They won't tell us what the agreement is of course, which is total and complete bullshit. Jon Tester, a blue dog btw, had some choice words during one of the hearings this week, and I agree with him. From the NYT:
“I’m a dirt farmer,” said Senator Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat who still lives on his family homestead. “Why do we have one week to determine that $700 billion has to be appropriated or this country’s financial system goes down the pipes?”
My question is why are the Dems rushing to judgment? Why can't they ask some hard questions and demand answers before they sign on the dotted line? Again, from Tim Egan's blog on the NYT:
There is certainly a food chain of greed, from the lowliest house-flipper in the Southern California exurbs to the Hamptons hedge fund manager. We all put reason in a box and buried it for a time. But before $700 billion is committed to a secretary whose decisions “may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency,” as the original draft of the bailout states, it’s worth remembering where the biggest heist took place, and how Wall Street dragged down the rest of the country once before. You could hear the echoes of history in Tester’s question, riding the fierce urgency of now at a time when the Great Depression and all its gloomy atmospherics are in the air again.
Five bucks says the folks losing their homes, or those little stockholders or mom and pop investors won't get any protection in this 'bailout package', just the greedy bastards that caused it. Jon Tester and I probably agree on very little, but I trust him on this issue. From The Great Falls Tribune:
Tester said he's worried about the nation's financial health and stays awake at nights thinking about it.
"A lot of people's investments in the future are tied up in the financial markets, and we've got to try to make sure that the folks who invested honestly are secure," he said. "The way we originally got here is because of greed and speculation, and we need to make sure that the people who pay the price are the greedy buggers and the speculators."
We need to protect the honest folks and fuck those greedy bastards like they have been fucking us. And rushing to judgment will only mean this isn't the final word on bailing out these assholes, Tester again:
"I fully feel the urgency. Every time we've made a spur-of-the-moment decision that we didn't do our due diligence on, it has been a wreck, but the truth is, we have to be given the time to do this right, or you'll be up here in a year or two asking for another $700 billion or more,"
Amen brotha, a-fucking-men.
