The Bailout Fails! And the NY congressional delegation voted on the wrong side!

The Bailout Bill failed and while the market plunged nearly 800 points, the sky is not falling. In fact, this is probably good news. Many well-regarded economists think the package, as it stood today, would actually make economic matters worse. Many also came up with better ways to spend $700 billion other than to hand it to Wall Street.

Here's James K. Galbraith:

With banks, runs occur only when depositors panic, because they fear the loan book is bad. Deposit insurance takes care of that. So why not eliminate the pointless $100,000 cap on federal deposit insurance and go take inventory? If a bank is solvent, money market funds would flow in, eliminating the need to insure those separately. If it isn't, the FDIC has the bridge bank facility to take care of that.

Next, put half a trillion dollars into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fund -- a cosmetic gesture -- and as much money into that agency and the FBI as is needed for examiners, auditors and investigators. Keep $200 billion or more in reserve, so the Treasury can recapitalize banks by buying preferred shares if necessary -- as Warren Buffett did this week with Goldman Sachs. Review the situation in three months, when Congress comes back. Hedge funds should be left on their own. You can't save everyone, and those investors aren't poor.

With this solution, the systemic financial threat should go away. Does that mean the economy would quickly recover? No. Sadly, it does not. Two vast economic problems will confront the next president immediately. First, the underlying housing crisis: There are too many houses out there, too many vacant or unsold, too many homeowners underwater. Credit will not start to flow, as some suggest, simply because the crisis is contained. There have to be borrowers, and there has to be collateral. There won't be enough.

Also, here's blogger and columnist David Sirota's take on the bailout. Sirota opinions are in the heart of the progressive movement and again I feel he's spot on:

How does handing over $700 billion to Wall Street help the economy any more than, say, handing over $700 billion to homeowners, or spending $700 billion on a full employment program? Until someone can answer that simple question, this bill simply should not pass as it is.

Below is how the New York delegation voted. We should be ashamed that we have such sheep in Congress. Rockland's representatives are highlighted in bold.

These representatives voted yay:
Ackerman
Arcuri
Bishop
Clarke
Crowley
Engel
Fossella
Hall
Higgins
Israel
King
Lowey
Maloney
McCarthy
McHugh
McNulty
Meeks
Nadler
Rangel
Reynolds
Slaughter
Towns
Velazquez
Walsh
Weiner

These representatives voted nay:
Gillibrand
Hinchey
Kuhl
Serrano

This bailout bill refills the pockets of fat-cat bankers, it doesn't help out the struggling middle class. It's a reverse Robin Hood situation, in fact. We've got Henry Paulson, George W. Bush, and John McCain saying, "Hey, pay off our mega-rich friends in the banking industry or we're gonna let the economy tank."

You know what this is: This is Bush's last ruse. His last grift before his Presidency is over. It's his last chance to fleece the American public. Bush, Cheney and their criminal cronies were about to "take the money and run," but we stopped them (although our Congresspersons in New York—with a few exceptions—did nothing to help.

Well, the American public, both progressives and real conservatives weren't going to put up with this blackmail. We're not mindless drones and we're not going to do the bidding of corporate America anymore. Let the stock market tank! The economy will tank even if we did pass the bailout.

Come back with a bill that puts money in the hands of the struggling middle class and not in the hands of the corporate elite and then we'll start talking. Read More......

Jack Cafferty proves that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be President

Click the video and watch. Listen closely and see if you can make any sense of Palin's tortured answer to a question posed by Katie Couric on CBS. You can stop the video right after Sarah Palin speaks if you want, because you'll come to the same conclusion as CNN's Jack Cafferty: It's the worst answer—the worst piece of video footage—by any candidate aspiring for higher political office.

I was trying to put my finger on it, and I finally remember where I heard a similar answer before: It was in college. I was in Humanities class and the professor asked a question of one of the jocks, who hadn't read the material over the weekend. The guy, who hadn't read his assignment over the weekend, threw a lot of shit at the wall, hoping something would stick. The jock was pretty proud of himself in the end, but the prof and the class weren't buying it. Sarah Palin is that jock, but she's not a coed and she's not trying to get a passing grade; she's vying to be the Vice President.

It's that scary.

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Will the Fed bail out foreign banks?

Did the bailouts of our country's investment banks and insurance industry go far enough? It's possible that the Treasury Department doesn't think so. According to Politico, this may not be the end of the Federal bailouts, and it's very possible that the Fed may even bail out foreign banks.

In a change from the original proposal sent to Capitol Hill, foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department’s mortgage bailout, according to the fine print of an administration statement Saturday night.

This is Bush-style globalism run amok, even if it is done in haste and urgency. Not only has the Bush Administration bobbled the ball in reestablishing itself as the Policeman of the World, now it wants to underwrite the world's banks?

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confirmed the change on ABC's "This Week," telling George Stephanopoulos, calling the coverage of foreign-based banks "a distinction without a difference to the American people."

"If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution," Paulson said.

Paulson points out that it's not enough to protect American institutions, but also to protect foreign institutions that have fallen into the same trap as our own banks. If Paulson thinks that Americans won't appreciate this distinction or who owns the financial institution being bailed out, then he's got another thing coming.

Paulson said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos:

"[R]emember, this is about protecting the American people and protecting the taxpayers. and the American people don't care who owns the financial institution. If the financial institution in this country has problems, it'll have the same impact whether it's the U.S. or foreign."

It's my feeling that this will create severe backlash. I think the American people understand that fixing the insolubility of the American banking industry is a bitter pill. We'd all much rather let the free markets work, but we bailed these American institutions to stave off a possible economic meltdown and possible depression. Meanwhile, we've got American corporations, like the automobile industry, is in great need of financial assistance to stay afloat. Do we really want to keep afloat foreign banking interests when the backbone of American industry is about to crumble?

The legislative outline that went to Capitol Hill at 1:30 a.m. Saturday had said that an eligible financial institution had to have has “its headquarters in the United States.” That would exclude foreign-based institutions with big U.S. operations, such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS. The theory, according to a participant in the negotiations, is that if the goal is to solve a liquidity crisis, it makes no sense to exclude banks that do a lot of lending in the United States.

But a Treasury “Fact Sheet” released at 7:15 last night sought to give the administration more flexibility, with an expanded definition that could include all of those banks: “Participating financial institutions must have significant operations in the U.S., unless the Secretary makes a determination, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, that broader eligibility is necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.”

This is worrisome to me. It almost seems like Paulson knows another possible meltdown is on its way, otherwise, why would they bother to amend the legislative outline.

This is very worrisome indeed. Read More......

McCain damns himself with his own words

At the end the video the question is asked: "Can your family really trust John McCain?" I think it's evident half way through that nobody really can.

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The Rockland Dems can do better

I attended the Rockland County Democratic Party convention last night and I am sad to say that I saw local politics at its worst.

First of all, this was supposed to be the county convention, but it devolved into a Ramapo town feud, and County Democratic Chairman Vince Monte didn't help matters by refusing to hold a roll call at the beginning of the meeting as requested by a clear majority of people there.

It was a waste of time for members of the Orangetown, Clarkstown, Haverstraw, and Stony Point Democratic Committees.

We came there, in force, to support our new committee appointments and to talk about campaigning for Barack Obama for the Presidency. But what we got ourselves into was the middle of a fight between the old machine politics of Ramapo and an upstart group that rightfully sought to take over the reigns.

All the towns were to have their organizational meetings before the county meeting. The outgoing chair of the Ramapo Democratic Committee, Laurence O. Toole (the brother-in-law of Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence), ignored this request, leaving the town committee in chaos for the presumptive incoming chair, Joe Meyers. And the chaos spilled over into our county meeting:


The fight nearly became physical a few times: There were a few shouting matches and some balled fists. The group was loud and demanding. Even the manager of the Nyack Seaport—where the event was held—came into the fray. He began to demand to the Orangetown Police that the Ramapo group be removed after Monte abruptly adjourned the meeting. The manager even alleged that a member of the Ramapo Democrats for Change had insulted his daughter.

The whole event was a disgraceful display and historically reminiscent of when Tammany Hall was pushed from power by reformers in the early 1930s.


Monte wanted committee members to sign in - a move the insurgents mistrusted and some longtime Democrats saw as a break with tradition.

"They could sign in anyone; they could write in other people's names," Joseph Meyers, a committeeman and county legislator from Airmont, said of the old guard of the town group.

I have to agree with Joe Meyers on this point. There is no good reason to abandon a practice used in party meetings and conventions for something that could be easily hacked. And that's what bothered Meyers and his followers, that the old Ramapo guard, led by town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, would use this poor accounting to force its agenda on the town.

The roll call demand by Meyers, an organizer of the reform movement who was later elected committee chairman, was supported by Robert Crable, a 50-year committeeman from Orangetown.

"We can't have a roll call?" Crable said into a microphone as Monte and his followers packed up before an audience of more than 400 people.

"We have roll calls all the time," Crable said. "Are we going to pull the whole agenda back? Are we going to select a chairman?"

This made Crable an unlikely, but instant hero to many in attendance. And Vince Monte clearly upset; he didn't acknowledge Crable's request and I later overheard him chastising Crable for his comments.

At one point, Monte's group wanted to remove noncommittee people from the room at The Nyack Seaport restaurant.

I'm not sure what that would have accomplished. There were dozens of people there who were either interested in becoming committee members or who were to be nominated as committee members. Personally, I naively invited several Barack Obama supporters to the meeting, thinking that there would be some information about getting our Democratic candidate elected president.

"I will not be part of an illegal meeting," a visibly agitated St. Lawrence said before leaving. "The county chairman adjourned the meeting. That's all."

Oh, c'mon. Let's not toss around words like "illegal" so flippantly. Democracy can sometimes be messy, and what happened last night might not adhere to the rules or stand up in a civil court (should it come to that, and I heard that it may); still I would not say that these people were acting in an illegal manner when trying to obtain control of their party.

I was close by as St. Lawrence and Toole stormed out with their purple faces and veins bulging. It's amazing to see grown men acting like petulant children and not graciously accepting impending defeat. Their actions were clearly an embarrassment to the entire town of Ramapo.

After the hall cleared of most of St. Lawrence's supporters, Meyers' group held a roll call, filled committee vacancies, and selected its officers. The Ramapo Democrats for Change were congratulated by state Senate candidate Gregory Julian and by Jacques Michel, a county legislator from Ramapo who was named co-chairman of the new group.

This part of the Journal News article is completely inaccurate. There weren't that many St. Lawrence supporters there at all. The people that were leaving were committee members from other towns who realized their presence was a waste of time. Believe me, I shook a lot of their hands as the left.

Meyers told the committee members to expect a legal challenge of their meeting by the Democrats not in the reform movement.

He said the new committee members needed to attend an organizational meeting scheduled by the old guard for Sept. 25.

I'm sorry to say that Meyers continues to have a war on his hands. There is some disagreement on whether the impromptu Ramapo meeting was legal or not. However, I would advise against the county committee challenging its validity. The next battle may be for the soul of the County party.

Although I don't like how it impacted our county meeting, I'm happy for the upstarts in Ramapo for getting the change they want and deserve. And, going forward, I think that we're going to need some new perspectives in the county committee as well.
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More proof that Palin is a pathological liar

Sarah Palin told Sean Hannity today that she had her daughters vote on whether she should accept the VP nomination, but that doesn't jibe with what she told Charles Gibson and it certainly doesn't sync with her own husband's recollection of events. Once again, Sarah Palin is lying and exploiting her family for political gain. Uh, let's see, Palin has told about 20 outright lies in the past three weeks. She's out-lied the entire Bush administration less than a month. So, I'm wondering who will make the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's biggest liar, her or her boss.

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Rockland County Health Department withholds critical public information from residents

Rockland County is forcing residents jump through hoops to obtain public information concerning the spread of West Nile Virus in the County. Outraged residents have to file Freedom of Information requests to obtain the information.

When a Pearl River man asked the Rockland Department of Health if a batch of West Nile positive mosquitoes found in Orangetown were near his home, he was told that it was the agency's policy not to disclose precise locations of where the virus is found.

This forced Tomey to file a Freedom of Information request to get the pertinent information. But the County Health Department didn't fully comply with Tomey's request, only giving a vague idea of where the mosquito traps where the virus was found were located.

In a precedent-setting response, the Rockland Department of Health this week told Tormey that the two batches of mosquitoes collected in Orangetown were taken from a trap set somewhere on Route 303 in Orangeburg.

Now, I have a hard time understanding this. As Rockland County residents, we pay the Health Department to help look after our well being. This is the sole purpose of the Health Department. I'm wondering what all the secrecy is about. But there's more:

The Department of Health decided to release more precise information about the location of the traps where the mosquitoes were found after consulting with the county's law department, said Commissioner of Health Joan Facelle.

She has mixed feelings about releasing the information to Tormey or anyone else.

It doesn't matter what your lawyers say, Facelle. The law is clear, you have to provide this information to the public. It is not your own proprietary information.

"I understand his wish to know," she said. "But knowing where the mosquitoes were collected shouldn't alter anyone's response - the virus is endemic in Rockland and there is theoretically a risk to everyone."

That answer is entering into non sequitur territory. Why doesn't she explain why Rockland County tried to bury the information?

I'm wondering if it is the policy of Rockland County to withhold information to the public as a default. But it's not unlike Republican administrations to be so secretive.
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NY a swing state? Reda and Silvestri drink Kool-Aid at the RNC

The New York delegation to the Republican National Convention included some notable Rockland County Republicans, including Rockland County Democratic Chairman Vincent Reda and County Vice Chairman Joan Silvestri, who is also the co-commissioner Rockland County's Board of Elections.

You couldn't help but wonder what the delegates like Reda and Silvestri were smoking at the Republican convention, as they joined other delegates in wildly cheering for two of the worst political speeches I have ever heard: First there was the snarling Sarah Palin, who made fun of Harry Reid's height and mocked Obama's experience and popularity. And then there was the pitifully bland and empty John McCain.


They believe this despite McCain's gaffe-filled hour long speech, which again put him against an unattractive green screen (actually the lime-green lawn in front of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA). He blew every third or fourth line; I was embarrassed for him. While McCain appeared to be uncomfortable, he also wasn't convincing in his pledge for "change."

And last, McCain has also way overplayed his background as a POW. While many people admire McCain's sacrifice to this country, it doesn't make him a saint. I know many other people that have made sacrifices as great or even greater than McCain has made, but that doesn't give them the judgment needed to become President of the United States. And after awhile, repeating this story over-and-over again will have the same negative effect of Rudy Giuliani's "[noun] and [verb] and 9/11." There is always a backlash when you play up misery. I don't mind being reminded of McCain's prisoner of war status, I'm just tired of it being incessantly shoved in my face. I'm sure many others feel the same way.

Palin's speech, like McCain's was devoid of specifics. She alienated much of the electorate when she could have spent the time letting the public get a feeling for her as a person and as a politician. Barack Obama let's us into his soft side. He let's us know that he shares in the anguish of the middle class. All we got from Palin was shrill accusations and a litany of falsehoods cast at the Democratic Party and progressives in general. This is not going to endear Palin to independents or moderates; even early polls and focus groups have shown that while Palin's speech did energize the Republican base, she alienated undecided voters.

But those speeches were not the only source of dubious and absurd content Reda and Silvestri made baffling and ridiculous statements that they believe New York State is in play for 2008.

Joan Silvestri, vice chairwoman of the Rockland County GOP and a convention alternate, said delegates should follow the model that former Republican Gov. George E. Pataki used to win three terms.

Pataki concentrated on swing suburban counties outside New York City, and those same counties will be important to McCain, she said.

Since Democratic candidates generally do better among female voters, getting more women to vote for McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, also will be key, Silvestri said.

"We are forming a Women for McCain (group)," she said. "We still believe New York is still in play."

Vincent Reda, Rockland County's Republican chairman, is heartened by recent polls that show a shrinking lead in New York for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"If we don't take the state, we're going to come close to it," Reda said.

These two are batshit crazy. If the State Democratic Committee leader of Utah said the same thing, I would also call him batshit crazy.

Let's be for real here: Obama leads New York by eight points after the Republicans got their jump from the convention. And that's just in one poll, from Siena College (one of the more notoriously inaccurate pollsters, by the way). Other polls in New York state, by Quinnipac, Zogby, Rassmussen, the New York Times, and Survey USA are showing spreads closer to 20-30 points in favor of Obama.

But let Reda and Silvestri spin this any way they want. Their words are as laughable and hollow as McCain's and Palin's. If anything was proven by this convention, it's that GOP members, even our local Republicans, are much more about relaying jingoistic messages than they are about reality and substance.
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Sarah Palin is no Teddy Roosevelt

Tonight, Senator Sam Brownnoseback declared that Sarah Palin comes from the Teddy Roosevelt wing of the Republican Party. While MSNBC's Tom Brokaw and Keith Olbermann repeated this meme, they saw that this stretching back to Teddy Roosevelt was just that—a stretch.

The picture that the Republican Party is trying paint at the convention is that of two Mavericksm of two politicians, that would make TR proud. But neither Sarah Palin nor John McCain are reformers. They're more of the same neo-conservatism that we've suffered through for eight years. They only promise one thing: four more years of the failed policies of George W. Bush.

The Republicans are tossing around the B.S. when they compare themselves, and especially Sarah Palin, to Teddy Roosevelt. It is an insult to the memory of one of our greatest Presidents and greatest Americans. When you look at TR's story and you'll notice that he's nothing like Palin:


Teddy Roosevelt was a leader in the Republican Party back when the party had a strong progressive wing. In fact, Roosevelt was the leader of the Progressive Movement.

While he was a hunter, Teddy Roosevelt was also a staunch conservationist. He started the National Parks system and believed in preserving the environment, not exploiting it and destroying it simply for its raw materials.

Roosevelt had a great deal of foreign policy experience as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and management experience as the Governor of New York. He was world travelled and an avid writer who published 32 books. Palin only recently got her first passport.

The base of the Republican Party hated Roosevelt, but he was selected as William McKinley's running mate to appease the more liberal wing of the party.

And Roosevelt's ascension to the Presidency helps define the of the importance of having a Vice President who is ready to assume the presidency. The very experienced Roosevelt succeeded McKinley in the White House after the President was assasinated.

As President, Roosevelt continued to be a progressive reformer who sought to move the GOP toward the left. Roosevelt distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved dozens of monopolistic corporations.

Roosevelt was the first President to call for universal health care and national health insurance.

Disillusioned with the Republican Party and upset that the party's nomination was stolen from him, Roosevelt left the party. He formed his own party, the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. As a third-party candidate, he beat Taft in the popular vote and pulled so many progressives out of the Republican Party that Democrat Woodrow Wilson won in 1912. Roosevelt left the Progressive Party later, only to again become the progressive "fly in the ointment" of the Republican Party until his death.

Teddy Roosevelt is a man that every politician should aspire to be. But Sarah Palin is no Teddy Roosevelt. She is the polar opposite of Teddy Roosevelt.

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Palin's Anti-American activities: she belonged to an Alaskan Secessionist Party

How much does Sarah Palin love America? She loves it so much that she once belonged to an Alaskan political party, the Alaskan Independence Party, that wanted to secede from the Union. She loves America so much that she preferred not to be a citizen of America, but a citizen of an autonomous Alaska.

So anti-American is this group, that it's founder, Joe Vogler, was buried in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada, fulfulling his wish that he not be buried under the American flag.

Can we have a person as Vice President that once believed that Alaska should leave the United States. Can she be trusted to lead the other 49 States fairly? There are too many questions about Palin's ability to lead, and this secessionist streak is only further proof that she is not fit to be Vice President.

Need some proof of these allegations? There's plenty of video proof at the link to DailyKos.

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