Caught in the act

The Paulson bailout plan is far more than what it appears to be. More than a bailout plan (for the very people who got us into this mess), it is a shameless, naked, blatant, ambitious power-grab so monumental as to be absolutely breathtaking. This plan, presented in three and a half pages, spells out in general the powers that are to be given to just one man, Paulson, power to buy and sell 700 billion dollars (that is billion) worth of securities, mortgages, and what have you, entirely at his discretion, and with no oversight (mind you, a recent loan application for a small loan ran to some 25 pages). Here is the real nitty-gritty:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

I find it virtually impossible to believe anyone thought they could get away with this. There is no excuse for it. It is not just the result of a typo or a clerical error or the work of some mindless subordinate. It was clearly written for just one disgraceful purpose. But they tried. The plan obviously was to railroad it through, just like the Patriot Act, by claiming its urgency and planting the seeds of panic so that Congress would just mindlessly sign on as they have done with such things in the past. If they could hurry it through, with no one reading it too carefully, if at all, they would have given themselves absolutely dictatorial power to control 700 billion dollars of public monies. Fortunately, they have not yet got away with it. Some members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have made it clear they will not agree to such powers given to one individual. Of course this is delaying the process that the sponsors of this “plan” insist has to be passed immediately or the sky will fall, a depression will occur, at least a serious recession (as if we are not already in one), and so on. When confronted by opposition, that is, caught in this despicable act, Paulson said that of course there had to be oversight, he knew that, everyone knew that, he just didn’t put it in the plan because he thought it would be presumptious of him to suggest such a thing to Congress. Apparently he thinks that an act that “may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency,” is not presumptious and does not suggest anything to Congress. Jeez, even Al Capone and Lucky Luciano were cleverer that that. This is so outrageous and so transparently a gigantic con that something good may actually come out of it. If we listen to Obama and Bernie Sanders, and others like that, we might actually get some genuine and long-needed reform.
Now that even George Will has announced that McCain is not fit to be President we can comfort ourselves knowing that Sarah Palin is right there to back him up. Now that she has actually met a couple of other Foreign leaders (for chit-chat and photo-ops) we know that she has control of Foreign Policy matters. Can you believe they actually tried to ban anything but photos of these brief meetings. When even the MSM balked at that they begrudgingly allowed one reporter in the room for a few seconds. When asked later how it went Palin apparently said “great.” She also met briefly with Kissinger. He was probably advising her how to stay our of other countries when she becomes a war criminal. This Bush/Cheney administration, along with McCain and others, has to be the most despicable, disgusting, unpatriotic, power-mad bunch of crooks ever to be in office. Thank the Great Mystery that the election is drawing near and we may be rid of these shameless criminals at last.

Tanka

in these high mountains
icy rivers run wildly
nothing contains them
they rage mindlessly
as the hot blood of lovers

Morialekafa