just like the Bush administration blew off all the pre-9/11 warnings of an imminent right-wing domestic terrorist attack).

Finally, all Green Lights (supposed free-market capitalism) is just as dangerous, therefore, as are all Red Lights, which one sees in one totalitarian dictatorship after another (especially Red Commie dictatorships). A blinking Yellow Light cautions against going to both extremes...which history has shown only leads to disaster and wrecked lives.

Let's do a dissection of the current Wall Street crisis.

George W. Bush declares himself to be the "ownership society" president. He, therefore, pushes for more U.S. citizens, whether financially qualified or not, to own, own, own. Buy a house. Buy something else on credit to put in the house, driving up one's credit card total.

To accomplish this "ownership society" scheme, the Republicans (and Bush) needed to relax the "rules," to turn off as many of the regulatory Red Lights as possible...which they have done over the past eight years to such great success...and devastation.

But what's the real reason behind this "ownership society" scheme?

Well, "owners" tend to be more conservative, especially the owners (and families) of "property" like a home...which must have given some Republican strategist (Karl Rove?) the idea that pumping up the number of "owners" would lead to more people voting Republican.

Besides the normal graft and greed of the Republicans, I believe this "political" calculation was also one of the major reasons for Bush's "ownership society" gambit.

Now all the anti-regulatory mangy Republican chickens have come home to roost.

Paulson was running Goldman-Sachs during the build up of the sub-prime mortgage markets until the point where it started to unravel. His is an intimate knowledge of the workings of the mechanisms that brought about this mess and indeed shares responsibility for its architecture. Now he has the chutzpa to proclaim that he knows how to solve it. Of course he does and the answer is to simply assign the worst of the debt to the public. Mission accomplished he will then return to the Financial Womb from which this abortion sprang. If I was a senator on the committee I would demand he reveal what his role was at Goldman's and examine his culpability.

Alec @ 25:

The root cause is that wages have stagnated for 30 years and the only way to get spending into the economy was to make credit easier and easier to get. The root cause is a 30 year effort to create low wage, low benefit jobs in order to increase profit. Supply side economics is dead.

The witch is dead long live the witch can we all go back to kansas now?