Under The Radar

Oh, and while we were busy Saturday, Congress quietly passed a $630 billion omnibus spending bill that includes that $25 billion for the big 3 automakers, among other things.

Congress on Saturday agreed to finance a $25 billion loan package to help troubled auto makers as part of a mammoth spending bill that will keep the government running until early March 2009.

The U.S. Senate approved the more than $630 billion spending bill 78-12. The bill was needed to finance defense, education, farm, health, foreign aid and other government programs after the current fiscal year expires on Sept. 30.

The House passed the legislation earlier this week and it now heads to the White House for President Bush's signature.

Congress passed the bill as lawmakers continued negotiations on a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street that lawmakers say is needed to free up credit markets and avert a steep economic downturn.

The spending legislation allows a ban on offshore drilling to expire on Sept. 30. Democrats had hope to extend the ban, but did not have the votes in the face of stiff opposition from Republicans.

The bill sets aside $7.5 billion in taxpayer funds needed to guarantee $25 billion in low-interest loans to help struggling General Motors , Ford Motor and Chrysler produce more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.

Congress rushed to pass the massive spending bill before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 because lawmakers failed to approve any of the 12 spending bills Congress needs to act on every year to fund the government operating.

So, you can add all this to the pyre too. While America is slowly roasting alive over the smell of pork, it's time to start asking yourself what you need to cut in your life.

Get your things in order, folks. You don't want to have debt in the months ahead.

Weekend Wheeling And Dealing

Once again everyone's saying there will be a deal by tonight and even a vote, but that deal won't include any help for homeowners.

House Democrats say the idea of letting judges rewrite mortgages to help bankrupt homeowners avoid foreclosure won't be a part of the $700 billion financial industry bailout.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told Democrats at a closed-door meeting Friday evening the provision would be a deal-breaker for Republicans who she has said must deliver substantial votes for the rescue plan. That's according to several lawmakers who attended the session.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama had said earlier that the measure didn't belong in the bailout.

Nor did I expect that measure to pass; it depended on the Democrats, you know, not folding.

Washington Post this morning has more.

A senior administration official, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the plan, said both sides had made significant concessions to achieve compromise. The Bush administration has agreed to accept a number of Democratic demands, including:

· The money would be dispersed in segments, with Paulson receiving $250 billion immediately, $100 billion upon White House certification of its necessity and the final $350 billion only after Congress has been given 15 days to object.

· Firms participating in the bailout would be required to grant the government warrants to obtain nonvoting shares of stock, so taxpayers can benefit if the companies return to profitability.

· Firms taking advantage of the bailout would be required to limit compensation for senior executives, with especially severe limits on "golden parachutes" at failing firms. The compensation limits will be enacted primarily, but not solely, through the tax code by reducing tax deductions for firms that pay executives more than $400,000 a year.

The administration also agreed to Democratic demands that the financial services industry should help pay for the program. Under the agreement, the president would be required to propose a fee on the industry if the government has not recovered its money through sales of the assets within five years.

Democrats also made a number of concessions, abandoning demands that bankruptcy judges be empowered to modify home mortgages on primary residences for people in foreclosure. They also agreed not to dedicate a portion of any profits from the bailout program to an affordable housing fund that Republicans claimed would primarily assist social service organizations that support the Democratic Party, the official said.

Meanwhile, House Republicans won a major victory, persuading negotiators to include a provision that would require the Treasury Department to create a federal insurance program that would guarantee banks and other firms against loss from any troubled asset, the official said.

Again, those last two paragraphs are the ones that bother the hell out of me. They are the GOP's doings and they are terrible. What do they mean to you and me?

1. No direct help for homeowners in this bill. More people will lose their homes and will continue to lose their homes as real estate prices plummet.
2. The "insurance program" now puts taxpayers on the hook for the loss of "any troubled asset" on the books. We just nationalized the losses on the financial sector and privatized the profits. And with dropping housing prices and dropping commercial and industrial real estate prices, that's going to be a tremendous amount of losses the American taxpayer is going to be on the hook for.
3. When the losses do pile up and the government has to make good on the insurance, the only way out is hyper-inflation and the death of the dollar.

This is horrendous, folks. Please, please somebody stop this bill.

[UPDATE] That physically ill feeling is back. From the NY Times article:

A senior administration official who participated in the talks said the deal was effectively done. “I know of no unresolved open issues for principals,” the official said.

In announcing a tentative agreement, lawmakers and the administration achieved their goal of sending a reassuring message ahead of Monday’s opening of the Asian financial markets.

Lawmakers, especially in the House, are also eager to adjourn and return home for the fall campaign season.

Among the last sticking points was an unexpected and bitter fight over how to pay for any losses that taxpayers may experience after distressed debt has been purchased and resold.

Democrats had pushed for a fee on securities transactions, essentially a tax on financial firms, saying it was fitting that they contribute to the cost.

In the end, lawmakers and the administration opted to leave the decision to the next president, who must present a proposal to Congress to pay for any losses.

Officials said they had also agreed to include a proposal by House Republicans that gives the Treasury secretary an additional option of issuing government insurance for troubled financial instruments as a way of reducing the amount of taxpayer money spent up front on the rescue effort.

We're about to be on the hook for trillions. Wall Street will be fine. That insurance will protect them. The American Taxpayer? Nobody's protecting them.

WE ARE ALL SCREWED.

sigh.

"Makes 1929 Look Like A Walk In The Park"

The UK Telegraph is reporting that Washington officials are terrified that a collapse in a bailout deal could lead to a 3,000-4,000 point loss on the Dow next week.

Officials close to Paulson are privately painting a far bleaker portrait of the fragility of the global economy than that advanced by President George W Bush in his televised address last week.

One Republican said that the message from government officials is that “the economy is dropping into the john.” He added: “We could see falls of 3,000 or 4,000 points on the Dow [the New York market that currently trades at around 11,000]. That could happen in just a couple of days.

“What’s being put around behind the scenes is that we’re looking at 1930s stuff. We’re looking at catastrophe, huge, amazing catastrophe. Everybody is extraordinarily scared. It’s going to be really, really nasty.”

If the situation is that bad, how come we were lied to? Oh yes...GOP in charge. Never mind. If there's no deal by Sunday evening when Asian markets open, it could be the end. Preznitman used his weekly radio address to tell America to suck it up and deal with the bailout.

"Many Americans are anxious about their finances and their future," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "I know many of you listening this morning are frustrated with the situation.

"You make sacrifices every day to meet your mortgage payments and keep up with your bills. When the government asks you to pay for mistakes on Wall Street, it does not seem fair. And I understand that.

"And if it were possible to let every irresponsible firm on Wall Street fail without affecting you and your family, I would do it. But that is not possible," Bush said, warning: "The failure of the financial system would mean financial hardship for many of you."

As lawmakers in Congress negotiated details of a final rescue plan amid turmoil on global markets, Bush argued that a collapsed financial sector would mean less credit, fewer new businesses and fewer jobs.

"And that would put our economy on the path toward a deep and painful recession," he argued.

I got news for you George, we're already there.

I don't think the bailout is going to help, honestly. We're being told of dire consequences if the bailout doesn't happen. My fear is the bailout happens and we plunge into a recession or depression anyway.

Remember, one month ago the economy was sound. America was fine. The Bush Boom was the most underreported story in America. These guys have been lying to us for years now. They're lying to us now. The bailout is there to give the CEO's and fat cats enough time to get to their lifeboats before the crash.

It's too late for most of us. Far, far too late. What happens if the bailout passes and we still crash?

Dow 8,000 may be generous.

Do We Need The Bailout?

It's a valid question. There are two schools of thought on it.

The first school is that government intervention in the market brought about this disaster in the first place. From a strictly Libertarian point of view, the successive bailouts and intervention by the Fed only delayed what in and of itself is an unsustainable system. America is basically far past bankrupt at this point and has only been operating by the power of an increasingly arcane system of smoke and mirrors and the Chinese and Saudis buying up our debt, since it was such an awfully good deal for them. Not anymore. We're tapped out, our neighbors are tapped out. We've got no fuel in the tank.

We're to the point now where the first school, myself included, say that paying the piper now is better than later. If we let the chips fall and manage the collapse, we might be able to dig ourselves out in a number of years. No bailout now, take the pain, recover from it. If there's a bailout, the collapse that will result from the cure (hyperinflation) will be fatal. The bailout itself is fatal for America.

The second school believes the first paragraph, but argues that the bailout is necessary now or that the whole house of cards comes down in a systemic collapse without it. In other words, bailout now, or the game ends. The lack of bailout is fatal for America.

This is not the discussion we're having in Washington right now. It's the debate we should of had last night but didn't.

One side says the bailout will kill us. The other side says the lack of bailout will kill us.

Who is right?

Shouldn't we be asking that this election?

Debate Deblogging: Morning After

CNN is saying Obama won the debate, most folks are of the mindset that it was a draw among male viewers, but Obama won handily among female ones.

Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Obama did the better job in Friday night's debate, while 38 percent said John McCain did better.

Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama. But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks, with 59 percent calling him the night's winner, while just 31 percent said McCain won.

"It can be reasonably concluded, especially after accounting for the slight Democratic bias in the survey, that we witnessed a tie in Mississippi tonight," CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib said. "But given the direction of the campaign over the last couple of weeks, a tie translates to a win for Obama."

CBS had similar numbers as well.

Uncommitted voters said Obama won the debate against Republican John McCain, and more of those voters improved their opinion of the Democrat. But while 66 percent think Obama would make the right decisions about the economy, 56 percent think McCain would do so about Iraq.

Immediately after the debate, CBS News interviewed a nationally representative sample of nearly 500 debate watchers assembled by Knowledge Networks who were "uncommitted voters" - voters who are either undecided about who to vote for or who say they could still change their minds. Thirty-nine percent of these uncommitted debate watchers said Obama won the debate. Twenty-four percent said McCain won, and another 37 percent thought it was a tie.

This is where John McSame should have won hands down, Foreign Policy. He didn't. He didn't come close to delivering the knockout blow he had to have. Obama got some excellent counterattacks in and held his own. McSame came across as Cranky Old Man, not Elder Statesman.

Obama got the tie/slight win he needed here, which is far better than I thought was going to happen, I figured it would be "McSame won, Obama didn't knock him out, he has the momentum now." He doesn't. McCain had to have a KO here to get back in this. Instead I'm betting he lost ground here.

Now everyone is waiting for the bloodbath that will be Thursday nigh's debate between Joltin' Joey and Sister Sarah. I still say this one gets canceled. There is no way Palin can be allowed on live national television against Biden.

All Joey has to do is show up.

Global No Confidence Vote: Running On Empty

The story that nobody is talking about this weekend nationally should be making your head spin and your heart flutter.

Gas lines are back in America. And the thing is, they may be here to stay for quite some time.

While Congress and Bush administration officials have been working to complete a bailout plan and stem the financial contagion on Wall Street, a different kind of economic crisis emerged across the South this week: A severe, hurricane-related gasoline shortage has curtailed trucking from Atlanta to Asheville, N.C., and created a wave of panic buying among motorists.

The return of gas lines has largely flown under the radar of politicians who are usually keenly attuned, because their constituents are, to what's going on at the pump. But more of the Capitol gang should be paying attention to this.

That's because nationwide our gasoline inventory is shockingly low. Liquidity must be restored soon to this market, or we could be facing a crippling run on the gasoline bank. And if you think Americans are outraged about Wall Street, wait until their Main Street grocery store doesn't get the bread and milk delivery for a week or two.

I have family in Western NC. I can tell you that these gas shortages for the last two weeks are very real, and that these shortages are going to be way more common in the future for a number of reasons.

No slack in the system. America works these days on the Just-In-Time delivery principle. Supply routes for everything you buy are computerized and calculated to arrive "just in time" to restock supply. Warehousing stock for long periods of time wastes money. If a product is sitting in a warehouse when it could be on a store shelf or in your shopping cart, the company selling that product is losing money on it.

The stores where you live are sent what the corporations think they will sell each week and no more. This goes for groceries, electronics, sports equipment, guitars, beauty products, fast food hamburger patties and this includes gasoline as well.

Ike hit the system for the Southeast US. The Colonial Pipeline is what provides gasoline for the interior regions of the South and Mid-Atlantic: northern Alabama, northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee, upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina, as well as parts of eastern Virginia, Maryland, and even Delaware and western New Jersey are all served by this pipeline.

But the Just-In-Time system has no slack in other parts of the country right now, because inventories are so low. They are that low because storing gasoline is expensive. Wringing out slack saves refiners and gas stations money.

We had a hurricane shut down the Colonial Pipeline at the same time gasoline inventories were at 50 year lows. Result: Just in time is not in time. Shortages will continue in the South for the foreseeable future.

Now here's the real problem. Everything else in just-in-time delivery works on gasoline. Shortages on gas mean delivery interruptions for everybody else. Delivery interruptions means stores are having either sit on supply because customers can't get to the store to buy it, or that stores have shortages because of no deliveries on time. These refineries create diesel fuel too. Trucks have to have it or they stop. No diesel, no delivery.

This leads to panic buying where there are shortages. What you're seeing in cities like Charlotte, Hickory, and Asheville in North Carolina right now could end up getting a whole lot worse very very quickly as fuel shortages may very well become shortages of everything else.

No fuel means no deliveries of other just in time items...like electronics, shampoo, car parts, fertilizer, oh and things like, I dunno, food.

No gas. No fuel to truck food in. No food.

There's a cheerful thought. Panic buying of gas leads to shortages of everything else across the board, including food.

Now imagine that hitting where you live. Grocery stores start running out of food because there are no deliveries...leading to panic buying of groceries in your neighborhood.

How long would you last not being able to buy food right now? There are food shortages across the world right now, water as well. Just-in-time delivery, plus a rotting American infrastructure, plus commodity shortages around the world...that equals catastrophe for urbanized areas of the world.

If even one of these crucial links in the chain drops out, disruptions across the entire system result.

Systemic disruptions can lead to the crash of the entire system. As megacorporations grow fat off of wringing out the slack in the system, Americans grow increasingly dependent on the system just to survive.

And if the system does crash, then what? You're betting on the Federal government, this government, OUR government, to save you?

Good luck on that. What do you think would happen where you lived if there was no gasoline and no diesel within a full tank's drive of your house for a period of seven days? What would happen, honestly?

System crash.

We're seeing chaos in that part of the country. I'm pretty scared, my parents and brother live there. They're doing alright according to Dad, but those gas shortages are beginning to take their toll. Lines are bad. People are cutting way back on activities now. They're having to miss work and school. Another couple of weeks of this and things could be bad.

Very bad. The refineries are still down. No slack to help from other parts of the country. One real good weekend of panic buying could really cause serious problems.

When Barack Obama says that our economy is a national security issue, this is what I think it means. I hope he understands the issue. The Bush administration's entrenched corporate culture of greed, deregulation of industries and allowing them to police themselves, removal of consumer protections because they are "expensive regulatory barriers" and PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT has led directly to this situation.

Because we're going to see a lot more of this as the economy continues to tank. We don't have the money for infrastructure. We're almost $11 trillion in the hole now. We spent that money on Iraq and Afghanistan and Wall Street, not fixing and future-proofing our most basic infrastructure systems.

We privatized them instead. Look how that turned out. Disaster capitalism at its finest. And we're going to be in for a lot more of it in the future before we're forced to try to salvage a system on the brink of collapse.

What happens when the systems we rely on to kick in when the primary systems are down, are also down?

System crash. I've been talking about an economic system crash for months now. We're seeing that happen. But there are many, many other systems, and wringing every drop of blood out of them for PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT always PROFIT has left those systems just as vulnerable.

And all those systems are interconnected. They affect each other. If one goes down, they take the others with it. We live in a systemic, interconnected world. All those systems have to work.

Now realize Bush has been in charge of watching those systems for eight years. McSame and Palin and the GOP want to continue that same philosophy.

Scared yet? I am. You need to be too. It needs to scare you into action.

Be prepared.

Cross-posted at the Frog Pond.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition

• Actor Paul Newman has died of cancer at age 83.
• Major House GOP opposition to the bailout plan remains.
• Palin aides pulling a no-show for subpoenas could be found in contempt.
• Condi Rice has quietly admitted to Bush administration torture discussions in 2002-03.
• Both lefty and righty political blogs are asking for last night's debate footage to be made public domain.

Debate Deblogging

9:07. Question 1, the bailout. Barry looks rushed. John looks cool. John scores with props to Teddy Kennedy. Barry saying we gotta intervene. McSame, I warned about all that too, Ike story. Both seem to be agreeing on voting for it. Johnny doubling down on Chris Cox.

Obama hits back. Responsibility not just during a crisis. Jim trying to get them to talk to EACH OTHER. McSame counter, American worker is best.

Wash.

9:14 Question 2, how do you fix this. McSame: fix spending. HELLO, $700 BILLION BAILOUT YOU TWIT. Obama. 18 billion in earmarks, McSame wants $300 billion in tax cuts for Wall Street. Nice. Very nice.

McSame throwing out spending numbers. Now they are going after each other FINALLY on tax cuts versus spending. Go Jim.

Obama hits back on loopholes and healthcare. McSame saying HAHAH ENERGY BILL PWNED FAIR TAX FAIR TAX FAIR TAX

Ugh. This is kinda boring so far, but Obama wins this one.

9:26 Question 3: What are you giving up to pay for this bailout? Obama first...not energy plan and health care, or infrastructure or college costs. Obama's not answering this question. McSame is winning this question with specific examples of what needs to be cut: ethanol subsidies and defense pork.

Lehrer points out neither are cutting stuff as a result of the bailout or neither one is answering the question. McSame proposes spending freeze on everything but defense. Barry brings up Iraq.

Lehrer tries another tack. Obama finally admits to having to make tough decisions. McSame brings up HillaryCare. Spending blah blah.

Obama FINALLY sticks McSame on voting for Bush budgets. McSame NOPE I FOUGHT BUSH ON EVERYTHING MAVERICK SARAH PALIN.

McSame wins.

9:39 Question 4 What are the lessons on Iraq? McSame: Well, Petraeus means we won. SURGE VICTORY YEAH TEAM. Obama: Umm...Afghanistan? Osama? Remember them? $1 trillion dollar spent there? 4,000 dead? 30,000 wounded? Eye off the ball? Sound familiar?

McSame SURGE SURGE SURGE FLIP FLOP I CAN'T HEAR YOU PETRAEUS. Obama: Yeah, well...okay. But 2003-2007 YOU WERE WRONG JOHN ON EVERYTHING ELSE. McSame: I went to Iraq! We're winning there!

Obama: And we're not in Afghanistan, and we're losing there. Obama wins.

9:50 Question 5 More troops to Afghanistan? Obama: Hell yes. Here's my specifics. 2 brigades. Iraq was a strategic mistake. Afghanistan is the real deal oh yeah and Pakistan too, how's that money we spent there? McSame: I won't leave Afghanistan hanging like Reagan did. Boy I can't believe Obama wants to go into Pakistan, you can't say that out loud.

Obama: Yeah, mr bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran. Oh and we're already repeated the mistakes in Pakistan since we made in Iraq.

McSame Pakistan's a failed state. Oh, REAGAN STORY I STOPPED REAGAN IN LEBANON. Umm...but I voted for Bosnia and Gulf War I and Kosovo and Somalia. I have a record of voting for wars, so you can count on me. We gotta win in Iraq now I DON'T WANT DEFEAT VIETNAM I WAS A POW.

Obama Fighting bracelet stories now. OK but shut it, Afghanistan remember that? Osama? Hello? Taliban? Take it seriously? McSame: I've been there, so I win.

Another wash.

10:03 Question 6. Iran. McSame, Iran is existential threat to Israel. Screw the UN and Russia. League of Democracies. THEY WILL NOOK EVERYBODY IEDs IN IRAQ SECRET TERRORISTS. Obama: Iraq war made Iran stronger. We're not containing them, also threat to Israel. Tougher sanctions, must cooperate with Russia and China and UN. Diplomacy with Iran.

McSame butchers Ahmedinejad. Pre-conditions. Nope, won't talk to them unless they agree with everything we want first. Nixon and Reagan, statesmen.

Obama: Let's talk about this. We have to talk to people. We cut off talks with North Korea and they went crazy. SPAIN! ZAPPO.

McSame: I don't have a seal yet. Heh. Nope. Can't legitimize evil. Can't talk to evil. "Oh please." Nice zinger. McSame does win this one.

10:16 Question 7 Russia. Obama: We have to confirm and support NATO members and stop Russia. McSame: He doesn't understand like I do. But I'll say the same thing. I went there, I win, here's a story about Putin.

Neither side is brining up Georgia attacked first. Obama says we have get more energy, clean energy, solar, nuclear. McSame is snickering. Obama hammers him on his clean energy. McSame's response is dumb. Obama wins.

Last question. Another 9/11? McSame: Much less, we're safer but not safe I HAVE A LONG RECORD HERE'S ANOTHER STORY Better intel agencies we won't "torture ever again." WAIT WHAT? Wait ever AGAIN? BARRY HIT HIM ON THAT! I made government bigger long way to go.

Obama: Safer in some ways. Not hitting him on that. AQ is still out there. How we are viewed helps us. We are less respected. That needs to change. Praising him on torture issue?

McSame: WE CAN'T FAIL IN IRAQ OBAMA DEFEAT WE'LL LOSE DEFEAT DEFEAT

Obama: No Bin Laden. China has $1 trillion of our debt, we've been ignoring China and stuff, busy in Iraq, back to Iraq's effect on economy. Economy is a national security issue, VERY GOOD.

McSame: Gosh Obama is stubborn and wrong, unlike me. Obama is Bush. I love veterans. I have background.

Obama: My dad was an immigrant! But now he wouldn't want to come here.

McSame POW POW POW POW POW God Bless America.

Obama wins.

Final score Obama 4, McSame 2, 2 ties. Obama wins.

The Weekend Waltz

So now the Dance of the Honeybees begins this weekend around who gets Wachovia's honeypot, and who gets to deal with all the stingers.

Wachovia has begun preliminary talks with Citigroup about a potential merger, people briefed on the matter said Friday.

Feelers have also been extended between Wachovia and Wells Fargo and Spain’s Banco Santander, these people said.

These talks are early, however, and no deal may emerge from them, these people said.

Wachovia , the big bank headquartered in Charlotte, has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks amid the turmoil gripping the banking sector. It took additional fire on Friday after JPMorgan Chase acquired virtually all of Washington Mutual, until Thursday evening the nation’s largest savings and loan, in a government-brokered sale.

After hours trading finds Wachovia down to 8.75 or so. I'm fairly sure a deal will be made for it by Sunday night.

On the other hand, National Ciy has been languishing in the $4-6 a share range for four months now, and now it's under $4. Nobody's even bothered with the company. What's killing them is that the company has lost billions in deposits since July, the same scenario that has killed WaMu and IndyMac. Eventually it's going to get to the same point where those banks are: Deposits on hand are going to be too low to operate, and the FDIC will step in and turn out the lights.

The trick is who is going to want to buy a bank in the very economically troubled state of Ohio right now? WaMu at least had branches all over the country. National City is mostly in Ohio, Florida, and Michigan...not a real good place to be a mortgage bank in 2008. They've been in prime buyout position for months now and nobody's cared to even sniff at the corpse.

I smell an FDIC deal, and I smell one soon. Question is who's the buyer? If there's not one found, it's going to be IndyMac all over again, and much worse. Nobody's even bothered to look at picking it up. The FDIC may have to dismantle it.

And that's going to be bad. I was wrong about WaMu (so far) because JPMorgan Chase has solidly offered that it's business as usual, it's a takeover, not a failure. So far the public is buying it. National City will not go nearly that cleanly when it dies.

Cartoon Of The Moment

As always, Daryl Cagle.

Made Of Win And Awesome

is this.

When Is A Wall Street Bailout Not A Bailout?

When it's a couple trillion dollars of "insurance".

What do House Republicans want? A senior House Republican gave me and some other reporters a look yesterday at what a working group headed by Assistant Minority Whip Eric Cantor is demanding. The senior House Republican (hereinafter SHR) has what sounded to me like an ingenious approach. He cited Ginnie Mae loans to low-income borrowers, which the government can insure. He proposed that the government (presumably through the entity envisioned by the Paulson plan) offer to sell insurance to financial institutions that hold mortgage-backed securities (hereinafter MBS). Premiums would be determined by the rates of foreclosure on each class of securities so far. Under this plan, the government would be taking in money, not paying it out. Of course, if the premiums are not enough to cover losses, the government might eventually take losses, as it did when the savings and loan industry collapsed. But losses don't seem inevitable and in any case will mostly occur in out-years, not now.

Lemme 'splain this to ya.

What Eric Cantor and the House GOP want to do with their See It's Totally Like Magical Lightsaber-Throwing Jedi Ninja Riding Cyborg Fire-Breathing Velociraptors Plan, Dude here is this:

1. Wall Street companies get to buy insurance against blowing the hell up.
2. Taxes are lowered and regulations are relaxed so that companies will have the money to pay the premiums.
3. If the company blows up, they get a crapload of taxpayer money only it's not called that. They actually MAKE money.
4. If the company does not blow up, they still make money because they can write off the premiums, AND since the GOP lowered taxes to free up the money for the premiums in the first place, they STILL make money.
5. The only people who do NOT make money are the taxpayers, especially since hey, all these companies are going to blow up anyway.

Great plan, huh?

So I asked the SHR whether a commitment by Paulson to consider an insurance program would be enough to win over a significant number of House Republicans. He said that a hazy commitment would not be enough, with the implication that the bill would still seem to House Republicans to be a Wall Street bailout with the implication that the government would be shelling out $700 billion of taxpayer money. I followed up by asking whether House Republicans would go along if Paulson pledged to use authority in the statute to set up an insurance program within a month of passage. "That would go far toward convincing [Republican] members," the SHR said. In other words, the insurance option may be the way to save this legislation.

...and then McSame takes credit for it and says "My friends, that's bullshit we can believe in."

It's all about the packaging. Calling Dems: Smash this in the chops, please.

Headlines Zandar Does Not Want To See In Reuters News Widget Over There

"U.S. military says Pakistan not targeting U.S. troops".

They're just hitting them with bullets and fire and explosions on accident. You know, like we've been doing to Iraqis and Afghans for the last sixty-six months.

It's Even Worse Than We Thought Part 4: The Worsening

Sarah Palin, squeaky clean gubment reformer? Meet reality of public records.

ABOUT THOSE TAX RETURNS.... Remember, she's on the ticket because she's a "reformer."

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows.

The 41 gifts Palin accepted during her 20 months as governor include honorific tributes, expensive artwork and free travel for a family member. They also include more than $2,500 in personal items from Calista, a large Alaska native corporation with a variety of pending state regulatory and budgetary issues, and a gold-nugget pin valued at $1,200 from the city of Nome, which lobbies on municipal, local and capital budget matters, documents show.

It prompted Mark Kleiman to ask a good question: "When are we going to see Sarah Palin's tax returns?"

Obama and Biden have released their tax returns, and McCain kinda sorta did the same. So, when will Palin -- who recently emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability in government -- follow suit?

After the election. In 2012. Duh.

In Which Zandar Answers Burning Questions

Josh Marshall asks:

John McCain is saying that now that he's gotten the bailout negotiations back on track he can resume his campaign and show up tonight at the debate. But every news report I'm seeing says they were moving along smoothly until John McCain showed up and they fell apart.

Who can help me here?

Oooh oooh pick me!

Ahem.

MAVERICK MAVERICK OBAMA IS A SCARY REZKO BLACK MAN BLOOGITY BA-BLOOGITY MUSLIMS CAUSE REZKO BANK FAILURES REZKO REZKO REZKO WEATHERMEN UNDERGROUND MY FRIENDS MAVERICKS CAN'T BLINK AT REZKO REZKO DAMMIT I'M A POW.

Sorry no more questions at this time. Thank you and God Bless America.