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AlterNet / By David Sirota
comments_imageCOMMENTS: 225

The Bailout: How Capitalism Killed Democracy

We now face market forces uninhibited by democratic governance. The bailout is an aggressive attempt to trade democracy for autocracy.
October 4, 2008  |  
 
 
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The marriage of American capitalism and democracy has always been a Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee affair -- stormy and erratic since its hasty wedding. But during the debate over a Wall Street bailout this week, we watched that matrimonial knot unwind into a tangled tale of terror.

As a financial crisis became a political panic, capitalism murdered democracy (ironically, while pursuing a vaguely socialist bailout). Only, unlike a typical horror story, the dead body wasn't hidden, it was dumped in the nation's public square.

The fiasco started, like most, with unreasonable demands. Under threat of financial meltdown, capitalism's corporate lobbyists asked our democracy to forsake its usual deliberations and hand over $700 billion of taxpayer money in less than a week.

Many were surprised when democracy responded with such valiant defiance. As television screens split between the floors of the stock exchange and the House of Representatives, lawmakers initially voted with their constituents and against the bailout.

That's when this husband-and-wife argument escalated into a grisly crime of passion.

CNN's Ali Velshi frothed that "the banks and the companies don't care about the intricacies" of democratic deliberations. A CEO angrily told CNN that "the money is being held hostage to the political process" -- as if government resources are rightfully Wall Street's. And as the Dow tanked, the Chamber of Commerce threatened retribution against recalcitrant lawmakers.

The final deathblow came from TINA, shorthand for "There Is No Alternative" -- the motto that Margaret Thatcher used to peddle her corporatism, and that Washington and Wall Street used to promote theirs.

Whether it was a Barclays Capital executive telling reporters "there is no choice" or Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., insisting that "this needs to be done and it needs to be done right away," responsibly democratic prescriptions were pulverized by capitalism's deranged mantra of inevitability and urgency. To even mention, as economist Dean Baker did, that the taxpayer giveaway could exacerbate the crisis was to risk flogging by columnists like Tom Friedman. The sycophantic flat-earther vilified bailout opponents (i.e., most Americans) as mentally incapacitated deadbeats who "can't balance their own checkbooks."

By the time the fight hit Congress' upper chamber, senatorial morticians were embalming democracy's corpse. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., permitted consideration of just one alternative, and he rigged parliamentary procedure to guarantee its defeat.

Yet, if capitalism took democracy's life through a perverse legislative process, then it robbed its grave with the bailout bill's substance.

American democracy is defined by vesting government power in systems and rules, not in individuals and whims. We have been, as John Adams wrote, "an empire of laws, and not of men" -- until now.

Instead of responding to this meltdown by updating regulatory institutions or investing in job-creating infrastructure, the bailout proposes giving one unelected appointee -- the Treasury Secretary -- complete authority to dole out $700 billion to bank executives, with little oversight. And here's the scary part: That lurch toward dictatorship was motivated not just by crony corruption, but also by a deeper ideological shift.

We now face market forces uninhibited by democratic governance -- Chinese dictators and Saudi princes can move trillions of dollars without so much as a press release. This bailout, marketed as a speed enhancer, is an aggressive attempt to discard democracy's checks and balances and pantomime that kind of autocracy.

While our political culture still required a public sales job (thus, the fearmongering), the bill's czarism aims to permanently euthanize democracy in the name of improving our capitalism's global agility. In that sense, this week's spousal killing wasn't random. It was the beginning of a systematic assault on our Constitution and a radical departure from Franklin Roosevelt's original covenant -- a dangerous "new deal" we must say "no deal" to.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
David Sirota is a best-selling author whose newest book, "The Uprising," was just released this month. He is a fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and a board member of the Progressive States Network -- both nonpartisan organizations. His blog is at www.credoaction.com/sirota.
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Waiting For Columbus
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Direct Democracy on Oct 4, 2008 12:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's comforting to think that the American pioneer spirit isn't dead, it's just hibernating.

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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» RE: Waiting For Columbus Posted by: bornxeyed
» RE: Waiting For Columbus Posted by: Spot
» Here's the fix... Posted by: Fog

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Retroactive tax refunds for coal - lesson to be learned.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: aouie01 on Oct 4, 2008 12:41 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
SEC. 114. SPECIAL RULES FOR REFUND OF THE COAL EXCISE TAX TO CERTAIN COAL PRODUCERS AND EXPORTERS.
... such coal producer filed an excise tax return on or after October 1, 1990 ... then the Secretary shall pay to such coal producer an amount equal to the tax paid under section 4121 ...

Lesson to be learned. When in power, effects of undesirable laws of prior governing bodies can be undone to whatever extent it is possible to get away with.

Sincerely,
Aouie

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Thanks! Really my time isn't worth anything.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: stupidregistering on Oct 4, 2008 12:58 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I came into this article truly interested in your ideas. I looked past the sensationalist headline and wanted to see an anti bailout opinion.

I'm not 100% for the bailout. I don't think it was the best option, but I'm not intelligent enough to know what IS so I could be wrong.

What I ran into was a brick wall of contemptuous writing backed by little. The angry tone out weighed any backing the article had.

I did not get what I came for, a thought out criticism of what is going forward. And for that I am saddened.

My time was wasted, as was yours. Though it appears you have played well to your audience, this is no better than any of the other extremist rantings from both sides that block out rationality for the sake of applause.

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» WWWW-W-W-AAAAAAAAAAA-H-H-H!!!!!!! Posted by: GarrisonPayneLeonard38H
» It Was Good Commentary Posted by: Gravitas

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Where's our modern Jesse James
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jreal on Oct 4, 2008 1:18 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Well, it's complete. They killed us and ran off with our insurance policy.

The banks won. We lost. Republican capitalism has shown it's naked ass. And it's not pretty.

So what have we learned. Well, first off, western capitalism was created off the backs of slaves throughout the world in 18th and 19th centuries. Without these slaves we wouldn't have had capitalism.

Now we have wage laboring slaves whose wages are pushed down by Wall Street backed Republican policies of deregulation. Deregulation that gives megalithic corporations more power over the people and their voices. Megalithic corporations that want less government to protect you from them. Megalithic corporations that would rather themselves create your grammar schools than the government so they will in turn be your daddy. And you will always be dependent on this daddy... to the point of abject desperation.

So wow. Now we have listened to these people for 70 years. We let them convince us to trust them. We let them convince us that profiteers and greedy business men have our best interests at heart.

And now, we are owned.

They bankrupted us, and they still managed to own us, with our own money.

Forget the banks.

Forget Wall Street.

Lend to each other.

Trade with each other.

We can all be the Jesse James of this new corrupt era. Bring it back to the people.

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» REPUBLICAN Captialism? Posted by: Drume
» RE: PUBLICAN Captialism? Posted by: jreal
» A+ jreal! Excellent! Posted by: Pirate1

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Money is slavery by proxy, and now more people know the truth
[Report this comment]
Posted by: SevenStarHand on Oct 4, 2008 2:38 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Looks like the gods known as money and politics have shed their veils to expose the dark hearts within. Some have known this for quite some time, but most of the deluded slaves were too clueless to listen. Now the suffering of the poor and powerless will trickle up to those that blindly supported those that rule using money, religion, and politics.

What goes around comes around

Peace now or be prepared for the blowback...

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We have become China
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Shey on Oct 4, 2008 3:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A lethal combination of unregulated capitalism and repressive laws governing the lives of individuals, with no rights for workers or dissenters.

On my local news tonight, I heard both my state's (Democratic) Representatives say that this is just a stop-gap measure, that it must be reworked and major changes made (the unspoken part was, "after the election").

We'd better hope not only that Obama wins, but that at least half the Republicans in both houses lose their seats to Democrats. And then, that Obama turns out to be the reincarnation of FDR. Because it's going to take nothing less than a miracle to get us out of this unbelievable mess.

Everyone who has ever been associated with the Bush/Cheney regime, should be in jail. Release all the harmless prisoners doing time for smoking pot, and there would be plenty of room in the prisons.

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» RE: We have become China Posted by: Spot
» RE: We have not become China Posted by: AlienSlave
» RE: We have not become China Posted by: Dyolfknip
» RE: We have become China Posted by: grkjr

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samothrellim
[Report this comment]
Posted by: milltom on Oct 4, 2008 4:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The saddest note is that Barbara Lee, who stood with us in opposing he war, caved along with everyone else. She could have stood up for what would have been the democratic solution, but did not. If we don't have people like Barbara Lee and Barney Frank, where do we turn? Will Barack listen?

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» RE: samothrellim Posted by: badkitty
» It should be Posted by: uluro

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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Tom Degan on Oct 4, 2008 4:13 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Once I built a railroad
Made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a railroad
Now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Just think what would have happened to this doomed country had the people stupidly re-elected Herbert Hoover in 1932. Fortunately, there was never any question that they would send Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House. People were a lot smarter then.

That's not the case in this political year, that's for damned sure! If the electorate send John McCain and Gidget to the White House next January, pack up. This country won't be worth the paper the Constitution is written on. Come to think about it, that's already the case, isn't it?

How the fuck did this happen? Why did we allow it to happen?

Say, don't you remember?
They called me "Al"
It was "Al" all the time
Say don't you remember?
I'm your pal!
Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Weird Times In Mudville

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» Jenny6kids Posted by: Cathyc

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Bush Family Facilitates Another Banking Scam
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Posted by: 911FalseFlag on Oct 4, 2008 4:49 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Today's banking crisis is the THIRD trillion dollar plus US-caused financial meltdown in the last twenty years.
Each one of these crises came into being through the same basic mechanism...the fraudulent over-valuing of financial assets by Wall Street - with a "wink and a nod" (and sometimes a lot more) from the White House and Congress. The fraudulently valued assets stimulate the economy, impart the illusion of health and then, inevitably, the fraud goes too far and the whole house of card comes painfully crashing back to earth.
The White House stood in the way of any state prosecuting federal banks and mortgage companies for predatory lending. They actually used a portion of the enabling act creating the US Comptroller of the Currency to preempt the regulation and prosecution of these banks for fraudulent loan activities. This is why Eliot Spitzer was politically assassinated. He wrote an editorial in the Washington Post three weeks before his assassination accusing the White House of preventing any state Attorney General from prosecuting these criminal activities. Of course, the mainstream media did not report the actual reason that this politician’s sexual indiscretions were reported so immediately and excessively.

The mainstream media never reported on Bush planting in the White House press corps a gay escort, Johnny Gannon. Gannon based on the Secret Service records of visits to the White House visited the White House over 200 times and stayed overnight at least two times.

Go to my website, www.911insidejob.net and read many articles and watch videos on the well planned takedown of the US dollar by the Bush White House and the Federal Reserve Bank.

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» You can thank Schumer&Feinstein Posted by: weathered

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Dropping Out
[Report this comment]
Posted by: socialpsych on Oct 4, 2008 5:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Man in Search of Woman

Academic man looking for partner/companion (vegan woman, 35 to 50, preferably educated in biology/ecology) to pursue self-sufficient lifestyle in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. Must enjoy food-production gardening, food preservation, and other subsistence activities. Must love dogs. Send qualifications and photo. No cell phone addicts, please.

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» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: bcontent2b
» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: HoboHomo
» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: Grandma Crabby
» Go Granny! Posted by: Cathyc
» Personal Time? Posted by: Gravitas
» What sort of dogs? Posted by: Cathyc
» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: HoboHomo
» must own boat Posted by: PrinceRobert

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throw $$ at it, the solution...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ellie on Oct 4, 2008 5:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
looking back over the past 7+ years, that has always been the response... instead of taking time to figure out a realistic and workable solution, this mess of an administration throws money at it first as their idea of a fix... then the money disappears somehow and things are 10 times worse... if we can loose a pallet of 12 bil cash on the way to Iraq, do you think this is going to be any different???

'advisers' have been lined up off camera to dive into that pile of cash already... can see this green mountain turning into 'advising fees' first and nothing goes out to where it is supposed to go... doesn't the US already have a herd of market people and accountants already on the payroll???

at least we're back on track here... every time wombat opens his mouth the market tanks and gas prices drop a dime per gallon to shut us up...

a classic YOYO scenario as usual... don't feel too confidant about anyone running for office this cycle... maybe time to turn our backs on the whole system as is and the people start stuff over...

who stole my constitution and I want it back, pronto!!!

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This was inevitable
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Posted by: xi_people on Oct 4, 2008 5:42 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The real culprit in the coming collapse isn't a given economic system, but the fact that resource scarcity is finally coming to the fore.

For the past 50 years, the 'global economy' has massively expanded and partied on like oil would last forever. It is entirely based on the assumption that the irreplaceable resource would remain not only cheap, but reliably available. The former paradigm has already been blown, and the second one is well on its way to being so.

Contrary to popular pronouncements, no viable alternative to oil has been developed on a scale that would 'save' the US or world economy.

So the wasteful era of cheap air flights, cheap plastic products, imported food, etc. is now grinding to a halt. Economies all over the world will be forced to become intensely local. Any ideas of a global economy will soon become obsolete as the real struggle for survival begins for populations that, for the most part, are completely unprepared for it.

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» RE: You're not getting it Posted by: xi_people
» no, he's got it. Posted by: Coleman
» RE: Confusing explanandum for explanan Posted by: andabottleof_rum

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Dictator Bush
[Report this comment]
Posted by: RedFoxOne on Oct 4, 2008 6:04 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Dictator Bush did a pretty fine job himself of running the country into the ground. he has gotten so caught up in his Global Domination efforts that he has completely forgotten about the sheeple. Pretty sad!

Jiff
Online PRivacy when it Counts

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The final cut
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Posted by: frankly1 on Oct 4, 2008 6:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is so sad to watch the murder of what was or could have been a true nation of freedom and democracy. The global facists have been working for this moment for at least three generations and the last act has now been made "law". The populace has been bred and indoctrinated to become "debt slaves" (I owe, I owe so of to work I go) and now the globalists are sticking us with thier debt after stealing our government and everything of value in the public trust.
Soon you will wake up in a country that is basically one corporation that has all the money and controls all the information. If you complain or protest you'll be carted of to some corpoate chain gang. So you better shut up and do as you are told or they will remove your little toys that make your pointless servitude bearable. The window is closing fast and soon a simple complaint will get you in a lot of trouble. The cull is coming folks! The economic sunami is hitting and will destroy the lives of millons of working families. If and when they protest they will be rounded up and violently surpressed. If you think this is some crazy rant, look around you, it is happening right now!

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What the US needs now
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Posted by: modeler on Oct 4, 2008 6:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Another revolution to get rid of the greedy SOBs and those who supported their bailout. Be nice and put them all in jail including all the Bushits with a pile of huge rocks to split up into gravel with hammers and a daily minimum workload of 1 ton.

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» Get the business schools Posted by: socialpsych
» RE: What the US needs now Posted by: HoboHomo
» One ton is a pretty small quota. Posted by: andabottleof_rum

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It's called extortion
[Report this comment]
Posted by: chlamor on Oct 4, 2008 6:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When 700 bil. is needed for an extreme emergency bailout, and 250 bil. is quickly designated for federal "extras" what does that say? It says this crisis is shaping up to look like what I thought it was..."not" a crisis. Its a consolidation through takeover. Also, asset managers report due to the "fair pricing" rules they were forced to undervalue their assets to a point that "technically", the "rules", forced their books to fit the definition of insolvency, when in reality the assets were worth much more. I would say evidence of their claims lay in the fact that we have not had more foreclosures than we have had. Also many of those foreclosures were a result of interest rates on adjustable rate mortages being raised beyond a persons "known" ability to pay. This is a pattern that is becoming clearer and clearer. It says something....

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If It's True
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Posted by: Last Chance on Oct 4, 2008 7:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
as so many claim, that the capitalist system is breaking down, then isn't it time to get together with friends and family to acquire a parcel of land to grow your own food? That way when the money runs out you won't starve.

Face the reality. Capitalism succeeds only when there are millions of people with money to spend. But if the number of poor people is increasing, that means there is no longer a market, no longer a growing economy, no longer a chance to rise to a middle-to-upper class lifestyle.

So, how will you feed yourself and your family? The answer is clear. Gather together and acquire a parcel of fertile land on which to grow your own food, so when the money is gone you won't starve.

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» RE: If It's True Posted by: Lauren
» RE: If It's True Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: If It's True Posted by: VZEQICVA
» RE: If It's True Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: If It's True Posted by: HoboHomo
» RE: If It's True Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: 40a Posted by: AlienSlave

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RE: Corporate cronyism is not capitalism
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Lauren on Oct 4, 2008 9:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Have you read the bail out and what do you think of it?

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We Are Serfs
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Gravitas on Oct 4, 2008 8:25 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We are nothing but glorified serfs. We exist to keep the power-elite where they are. The system exists for them at our expense. Politicians work for them and the media is their mouth piece. The ideals that inspired the American Revolution are dead and our ancestors our turning over in their graves. The only thing I can personally put my faith in now is Hopi prophecy. The old system will crumble among much pain and a new consciousness will rise up.

Still, those of us who see it coming and can thing for ourselves are tired of bashing our heads against the wall trying to keep sheeple from self destructing. Any Canadians job offers would be highly appreciated. One gets points in the immigration process if one already has a job!
http://www.myspace.com/vortexresister113

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Here's my 2 cents
[Report this comment]
Posted by: TREEGUY on Oct 4, 2008 8:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Gas just went down 30 cents a gallon. Is this to settle people down? I guess I'm in shock a little.
Here are a few things that should be done, but let me add that I don't see our next president elect doing anything about it.
Get rid of the IRS
Get rid of the FED (print our own money)
Limit terms (no more professional politicians)
No more asses or elephants (vote independents in)
I also have a deep dislike for insurance companies (they have done alot of damage)

I truly am sorry but this list would just go on forever.

Our political system needs a good enema.

Do we go underground now?

The media won't help us.
Our politicians are helpless.
The sheeple have been sheared.

I feel drained.

Don't give up, EVER!!!!

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Senior Cynic
[Report this comment]
Posted by: rdodell on Oct 4, 2008 8:37 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Capitalism without regulation is CHAOS. It is creating a two-tier society...predator and prey. The GOP money machine hired a smiling, winking,charismatic "B" movie actor to introduce their lethal trickle-nomics virus against middle-class America. Two Bush puppets and one horny bobble-head pseudo progeessive in between finished us off.
It's our own fault...we elected the greedy bastards in both houses as well as the White House and lack the courage and conviction to boot them into the street in disgrace. Offered in proof that "...we the people" are a bunch of complacent, apathetic fools is this fact: In about a month, we will elect yet another one of the same and no matter which major candidate wins, the vast majority of Americans lose. Our Democracy under a sacred Constitution is in grave danger. We cannot save ourselves by "THE BAIL_OUT"...but only by THE BALLOT or THE BULLET. In the last 30 years or so, we have forgotten how to "aim" the ballot. If we hope to preserve our democracy, we had better re-learn the voting process...the alternative isn't pretty.

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» RE: Senior Cynic Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Senior Cynic Posted by: Spot
» RE: Senior Cynic Posted by: HoboHomo

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Real term limits
[Report this comment]
Posted by: luther6 on Oct 4, 2008 8:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The only real term limit that will work is an absolute death penalty for corruption. Accept a bribe, hang. Accept lobbyist money or favors, hang. Get your brother-in-law a job, hang.

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» RE: eal term limits Posted by: jbloggz
» A Long Term Solution Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: Spot
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: HoboHomo
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: HoboHomo

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its very simple
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cyr3n on Oct 4, 2008 9:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
private banks printing their own money (Federal Reserve) --> paying off politicians --> no democracy

Why are they requesting 700 billion anyhow? Last I checked a little over 100 billion would cover all the defaulted mortages in the country.. so the line about people not paying their mortgages leading to foreclosure is total crap.

These high-floating turds need to be rounded up and tried for treason. They've held our country hostage and knowingly issued bogus credit.

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» RE: its very simple Posted by: Lauren
» RE: its very simple Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: its very simple Posted by: animalleaderisgreat

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Don't be niave
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bbauerly on Oct 4, 2008 9:20 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama's number one campaign supporter is Paulson's former employer Goldman Sachs. Anyone who thought the dems would not vote for this bill has not been paying attention to the last 15 years. The dems are the corporate party, so are the repugs.

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» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Spot
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Spot
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Spot
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Drume
» We Need Hope Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: We Need Hope Posted by: Spot
» RE: We Need Hope Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: We Need Hope Posted by: Drume
» Okay, I'm not naive Posted by: Beck
» RE: Okay, I'm not naive Posted by: Last Chance

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Not quite
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bbauerly on Oct 4, 2008 9:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Total subprime mortgage lending equaled over 10 trillion dollars. At least half of that will be defaulted on. Meaning, $700 billion is only the begining, try 5 trillion. Which is about $50,000 per US family. We are sooo screwed.

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» RE: Not quite sooo screwed. Posted by: Lauren
» There Is Another Way Posted by: Last Chance
» So true Posted by: andabottleof_rum

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fuck it
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cyr3n on Oct 4, 2008 9:31 AM   
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..start printing local currency and using it in exchange for goods and services.

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» Why bother with fantasy? Posted by: Last Chance

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DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?
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Posted by: VZEQICVA on Oct 4, 2008 9:37 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
See NY Times 10/03/2008 (yesterday) page one. The whole thing is spelled out. In a quiet meeting in 2004 attended by 7 people the investment firms were "unleashed". There were objectors but as usual,they were silenced. The "Net Capital Rule" was changed. The debt to asset ration which kept things in balance for so long was gone. The blame clearly lies with Bush and the S.E.C. The 55 Minute hearing (that's all it took to change the world) is available on the NY Times and the S.E.C. websites. I believe that we can and should make ourselves heard, but not until we know what it's all about. "Wall Street greed" is not a good arguing point, even if it is true. There is no substitute for knowing why it all happened. Hey, we are paying for this. Thanks, ANNA

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» Is That Really What Happened? Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Is That Really What Happened? Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Is That Really What Happened? Posted by: Last Chance

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One group that won't be hurt by the credit crunch crisis: the treasonous neocon Bush family
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Posted by: NoMcCainPalin on Oct 4, 2008 10:35 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When Bush 41 was President Nixon's CIA chief, he formed the renegade conservative "Committee on Present Danger" -- predecessor of the rightwing extremist organization, "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC), founded years later by arch conservative Bill Kristol.

As president, Bush 41 fostered the imperialistic "New World Order" agenda that became a PNAC hallmark. Formed in 1997, PNAC advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and dominating the world with U.S. military power. Jeb Bush, acting as the family surrogate, was a PNAC founder.

Also during the Bush 41 administration, the current no-bid DOD contract scam was created by Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense who later became a PNAC founder, along with his fellow Iraq invasion advocates, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby. All four enriched themselves with lucrative investments in military/industrial complex stocks.

After Big George lost his reelection bid, he joined the private investment firm, Carlyle Group, managed by PNAC member Frank Carlucci, former Reagan DOD Secretary.

Since its formation and primarly because of Iraq War 2, the Carlyle Group has reportedly earned Bush 41 almost a billion dollars on his original investment.

Much of that wealth will be go to first son Dub-ya, who, not coincidentally, pushed for repeal of the "Death" (inheritance) tax.

One thing you can say about the Bushes. They know how to get rich -- at America's expense.

Finally, a patriotic suggestion for NEW AlterNet visitors. If you are an undecided voter, learn the truth about Insane McCain and his so-called "heroic" war record by clicking on: Vote Against McCain (one of the HOTTEST anti-McCain sites on the Web)

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Sirota's "Socialism" Is What Marx Critiqued As Bourgeois Socialism
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Posted by: pdxjoe on Oct 4, 2008 10:38 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While there's a certain grain of truth to the notion that this bailout represents an affirmation of "socialism for the rich; capitalism for the rest," taking it to the lengths that Sirota has in his last two columns to imply that this is socialism in the sense that it has ever been fought for by and for The People, which is to say including "the rest" of us, is intellectually dishonest. Marx had a term for the kind of socialism Sirota is talking about, "Bourgeois Socialism." It is one of many kinds of socialism he critiques in the Communist Manifesto, and he aptly gives it the full label of "Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism," because it conserves the oppressive economic relationship between bourgoisie (the owning class) and the proletariat (the working class). Arguably, American liberalism in the 20th and 21st centuries has been a mix of the "petty-bourgeois" and "bourgeois" socialism he critiques in the above linked section.

Since the part specifically on full-on "Bourgeois Socialism" is so short a section I will reproduce it here.

"A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social grievances in order to secure the continued existence of bourgeois society.

To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner reformers of every imaginable kind. This form of socialism has, moreover, been worked out into complete systems.

We may cite Proudhon’s Philosophis de la Misère as an example of this form.

The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom. They desire the existing state of society, minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat. The bourgeoisie naturally conceives the world in which it is supreme to be the best; and bourgeois Socialism develops this comfortable conception into various more or less complete systems. In requiring the proletariat to carry out such a system, and thereby to march straightway into the social New Jerusalem, it but requires in reality, that the proletariat should remain within the bounds of existing society, but should cast away all its hateful ideas concerning the bourgeoisie.

A second, and more practical, but less systematic, form of this Socialism sought to depreciate every revolutionary movement in the eyes of the working class by showing that no mere political reform, but only a change in the material conditions of existence, in economical relations, could be of any advantage to them. By changes in the material conditions of existence, this form of Socialism, however, by no means understands abolition of the bourgeois relations of production, an abolition that can be affected only by a revolution, but administrative reforms, based on the continued existence of these relations; reforms, therefore, that in no respect affect the relations between capital and labour, but, at the best, lessen the cost, and simplify the administrative work, of bourgeois government.

Bourgeois Socialism attains adequate expression when, and only when, it becomes a mere figure of speech.

Free trade: for the benefit of the working class. Protective duties: for the benefit of the working class. Prison Reform: for the benefit of the working class. This is the last word and the only seriously meant word of bourgeois socialism.

It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeois is a bourgeois — for the benefit of the working class."

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» Heh. Posted by: Coleman
» Empty Rhetoric Posted by: Last Chance
» Empty cities? Posted by: Spot
» Devolve cities into villages Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Devolve cities into villages Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: mpty Rhetoric Posted by: pdxjoe
» RE: mpty Rhetoric Posted by: Last Chance
» That Story Is Well Known To Many Posted by: Last Chance
» Agreed. And yet... Posted by: Coleman

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MASSIVE ENSLAVEMENT THROUGH BLACKMAIL
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Posted by: patginsd on Oct 4, 2008 11:37 AM   
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To succeed in their massive enslavement of the American people, Bush, Paulson, etc threatened our Congressmen with martial law imposition on America:
Youtube video = watch it and spread it before it disappears

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Every human devised "ism" has failed, so how about wisdom for once...
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Posted by: SevenStarHand on Oct 4, 2008 11:40 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We can now thank millennia of monetary, political, and religious leaders for proving, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that money-driven top-down hierarchical governance is absolute folly and foolishness. Even representative democracy, that great promise of the past, was easily and readily subverted to enslave us all, thanks to money and those that secretly control and deceptively manipulate all currencies and economies. Is there any doubt anymore that entrusting money and politics to solve humanity's problems is folly and delusion of the highest order? Is there any doubt that permitting political and corporate leaders to control the lives of billions has resulted in great evil?

Here are the keys to wisdom....
Now comes the time for humility and a new path to the future.

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» Beware of isms Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Beware of isms Posted by: Spot
» Beware of half-baked-isms Posted by: SevenStarHand
» RE: Beware of commercial blurbs Posted by: Last Chance
» This is a blatant false-accusation Posted by: SevenStarHand
» Thanks... Posted by: SevenStarHand

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catching on
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Posted by: cbishopp on Oct 4, 2008 11:40 AM   
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I remember reading (and writing) comments against the Federal Reserve on Alternet just a few months ago and I met with a lot of critical naysayers.
Still many people just cannot accept that we are economic slaves chained by consumerism and a network of false paper and unnecessary oil.
I had a hard time with it when I first came to the idea as well but the more I dove into the subject the more I came to see the dangers of this system and it's inevitable autocratic end.
It seems that our representatives are powerless and are easily controlled both by greed from the top and the necessity of keeping constituents well fed below.
As a nation it seems that all we want is to be cared for, to have big paychecks and full grocery stores and big cars with TVs in the back. All the Fed had to do was pinch ever so slightly and scare us a little and the three page extortion letter was signed in law.
They have the power to do terrible things, have no doubt of that.
But no war is without casualty and it looks like a war to regain our government must take place.
The internet is one of our last best weapons.
Keep talking, keep writing, and build a community not based on information chosen for you but on information that you come to through research and interaction.

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» RE: catching on Posted by: Spot

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Game over for democracy and freedom
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Posted by: blogbooks on Oct 4, 2008 12:18 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Those that rule the United States are sending us all a message. This signals a return to a very common state of existence for humanity through history - one where the very few rule over masses of poor.

This didn't happen this week or last week or last year. America has been steadily moving in this directly for the past 100 years, at least. Again, this is normal.

A country where the masses are free, educated, and enjoy relative wealth and comfort is very rare indeed. This state of existence does not benefit the elite in any way. An affluent slave becomes fat and weak. Our masters have learned from the decadent and weak Baby Boom generation that they need to reign us in a bit, take away a bit of our allowance.

So let me spell out the future plain as day.

1. The Baby Boom generation had the highest standard of living that any American generation will ever enjoy. We've past the apex of human civilization insofar as the masses are concerned. The future is a return to poverty and barbarism.

2. The 3rd Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team just stood up their operations under "NorthCOM." These battle hardened soldiers, that spent 35 of the past 60 months in Iraq killing people, are here to "subdue civil unrest and control crowds." These are battle hardened killers deployed on American soil for the purpose of controlling the American people by any means necessary. The future is violent subjugation of any who oppose the will of our masters.

3. The bailout is giving money to foreign banks because the system has "gone global." There, in a real manner, is no United States of America. We have already lost our sovereignty to the international banking system that controls the world. The future is one without a bill of rights, without sovereign nations, in which all pay homage to the international elite that will rule us all.

4. You need to wake the fuck up and realize that this isn't something you can ignore any longer. This isn't just the rantings of the Unabomber and nut jobs on the 'net. This is real and this, for the most part, has ALREADY happened. You cannot stay in your yuppy bubble worlds much longer. This is coming to a location near you - and soon. Look out for yourself and anyone you want to protect. The future is indeed a return to barbarism.

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» I am powerless, so are you. Posted by: blogbooks
» Humanity's Last Chance Posted by: Last Chance
» Plenty of us are battle hardened too Posted by: PrinceRobert

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When Dysfunctional America stops playing Happy Families..
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Posted by: Cathyc on Oct 4, 2008 12:53 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
then it will be a true Democracy and not the Banana Republic it actually is.

Check out this Google video:

TheSmartestGuysinTheRoom

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2878262919007839264

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Global Reach: The Power of Multi-National Corporations
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Posted by: foius on Oct 4, 2008 1:06 PM   
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Although this is the title of one of the most important economics books to come along in the late 1970's, it would seem appropriate to the current conditions of the U.S./Global economies. By displacing our manufacturing based economy with a services (financial services the main culprit) based economy, the cycle has been completed and the American union-wage, manufacturing worker has been summarily replaced by the low-wage workers of southern Asia, Latin and South America, and in some cases Eastern European workers. What does this mean? Does last weeks 159,000 jobs lost in the U.S. give you any idea of the consequences that most manufacturing workers face? Speaking about the "bail-out" legislation, it was inevitable. The plight of the American homeowner and wage worker is an insignificant blip to the members of congress, Wall Street, and the managers of concentrated capital. There will not be any significant changes to the fundamental ways in which the financial markets operate. It will be business and maximum profit at the margin as usual. For the rest of us it will be, "Will my income be sufficient to pay my bills and keep me from bankruptcy or foreclosure"? I am literally angry that our elected representatives are so corrupted by Big Money that they no longer represent us...if they ever did!!! The financial future of the American Economy will now be determined by the propensity of our Federal Agencies (FED, FDIC, TREASURY DEPT., FHA, FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC, HUD) to regulate, oversee, and participate in the financial services industry as a major player with the goal of profit as a motivator. Socialism...you say? Not Hardly!!! The American Economy has been long overdue for a reality check!!! Unfortunately, the mavens of Wall Street saw fit to restructure their balance sheets on the backs of the American Taxpayers, and congress apparently agreed. Will we roll over like a good pet seeing that the majority of Americans were against this bailout bill? Probably. Who do we have speaking for us now? Certainly not the members of congress who voted for this outrageous bill. In the final analysis, the will of the people has no strength in this current version of democracy that is being practiced. The calamity of the failure of real-estate backed assets is not over!!! There will be hell to pay for essentially giving our money to the market manipulators of Wall Street. This is just the beginning of the worst recession since...1929!!! You cannot bail out concentrated capital with more of the same. There has to be a broad based, fundamental mechanism that restores real equilibrium prices and values to assets. It used to be market forces. Now...with the financial market meltdown...Who knows,and more importantly, Who cares? With potentially Trillions of Dollars at their disposal, the Wall Street market manipulators have succeeded in their quest to fund their excesses in market speculation with taxpayer money. The American people have been left without a voice at the table of our economy. Either we boycott Wall Street, or we get rid of the current Congress. We don't have many choices left. Fiat money without a standard of value will ultimately spiral out of control into an inflationary recession. You know it now...but we will feel the results in the not too distant future.

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Why Wallstreet was Bailed out
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Posted by: Maxemum on Oct 4, 2008 2:04 PM   
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GOLDMAN SACHS CONTRIBUTIONS:

Obama, Barack (D-IL) $691,930

Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $468,200

Romney, Mitt (R) $229,675

McCain, John (R-AZ) $208,395

Himes, Jim (D-CT) $114,748

Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) $111,750

Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) $105,400

Edwards, John (D) $66,450

Specter, Arlen (R-PA) $47,600

Emanuel, Rahm (D-IL) $32,950

Reed, Jack (D-RI) $30,100

Good video link to youtube linked at this site showing our FEARLESS ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES in action to protect our well being.

what really happened . com

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» RE: Why Wallstreet was Bailed out Posted by: Last Chance

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IT'S called FASCISM (where “capitalism” cannot & does not exist)
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Posted by: Mister_PsyOps on Oct 4, 2008 4:06 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That’s FASCISM for the merger of state under monopoly corporate power.

Whatever you might think of dirty old “capitalism” by definition, it requires free and open markets that DO NOT EXIST under Fascism. Especially under U.S. Fascism that pretends to be democracy. "Capitalism" never did and never will exist under a crypto corporate police state.

This is about a parasite Fascist Monopoly Corporate Crime State that dictates virtually all the phony crisis and then foists up the equally bogus "solutions" at public cost for private profit.

U.S. brand MSM propaganda Fascism is a place where "capitalism" and "democracy" only survive as cheap Orwellian slogans to confuse the gullible.

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers."
Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow 1973)

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after sovietn union collapse the angloamericans showed their true colour.
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Posted by: avatar_singh on Oct 4, 2008 5:09 PM   
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and declared that capitalism+democracy. If you donto belive that then check all all the smugs prionouncements of anglosaxon bastards from british Pm to american presidents who said that they will force countires to so called market economny and free markeeters because capitalism is democracy.
and then they started attacking those countires who would not do the angloamerican favour-for example Iraq.

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» So? Posted by: Cathyc

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bush; a clossal snafu
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Posted by: eosrk on Oct 4, 2008 8:33 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that's right, Mr. President, you and your God-fearing, moral zelots have proven as I've always said since you stole the election in 2000, ya' all fucked up!!!

America, let's not let another fuck-up get into office again, okay.

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This article is the most insulting LIE I've ever read!!!
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Posted by: centure7 on Oct 5, 2008 3:37 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What killed Democracy? Capitalism?! Capitalism!? My God what a lie. There is only one(1) party to blame for this, and capitalism has absolutely zero to do with it. ZERO.

Year after year, decade after decade, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE stupidly sit around and watch congress do all sorts of stupid things... create all kinds of stupid rules... screw up everything in sight... mount up debt. And what we do in response? What do the American people do when their congress f-up everything? THEY RE-ELECT THEM!!!! THEY RE-ELECT NEARLY EVERY CONGRESS PERSON EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! Holy @#$% what a bunch of irresponsible jerks we are! Capitalism doesn't come close to touching are level of stupidity. Shame on US!!!

America is one of the richest nations on Earth. Do we chose to be the wise investor? Do we chose to loan money to other countries and collect large sums of interest? No, we blow off 10% of our money on the Federal DEBT interest alone!!! Just Federal debt. Pitiful. Pathetic. Unacceptable. Foolish. The richest nation on Earth, and we, the people, allow our nation to be a nation of debt. We the people, *RE-ELECT* EVERY SINGLE YEAR the idiots who put us in debt.

And I can't begin to believe what an irresponsible jerk so many Americans have been to buy a home with a payment of 40%+ of their income! AlterNet wants to go and pretend its not THEIR fault for taking a loan they can't repay. Newsflash: if you make a deal, think just little bit about whether you can live up to your end of the bargain?! It pisses me off when people pretend they are so stupid they can't understand how to create a budget. If AlterNet thinks Democracy is so great it should pretend Americans are capable of creating a budget!

My God AlterNet needs to start looking at the facts. THE PEOPLE are squarely to blame and nobody else at all! Not even close. Stand up and take some f-ing responsiblity for your own actions, America. America, if you can't make a damnded budget you don't deserve a Democracy. Americans are killing democracy.

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Bud Fox and Wall Street
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Posted by: Drume on Oct 5, 2008 5:38 AM   
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We should all know the solution by now.

Last night, quite fittingly, PBS in DC showed the movie Wall Street.

Once the brilliant operative (Bud Fox) switched sides, his side (labor, etc...) won.

Thomas Frank has written a great book about the brain drain in government.

With so many of the best minds on the side of corporations and in the private sector, 100% of the time devising ways to get out of doing their fair share, the government and the public do not have a chance.

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Thank you democrats, killing us with kindness!
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Posted by: Karl.Ben on Oct 5, 2008 5:41 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
TINA - There is alternatives, but most Americans like the security and comfort that working for someone else brings..you don't risk anything, get to work an 8 hour day, get OT if you work longer, get medical insurance, vacations etc..etc.. THAT kind of security gives one the ability to enjoy democracy but you give something up in return.

You want your company to survive, flourish, therefore you accept their lobbying efforts and other "anti" democracy efforts to flourish.

Americans love the system so long as it benefits them, but when something goes wrong, fingers start pointing all over - the other guys fault!

Want "freedom" from corporate democracy..start your own business!.. work 24X7, pay for your own healthcare, forego vacations and job security. So instead of wanting your corporate employer to survive, you want your president to have some brains and creat an environment where your business can survive!

Democrats don't get it - they think people are too brainless to work and survive themselves and need their help.. If they just refrained from creating economic meltdowns such as this latest one it would be a wonderful change. (hint, not every American can afford a house).

The dems should go back to what they do best- sit in the background and complain how the repubs always prevent them from accomplishing anything! America would be a happier place!

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Was the crisis cooked up so that Bu$shCo could seize assets?
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Posted by: gunboat diplomat on Oct 5, 2008 10:36 AM   
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Evidence in support:

1) The massive bonuses given to Goldman Sachs executives - to pay them off and shut them up?

blogs.villagevoice.com

2) New claims that JP Morgan deliberately crashed Lehman Brothers:

business.timesonline.co.uk

3) Interesting statements made by politicians in the House:
"Members have described themselves as hostages. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks (Los Angeles County), who voted against the bailout, said the original Treasury plan was "a ransom note that said if you ever want to see your 401(k)s again, send us $700 billion in unmarked bills."

Let's be clear about what this means: major finance corporations appear to have conspired with Bush-appointed federal regulators at the SEC to crash the market by deliberately withholding credit - and now those same companies (the ones still existing) will be given $700 billion of taxpayer money - which they will use to consolidate their new and more powerful positions in the financial markets.

The crime of the century. A crisis is manufactured, the public is whipped into a state of fear, and the bill that screws them over even more gets passed - conclusion? Naomi Klein is right - although the phenomenon is not new, or restricted to the latter half of the 20th century. Hitler and Stalin were also ardent believers in the power of shock, a topic that Klein neglects in her otherwise excellent book.

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Somebody needs a dictionary
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Posted by: eiu101 on Oct 5, 2008 11:27 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. From Merriam-Webster.

Sorry, but George W.'s socialist government using stolen tax dollars to buy failed corporations has NOTHING to do with any "free market." In fact, we haven't had truly free markets in this country in decades.

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If I could afford land, I'd gladly take a stab at subsistence farming. Keep in mind, though, that
[Report this comment]
Posted by: andabottleof_rum on Oct 5, 2008 11:55 AM   
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it would be very hard work, very physical, and you'd need people working with you, like a family.

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The so called Bailout was needed to restore liquidity to the market and save MAIN Street.
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Posted by: yellow on Oct 5, 2008 2:14 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bill Clinton was correct in his Florida speech on behalf of both Obama and the bailout. He aptly pointed out that the big investment houses on Wall Street were either bankrupt or under Federal Reserve supervision as bank holding companies with access to the Fed's discount window but without the ability to make dubious, high risk investments that caused the current financial mess.

The FED should have been the one to bail out the investment banks and not the US Treasury Department. Restoring liquidity to the banking system is the Fed's job and part of their normal function as a central bank. In 2007, the Fed purchased about $840 billion in bonds from member banks to boost their reserves. Why couldn't the Fed purchase the toxic waste from the likes of Morgan, Stanley and Goldman, Sachs in return for legal supervision and regulation of their normal investment banking operations? This would restore liquidity to the markets in order to prevent a credit crunch and depression thus saving Main Street while establishing a possible future basis for renewed federal banking regulation. Hopefully, this will be the ultimate consequence of the bailout.

Regulation is important but it is also imperative to grasp the origins of the current crisis. The trend in financialization began in the early 1980s recession on behalf of finance capital. This especially deep recession hollowed out the US economy's industrial base with high real interest rates and a constriction of monetary reserves while restoring real value to financial assets and providing subsequent opportunities for new financial investment in mergers and acquisitions, public equity asset management, the growth of the stock and bond markets and a series of risky financial innovations, including securitization, in order to diffuse risk and generate large cash balances for new lending by moving risky loans off the books and into secondary financial markets. The 1980s were a time of sudden accumulation of wealth and income on a world scale. Wealth concentrated due to the 1970s energy price shocks; the 1980s third world debt crisis which shifted wealth from the global south to the global north through interest payments, privatization of public assets and currency devaluations; and rapid wage deceleration through union busting and the shifting of manufacturing production to low wage areas creating high chronic unemployment in the global north. As a result, large surpluses subsequently accumulated in the world's growing financial sector. These surpluses now required constant outlets for profitable investment.

The chronic, secular stagnation trends created by the global restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s led to deepening financialization. According to economist James Crotty, the notional value of all US financial assets as a proportion of US GDP was just under five times as much in 1980; in 2007 the financial sector was more than ten times the US GDP in dollar terms. Furthermore, US credit market debt was 168% of GDP in 1981 growing to over 350% by 2007. Clearly the financial economy had overtaken the real economy. The result has been chronic stagnation and financial instability.

It is important to restore the real economy by restoring the middle class. Economist Robert Pollin has suggested not only asset based reserve requirements by risk levels, taxing speculation and restoring Glass-Steagall but also loan guarantees for productive investments that will save resources and contribute to full employment. In practice, a small portion of bank reserves would either be committed to certain kinds of productive investment or become part of the total reserves required to be held over and above outstanding loans. Regulation and fiscal policies of this sort will be very effective. They are a useful replacement for failed free market approaches and constrictive past monetary policies.

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» In Other Words... Posted by: pdxjoe
» The New Left Posted by: pdxjoe
Alternet Comments:

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Waiting For Columbus
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Posted by: Direct Democracy on Oct 4, 2008 12:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's comforting to think that the American pioneer spirit isn't dead, it's just hibernating.

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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» RE: Waiting For Columbus Posted by: bornxeyed
» RE: Waiting For Columbus Posted by: Spot
» Here's the fix... Posted by: Fog

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Retroactive tax refunds for coal - lesson to be learned.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: aouie01 on Oct 4, 2008 12:41 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
SEC. 114. SPECIAL RULES FOR REFUND OF THE COAL EXCISE TAX TO CERTAIN COAL PRODUCERS AND EXPORTERS.
... such coal producer filed an excise tax return on or after October 1, 1990 ... then the Secretary shall pay to such coal producer an amount equal to the tax paid under section 4121 ...

Lesson to be learned. When in power, effects of undesirable laws of prior governing bodies can be undone to whatever extent it is possible to get away with.

Sincerely,
Aouie

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Thanks! Really my time isn't worth anything.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: stupidregistering on Oct 4, 2008 12:58 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I came into this article truly interested in your ideas. I looked past the sensationalist headline and wanted to see an anti bailout opinion.

I'm not 100% for the bailout. I don't think it was the best option, but I'm not intelligent enough to know what IS so I could be wrong.

What I ran into was a brick wall of contemptuous writing backed by little. The angry tone out weighed any backing the article had.

I did not get what I came for, a thought out criticism of what is going forward. And for that I am saddened.

My time was wasted, as was yours. Though it appears you have played well to your audience, this is no better than any of the other extremist rantings from both sides that block out rationality for the sake of applause.

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» WWWW-W-W-AAAAAAAAAAA-H-H-H!!!!!!! Posted by: GarrisonPayneLeonard38H
» It Was Good Commentary Posted by: Gravitas

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Where's our modern Jesse James
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Posted by: jreal on Oct 4, 2008 1:18 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Well, it's complete. They killed us and ran off with our insurance policy.

The banks won. We lost. Republican capitalism has shown it's naked ass. And it's not pretty.

So what have we learned. Well, first off, western capitalism was created off the backs of slaves throughout the world in 18th and 19th centuries. Without these slaves we wouldn't have had capitalism.

Now we have wage laboring slaves whose wages are pushed down by Wall Street backed Republican policies of deregulation. Deregulation that gives megalithic corporations more power over the people and their voices. Megalithic corporations that want less government to protect you from them. Megalithic corporations that would rather themselves create your grammar schools than the government so they will in turn be your daddy. And you will always be dependent on this daddy... to the point of abject desperation.

So wow. Now we have listened to these people for 70 years. We let them convince us to trust them. We let them convince us that profiteers and greedy business men have our best interests at heart.

And now, we are owned.

They bankrupted us, and they still managed to own us, with our own money.

Forget the banks.

Forget Wall Street.

Lend to each other.

Trade with each other.

We can all be the Jesse James of this new corrupt era. Bring it back to the people.

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» REPUBLICAN Captialism? Posted by: Drume
» RE: PUBLICAN Captialism? Posted by: jreal
» A+ jreal! Excellent! Posted by: Pirate1

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Money is slavery by proxy, and now more people know the truth
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Posted by: SevenStarHand on Oct 4, 2008 2:38 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Looks like the gods known as money and politics have shed their veils to expose the dark hearts within. Some have known this for quite some time, but most of the deluded slaves were too clueless to listen. Now the suffering of the poor and powerless will trickle up to those that blindly supported those that rule using money, religion, and politics.

What goes around comes around

Peace now or be prepared for the blowback...

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We have become China
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Posted by: Shey on Oct 4, 2008 3:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A lethal combination of unregulated capitalism and repressive laws governing the lives of individuals, with no rights for workers or dissenters.

On my local news tonight, I heard both my state's (Democratic) Representatives say that this is just a stop-gap measure, that it must be reworked and major changes made (the unspoken part was, "after the election").

We'd better hope not only that Obama wins, but that at least half the Republicans in both houses lose their seats to Democrats. And then, that Obama turns out to be the reincarnation of FDR. Because it's going to take nothing less than a miracle to get us out of this unbelievable mess.

Everyone who has ever been associated with the Bush/Cheney regime, should be in jail. Release all the harmless prisoners doing time for smoking pot, and there would be plenty of room in the prisons.

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» RE: We have become China Posted by: Spot
» RE: We have not become China Posted by: AlienSlave
» RE: We have not become China Posted by: Dyolfknip
» RE: We have become China Posted by: grkjr

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samothrellim
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Posted by: milltom on Oct 4, 2008 4:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The saddest note is that Barbara Lee, who stood with us in opposing he war, caved along with everyone else. She could have stood up for what would have been the democratic solution, but did not. If we don't have people like Barbara Lee and Barney Frank, where do we turn? Will Barack listen?

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» RE: samothrellim Posted by: badkitty
» It should be Posted by: uluro

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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
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Posted by: Tom Degan on Oct 4, 2008 4:13 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Once I built a railroad
Made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a railroad
Now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Just think what would have happened to this doomed country had the people stupidly re-elected Herbert Hoover in 1932. Fortunately, there was never any question that they would send Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House. People were a lot smarter then.

That's not the case in this political year, that's for damned sure! If the electorate send John McCain and Gidget to the White House next January, pack up. This country won't be worth the paper the Constitution is written on. Come to think about it, that's already the case, isn't it?

How the fuck did this happen? Why did we allow it to happen?

Say, don't you remember?
They called me "Al"
It was "Al" all the time
Say don't you remember?
I'm your pal!
Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Weird Times In Mudville

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» Jenny6kids Posted by: Cathyc

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Bush Family Facilitates Another Banking Scam
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Posted by: 911FalseFlag on Oct 4, 2008 4:49 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Today's banking crisis is the THIRD trillion dollar plus US-caused financial meltdown in the last twenty years.
Each one of these crises came into being through the same basic mechanism...the fraudulent over-valuing of financial assets by Wall Street - with a "wink and a nod" (and sometimes a lot more) from the White House and Congress. The fraudulently valued assets stimulate the economy, impart the illusion of health and then, inevitably, the fraud goes too far and the whole house of card comes painfully crashing back to earth.
The White House stood in the way of any state prosecuting federal banks and mortgage companies for predatory lending. They actually used a portion of the enabling act creating the US Comptroller of the Currency to preempt the regulation and prosecution of these banks for fraudulent loan activities. This is why Eliot Spitzer was politically assassinated. He wrote an editorial in the Washington Post three weeks before his assassination accusing the White House of preventing any state Attorney General from prosecuting these criminal activities. Of course, the mainstream media did not report the actual reason that this politician’s sexual indiscretions were reported so immediately and excessively.

The mainstream media never reported on Bush planting in the White House press corps a gay escort, Johnny Gannon. Gannon based on the Secret Service records of visits to the White House visited the White House over 200 times and stayed overnight at least two times.

Go to my website, www.911insidejob.net and read many articles and watch videos on the well planned takedown of the US dollar by the Bush White House and the Federal Reserve Bank.

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» You can thank Schumer&Feinstein Posted by: weathered

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Dropping Out
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Posted by: socialpsych on Oct 4, 2008 5:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Man in Search of Woman

Academic man looking for partner/companion (vegan woman, 35 to 50, preferably educated in biology/ecology) to pursue self-sufficient lifestyle in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. Must enjoy food-production gardening, food preservation, and other subsistence activities. Must love dogs. Send qualifications and photo. No cell phone addicts, please.

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» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: bcontent2b
» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: HoboHomo
» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: Grandma Crabby
» Go Granny! Posted by: Cathyc
» Personal Time? Posted by: Gravitas
» What sort of dogs? Posted by: Cathyc
» RE: Dropping Out Posted by: HoboHomo
» must own boat Posted by: PrinceRobert

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throw $$ at it, the solution...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ellie on Oct 4, 2008 5:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
looking back over the past 7+ years, that has always been the response... instead of taking time to figure out a realistic and workable solution, this mess of an administration throws money at it first as their idea of a fix... then the money disappears somehow and things are 10 times worse... if we can loose a pallet of 12 bil cash on the way to Iraq, do you think this is going to be any different???

'advisers' have been lined up off camera to dive into that pile of cash already... can see this green mountain turning into 'advising fees' first and nothing goes out to where it is supposed to go... doesn't the US already have a herd of market people and accountants already on the payroll???

at least we're back on track here... every time wombat opens his mouth the market tanks and gas prices drop a dime per gallon to shut us up...

a classic YOYO scenario as usual... don't feel too confidant about anyone running for office this cycle... maybe time to turn our backs on the whole system as is and the people start stuff over...

who stole my constitution and I want it back, pronto!!!

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This was inevitable
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Posted by: xi_people on Oct 4, 2008 5:42 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The real culprit in the coming collapse isn't a given economic system, but the fact that resource scarcity is finally coming to the fore.

For the past 50 years, the 'global economy' has massively expanded and partied on like oil would last forever. It is entirely based on the assumption that the irreplaceable resource would remain not only cheap, but reliably available. The former paradigm has already been blown, and the second one is well on its way to being so.

Contrary to popular pronouncements, no viable alternative to oil has been developed on a scale that would 'save' the US or world economy.

So the wasteful era of cheap air flights, cheap plastic products, imported food, etc. is now grinding to a halt. Economies all over the world will be forced to become intensely local. Any ideas of a global economy will soon become obsolete as the real struggle for survival begins for populations that, for the most part, are completely unprepared for it.

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» RE: You're not getting it Posted by: xi_people
» no, he's got it. Posted by: Coleman
» RE: Confusing explanandum for explanan Posted by: andabottleof_rum

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Dictator Bush
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Posted by: RedFoxOne on Oct 4, 2008 6:04 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Dictator Bush did a pretty fine job himself of running the country into the ground. he has gotten so caught up in his Global Domination efforts that he has completely forgotten about the sheeple. Pretty sad!

Jiff
Online PRivacy when it Counts

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The final cut
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Posted by: frankly1 on Oct 4, 2008 6:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is so sad to watch the murder of what was or could have been a true nation of freedom and democracy. The global facists have been working for this moment for at least three generations and the last act has now been made "law". The populace has been bred and indoctrinated to become "debt slaves" (I owe, I owe so of to work I go) and now the globalists are sticking us with thier debt after stealing our government and everything of value in the public trust.
Soon you will wake up in a country that is basically one corporation that has all the money and controls all the information. If you complain or protest you'll be carted of to some corpoate chain gang. So you better shut up and do as you are told or they will remove your little toys that make your pointless servitude bearable. The window is closing fast and soon a simple complaint will get you in a lot of trouble. The cull is coming folks! The economic sunami is hitting and will destroy the lives of millons of working families. If and when they protest they will be rounded up and violently surpressed. If you think this is some crazy rant, look around you, it is happening right now!

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What the US needs now
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Posted by: modeler on Oct 4, 2008 6:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Another revolution to get rid of the greedy SOBs and those who supported their bailout. Be nice and put them all in jail including all the Bushits with a pile of huge rocks to split up into gravel with hammers and a daily minimum workload of 1 ton.

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» Get the business schools Posted by: socialpsych
» RE: What the US needs now Posted by: HoboHomo
» One ton is a pretty small quota. Posted by: andabottleof_rum

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It's called extortion
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Posted by: chlamor on Oct 4, 2008 6:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When 700 bil. is needed for an extreme emergency bailout, and 250 bil. is quickly designated for federal "extras" what does that say? It says this crisis is shaping up to look like what I thought it was..."not" a crisis. Its a consolidation through takeover. Also, asset managers report due to the "fair pricing" rules they were forced to undervalue their assets to a point that "technically", the "rules", forced their books to fit the definition of insolvency, when in reality the assets were worth much more. I would say evidence of their claims lay in the fact that we have not had more foreclosures than we have had. Also many of those foreclosures were a result of interest rates on adjustable rate mortages being raised beyond a persons "known" ability to pay. This is a pattern that is becoming clearer and clearer. It says something....

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If It's True
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Posted by: Last Chance on Oct 4, 2008 7:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
as so many claim, that the capitalist system is breaking down, then isn't it time to get together with friends and family to acquire a parcel of land to grow your own food? That way when the money runs out you won't starve.

Face the reality. Capitalism succeeds only when there are millions of people with money to spend. But if the number of poor people is increasing, that means there is no longer a market, no longer a growing economy, no longer a chance to rise to a middle-to-upper class lifestyle.

So, how will you feed yourself and your family? The answer is clear. Gather together and acquire a parcel of fertile land on which to grow your own food, so when the money is gone you won't starve.

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» RE: If It's True Posted by: Lauren
» RE: If It's True Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: If It's True Posted by: VZEQICVA
» RE: If It's True Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: If It's True Posted by: HoboHomo
» RE: If It's True Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: 40a Posted by: AlienSlave

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RE: Corporate cronyism is not capitalism
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Lauren on Oct 4, 2008 9:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Have you read the bail out and what do you think of it?

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We Are Serfs
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Posted by: Gravitas on Oct 4, 2008 8:25 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We are nothing but glorified serfs. We exist to keep the power-elite where they are. The system exists for them at our expense. Politicians work for them and the media is their mouth piece. The ideals that inspired the American Revolution are dead and our ancestors our turning over in their graves. The only thing I can personally put my faith in now is Hopi prophecy. The old system will crumble among much pain and a new consciousness will rise up.

Still, those of us who see it coming and can thing for ourselves are tired of bashing our heads against the wall trying to keep sheeple from self destructing. Any Canadians job offers would be highly appreciated. One gets points in the immigration process if one already has a job!
http://www.myspace.com/vortexresister113

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Here's my 2 cents
[Report this comment]
Posted by: TREEGUY on Oct 4, 2008 8:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Gas just went down 30 cents a gallon. Is this to settle people down? I guess I'm in shock a little.
Here are a few things that should be done, but let me add that I don't see our next president elect doing anything about it.
Get rid of the IRS
Get rid of the FED (print our own money)
Limit terms (no more professional politicians)
No more asses or elephants (vote independents in)
I also have a deep dislike for insurance companies (they have done alot of damage)

I truly am sorry but this list would just go on forever.

Our political system needs a good enema.

Do we go underground now?

The media won't help us.
Our politicians are helpless.
The sheeple have been sheared.

I feel drained.

Don't give up, EVER!!!!

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Senior Cynic
[Report this comment]
Posted by: rdodell on Oct 4, 2008 8:37 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Capitalism without regulation is CHAOS. It is creating a two-tier society...predator and prey. The GOP money machine hired a smiling, winking,charismatic "B" movie actor to introduce their lethal trickle-nomics virus against middle-class America. Two Bush puppets and one horny bobble-head pseudo progeessive in between finished us off.
It's our own fault...we elected the greedy bastards in both houses as well as the White House and lack the courage and conviction to boot them into the street in disgrace. Offered in proof that "...we the people" are a bunch of complacent, apathetic fools is this fact: In about a month, we will elect yet another one of the same and no matter which major candidate wins, the vast majority of Americans lose. Our Democracy under a sacred Constitution is in grave danger. We cannot save ourselves by "THE BAIL_OUT"...but only by THE BALLOT or THE BULLET. In the last 30 years or so, we have forgotten how to "aim" the ballot. If we hope to preserve our democracy, we had better re-learn the voting process...the alternative isn't pretty.

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» RE: Senior Cynic Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Senior Cynic Posted by: Spot
» RE: Senior Cynic Posted by: HoboHomo

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Real term limits
[Report this comment]
Posted by: luther6 on Oct 4, 2008 8:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The only real term limit that will work is an absolute death penalty for corruption. Accept a bribe, hang. Accept lobbyist money or favors, hang. Get your brother-in-law a job, hang.

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» RE: eal term limits Posted by: jbloggz
» A Long Term Solution Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: Spot
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: HoboHomo
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: A Long Term Solution Posted by: HoboHomo

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its very simple
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cyr3n on Oct 4, 2008 9:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
private banks printing their own money (Federal Reserve) --> paying off politicians --> no democracy

Why are they requesting 700 billion anyhow? Last I checked a little over 100 billion would cover all the defaulted mortages in the country.. so the line about people not paying their mortgages leading to foreclosure is total crap.

These high-floating turds need to be rounded up and tried for treason. They've held our country hostage and knowingly issued bogus credit.

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» RE: its very simple Posted by: Lauren
» RE: its very simple Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: its very simple Posted by: animalleaderisgreat

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Don't be niave
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bbauerly on Oct 4, 2008 9:20 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama's number one campaign supporter is Paulson's former employer Goldman Sachs. Anyone who thought the dems would not vote for this bill has not been paying attention to the last 15 years. The dems are the corporate party, so are the repugs.

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» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Spot
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Spot
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Spot
» RE: Don't be niave Posted by: Drume
» We Need Hope Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: We Need Hope Posted by: Spot
» RE: We Need Hope Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: We Need Hope Posted by: Drume
» Okay, I'm not naive Posted by: Beck
» RE: Okay, I'm not naive Posted by: Last Chance

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Not quite
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bbauerly on Oct 4, 2008 9:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Total subprime mortgage lending equaled over 10 trillion dollars. At least half of that will be defaulted on. Meaning, $700 billion is only the begining, try 5 trillion. Which is about $50,000 per US family. We are sooo screwed.

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» RE: Not quite sooo screwed. Posted by: Lauren
» There Is Another Way Posted by: Last Chance
» So true Posted by: andabottleof_rum

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fuck it
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cyr3n on Oct 4, 2008 9:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
..start printing local currency and using it in exchange for goods and services.

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» Why bother with fantasy? Posted by: Last Chance

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DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Oct 4, 2008 9:37 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
See NY Times 10/03/2008 (yesterday) page one. The whole thing is spelled out. In a quiet meeting in 2004 attended by 7 people the investment firms were "unleashed". There were objectors but as usual,they were silenced. The "Net Capital Rule" was changed. The debt to asset ration which kept things in balance for so long was gone. The blame clearly lies with Bush and the S.E.C. The 55 Minute hearing (that's all it took to change the world) is available on the NY Times and the S.E.C. websites. I believe that we can and should make ourselves heard, but not until we know what it's all about. "Wall Street greed" is not a good arguing point, even if it is true. There is no substitute for knowing why it all happened. Hey, we are paying for this. Thanks, ANNA

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» Is That Really What Happened? Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Is That Really What Happened? Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Is That Really What Happened? Posted by: Last Chance

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One group that won't be hurt by the credit crunch crisis: the treasonous neocon Bush family
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Posted by: NoMcCainPalin on Oct 4, 2008 10:35 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When Bush 41 was President Nixon's CIA chief, he formed the renegade conservative "Committee on Present Danger" -- predecessor of the rightwing extremist organization, "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC), founded years later by arch conservative Bill Kristol.

As president, Bush 41 fostered the imperialistic "New World Order" agenda that became a PNAC hallmark. Formed in 1997, PNAC advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and dominating the world with U.S. military power. Jeb Bush, acting as the family surrogate, was a PNAC founder.

Also during the Bush 41 administration, the current no-bid DOD contract scam was created by Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense who later became a PNAC founder, along with his fellow Iraq invasion advocates, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby. All four enriched themselves with lucrative investments in military/industrial complex stocks.

After Big George lost his reelection bid, he joined the private investment firm, Carlyle Group, managed by PNAC member Frank Carlucci, former Reagan DOD Secretary.

Since its formation and primarly because of Iraq War 2, the Carlyle Group has reportedly earned Bush 41 almost a billion dollars on his original investment.

Much of that wealth will be go to first son Dub-ya, who, not coincidentally, pushed for repeal of the "Death" (inheritance) tax.

One thing you can say about the Bushes. They know how to get rich -- at America's expense.

Finally, a patriotic suggestion for NEW AlterNet visitors. If you are an undecided voter, learn the truth about Insane McCain and his so-called "heroic" war record by clicking on: Vote Against McCain (one of the HOTTEST anti-McCain sites on the Web)

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Sirota's "Socialism" Is What Marx Critiqued As Bourgeois Socialism
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Posted by: pdxjoe on Oct 4, 2008 10:38 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While there's a certain grain of truth to the notion that this bailout represents an affirmation of "socialism for the rich; capitalism for the rest," taking it to the lengths that Sirota has in his last two columns to imply that this is socialism in the sense that it has ever been fought for by and for The People, which is to say including "the rest" of us, is intellectually dishonest. Marx had a term for the kind of socialism Sirota is talking about, "Bourgeois Socialism." It is one of many kinds of socialism he critiques in the Communist Manifesto, and he aptly gives it the full label of "Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism," because it conserves the oppressive economic relationship between bourgoisie (the owning class) and the proletariat (the working class). Arguably, American liberalism in the 20th and 21st centuries has been a mix of the "petty-bourgeois" and "bourgeois" socialism he critiques in the above linked section.

Since the part specifically on full-on "Bourgeois Socialism" is so short a section I will reproduce it here.

"A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social grievances in order to secure the continued existence of bourgeois society.

To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner reformers of every imaginable kind. This form of socialism has, moreover, been worked out into complete systems.

We may cite Proudhon’s Philosophis de la Misère as an example of this form.

The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom. They desire the existing state of society, minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat. The bourgeoisie naturally conceives the world in which it is supreme to be the best; and bourgeois Socialism develops this comfortable conception into various more or less complete systems. In requiring the proletariat to carry out such a system, and thereby to march straightway into the social New Jerusalem, it but requires in reality, that the proletariat should remain within the bounds of existing society, but should cast away all its hateful ideas concerning the bourgeoisie.

A second, and more practical, but less systematic, form of this Socialism sought to depreciate every revolutionary movement in the eyes of the working class by showing that no mere political reform, but only a change in the material conditions of existence, in economical relations, could be of any advantage to them. By changes in the material conditions of existence, this form of Socialism, however, by no means understands abolition of the bourgeois relations of production, an abolition that can be affected only by a revolution, but administrative reforms, based on the continued existence of these relations; reforms, therefore, that in no respect affect the relations between capital and labour, but, at the best, lessen the cost, and simplify the administrative work, of bourgeois government.

Bourgeois Socialism attains adequate expression when, and only when, it becomes a mere figure of speech.

Free trade: for the benefit of the working class. Protective duties: for the benefit of the working class. Prison Reform: for the benefit of the working class. This is the last word and the only seriously meant word of bourgeois socialism.

It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeois is a bourgeois — for the benefit of the working class."

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» Heh. Posted by: Coleman
» Empty Rhetoric Posted by: Last Chance
» Empty cities? Posted by: Spot
» Devolve cities into villages Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Devolve cities into villages Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: mpty Rhetoric Posted by: pdxjoe
» RE: mpty Rhetoric Posted by: Last Chance
» That Story Is Well Known To Many Posted by: Last Chance
» Agreed. And yet... Posted by: Coleman

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MASSIVE ENSLAVEMENT THROUGH BLACKMAIL
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Posted by: patginsd on Oct 4, 2008 11:37 AM   
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To succeed in their massive enslavement of the American people, Bush, Paulson, etc threatened our Congressmen with martial law imposition on America:
Youtube video = watch it and spread it before it disappears

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Every human devised "ism" has failed, so how about wisdom for once...
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Posted by: SevenStarHand on Oct 4, 2008 11:40 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We can now thank millennia of monetary, political, and religious leaders for proving, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that money-driven top-down hierarchical governance is absolute folly and foolishness. Even representative democracy, that great promise of the past, was easily and readily subverted to enslave us all, thanks to money and those that secretly control and deceptively manipulate all currencies and economies. Is there any doubt anymore that entrusting money and politics to solve humanity's problems is folly and delusion of the highest order? Is there any doubt that permitting political and corporate leaders to control the lives of billions has resulted in great evil?

Here are the keys to wisdom....
Now comes the time for humility and a new path to the future.

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» Beware of isms Posted by: Last Chance
» RE: Beware of isms Posted by: Spot
» Beware of half-baked-isms Posted by: SevenStarHand
» RE: Beware of commercial blurbs Posted by: Last Chance
» This is a blatant false-accusation Posted by: SevenStarHand
» Thanks... Posted by: SevenStarHand

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catching on
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Posted by: cbishopp on Oct 4, 2008 11:40 AM   
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I remember reading (and writing) comments against the Federal Reserve on Alternet just a few months ago and I met with a lot of critical naysayers.
Still many people just cannot accept that we are economic slaves chained by consumerism and a network of false paper and unnecessary oil.
I had a hard time with it when I first came to the idea as well but the more I dove into the subject the more I came to see the dangers of this system and it's inevitable autocratic end.
It seems that our representatives are powerless and are easily controlled both by greed from the top and the necessity of keeping constituents well fed below.
As a nation it seems that all we want is to be cared for, to have big paychecks and full grocery stores and big cars with TVs in the back. All the Fed had to do was pinch ever so slightly and scare us a little and the three page extortion letter was signed in law.
They have the power to do terrible things, have no doubt of that.
But no war is without casualty and it looks like a war to regain our government must take place.
The internet is one of our last best weapons.
Keep talking, keep writing, and build a community not based on information chosen for you but on information that you come to through research and interaction.

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» RE: catching on Posted by: Spot

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Game over for democracy and freedom
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Posted by: blogbooks on Oct 4, 2008 12:18 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Those that rule the United States are sending us all a message. This signals a return to a very common state of existence for humanity through history - one where the very few rule over masses of poor.

This didn't happen this week or last week or last year. America has been steadily moving in this directly for the past 100 years, at least. Again, this is normal.

A country where the masses are free, educated, and enjoy relative wealth and comfort is very rare indeed. This state of existence does not benefit the elite in any way. An affluent slave becomes fat and weak. Our masters have learned from the decadent and weak Baby Boom generation that they need to reign us in a bit, take away a bit of our allowance.

So let me spell out the future plain as day.

1. The Baby Boom generation had the highest standard of living that any American generation will ever enjoy. We've past the apex of human civilization insofar as the masses are concerned. The future is a return to poverty and barbarism.

2. The 3rd Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team just stood up their operations under "NorthCOM." These battle hardened soldiers, that spent 35 of the past 60 months in Iraq killing people, are here to "subdue civil unrest and control crowds." These are battle hardened killers deployed on American soil for the purpose of controlling the American people by any means necessary. The future is violent subjugation of any who oppose the will of our masters.

3. The bailout is giving money to foreign banks because the system has "gone global." There, in a real manner, is no United States of America. We have already lost our sovereignty to the international banking system that controls the world. The future is one without a bill of rights, without sovereign nations, in which all pay homage to the international elite that will rule us all.

4. You need to wake the fuck up and realize that this isn't something you can ignore any longer. This isn't just the rantings of the Unabomber and nut jobs on the 'net. This is real and this, for the most part, has ALREADY happened. You cannot stay in your yuppy bubble worlds much longer. This is coming to a location near you - and soon. Look out for yourself and anyone you want to protect. The future is indeed a return to barbarism.

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» I am powerless, so are you. Posted by: blogbooks
» Humanity's Last Chance Posted by: Last Chance
» Plenty of us are battle hardened too Posted by: PrinceRobert

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When Dysfunctional America stops playing Happy Families..
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Posted by: Cathyc on Oct 4, 2008 12:53 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
then it will be a true Democracy and not the Banana Republic it actually is.

Check out this Google video:

TheSmartestGuysinTheRoom

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2878262919007839264

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Global Reach: The Power of Multi-National Corporations
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Posted by: foius on Oct 4, 2008 1:06 PM   
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Although this is the title of one of the most important economics books to come along in the late 1970's, it would seem appropriate to the current conditions of the U.S./Global economies. By displacing our manufacturing based economy with a services (financial services the main culprit) based economy, the cycle has been completed and the American union-wage, manufacturing worker has been summarily replaced by the low-wage workers of southern Asia, Latin and South America, and in some cases Eastern European workers. What does this mean? Does last weeks 159,000 jobs lost in the U.S. give you any idea of the consequences that most manufacturing workers face? Speaking about the "bail-out" legislation, it was inevitable. The plight of the American homeowner and wage worker is an insignificant blip to the members of congress, Wall Street, and the managers of concentrated capital. There will not be any significant changes to the fundamental ways in which the financial markets operate. It will be business and maximum profit at the margin as usual. For the rest of us it will be, "Will my income be sufficient to pay my bills and keep me from bankruptcy or foreclosure"? I am literally angry that our elected representatives are so corrupted by Big Money that they no longer represent us...if they ever did!!! The financial future of the American Economy will now be determined by the propensity of our Federal Agencies (FED, FDIC, TREASURY DEPT., FHA, FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC, HUD) to regulate, oversee, and participate in the financial services industry as a major player with the goal of profit as a motivator. Socialism...you say? Not Hardly!!! The American Economy has been long overdue for a reality check!!! Unfortunately, the mavens of Wall Street saw fit to restructure their balance sheets on the backs of the American Taxpayers, and congress apparently agreed. Will we roll over like a good pet seeing that the majority of Americans were against this bailout bill? Probably. Who do we have speaking for us now? Certainly not the members of congress who voted for this outrageous bill. In the final analysis, the will of the people has no strength in this current version of democracy that is being practiced. The calamity of the failure of real-estate backed assets is not over!!! There will be hell to pay for essentially giving our money to the market manipulators of Wall Street. This is just the beginning of the worst recession since...1929!!! You cannot bail out concentrated capital with more of the same. There has to be a broad based, fundamental mechanism that restores real equilibrium prices and values to assets. It used to be market forces. Now...with the financial market meltdown...Who knows,and more importantly, Who cares? With potentially Trillions of Dollars at their disposal, the Wall Street market manipulators have succeeded in their quest to fund their excesses in market speculation with taxpayer money. The American people have been left without a voice at the table of our economy. Either we boycott Wall Street, or we get rid of the current Congress. We don't have many choices left. Fiat money without a standard of value will ultimately spiral out of control into an inflationary recession. You know it now...but we will feel the results in the not too distant future.

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Why Wallstreet was Bailed out
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Posted by: Maxemum on Oct 4, 2008 2:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
GOLDMAN SACHS CONTRIBUTIONS:

Obama, Barack (D-IL) $691,930

Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $468,200

Romney, Mitt (R) $229,675

McCain, John (R-AZ) $208,395

Himes, Jim (D-CT) $114,748

Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) $111,750

Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) $105,400

Edwards, John (D) $66,450

Specter, Arlen (R-PA) $47,600

Emanuel, Rahm (D-IL) $32,950

Reed, Jack (D-RI) $30,100

Good video link to youtube linked at this site showing our FEARLESS ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES in action to protect our well being.

what really happened . com

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» RE: Why Wallstreet was Bailed out Posted by: Last Chance

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IT'S called FASCISM (where “capitalism” cannot & does not exist)
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Posted by: Mister_PsyOps on Oct 4, 2008 4:06 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That’s FASCISM for the merger of state under monopoly corporate power.

Whatever you might think of dirty old “capitalism” by definition, it requires free and open markets that DO NOT EXIST under Fascism. Especially under U.S. Fascism that pretends to be democracy. "Capitalism" never did and never will exist under a crypto corporate police state.

This is about a parasite Fascist Monopoly Corporate Crime State that dictates virtually all the phony crisis and then foists up the equally bogus "solutions" at public cost for private profit.

U.S. brand MSM propaganda Fascism is a place where "capitalism" and "democracy" only survive as cheap Orwellian slogans to confuse the gullible.

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers."
Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow 1973)

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after sovietn union collapse the angloamericans showed their true colour.
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Posted by: avatar_singh on Oct 4, 2008 5:09 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and declared that capitalism+democracy. If you donto belive that then check all all the smugs prionouncements of anglosaxon bastards from british Pm to american presidents who said that they will force countires to so called market economny and free markeeters because capitalism is democracy.
and then they started attacking those countires who would not do the angloamerican favour-for example Iraq.

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» So? Posted by: Cathyc

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bush; a clossal snafu
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Posted by: eosrk on Oct 4, 2008 8:33 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that's right, Mr. President, you and your God-fearing, moral zelots have proven as I've always said since you stole the election in 2000, ya' all fucked up!!!

America, let's not let another fuck-up get into office again, okay.

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This article is the most insulting LIE I've ever read!!!
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Posted by: centure7 on Oct 5, 2008 3:37 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What killed Democracy? Capitalism?! Capitalism!? My God what a lie. There is only one(1) party to blame for this, and capitalism has absolutely zero to do with it. ZERO.

Year after year, decade after decade, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE stupidly sit around and watch congress do all sorts of stupid things... create all kinds of stupid rules... screw up everything in sight... mount up debt. And what we do in response? What do the American people do when their congress f-up everything? THEY RE-ELECT THEM!!!! THEY RE-ELECT NEARLY EVERY CONGRESS PERSON EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! Holy @#$% what a bunch of irresponsible jerks we are! Capitalism doesn't come close to touching are level of stupidity. Shame on US!!!

America is one of the richest nations on Earth. Do we chose to be the wise investor? Do we chose to loan money to other countries and collect large sums of interest? No, we blow off 10% of our money on the Federal DEBT interest alone!!! Just Federal debt. Pitiful. Pathetic. Unacceptable. Foolish. The richest nation on Earth, and we, the people, allow our nation to be a nation of debt. We the people, *RE-ELECT* EVERY SINGLE YEAR the idiots who put us in debt.

And I can't begin to believe what an irresponsible jerk so many Americans have been to buy a home with a payment of 40%+ of their income! AlterNet wants to go and pretend its not THEIR fault for taking a loan they can't repay. Newsflash: if you make a deal, think just little bit about whether you can live up to your end of the bargain?! It pisses me off when people pretend they are so stupid they can't understand how to create a budget. If AlterNet thinks Democracy is so great it should pretend Americans are capable of creating a budget!

My God AlterNet needs to start looking at the facts. THE PEOPLE are squarely to blame and nobody else at all! Not even close. Stand up and take some f-ing responsiblity for your own actions, America. America, if you can't make a damnded budget you don't deserve a Democracy. Americans are killing democracy.

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Bud Fox and Wall Street
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Posted by: Drume on Oct 5, 2008 5:38 AM   
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We should all know the solution by now.

Last night, quite fittingly, PBS in DC showed the movie Wall Street.

Once the brilliant operative (Bud Fox) switched sides, his side (labor, etc...) won.

Thomas Frank has written a great book about the brain drain in government.

With so many of the best minds on the side of corporations and in the private sector, 100% of the time devising ways to get out of doing their fair share, the government and the public do not have a chance.

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Thank you democrats, killing us with kindness!
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Posted by: Karl.Ben on Oct 5, 2008 5:41 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
TINA - There is alternatives, but most Americans like the security and comfort that working for someone else brings..you don't risk anything, get to work an 8 hour day, get OT if you work longer, get medical insurance, vacations etc..etc.. THAT kind of security gives one the ability to enjoy democracy but you give something up in return.

You want your company to survive, flourish, therefore you accept their lobbying efforts and other "anti" democracy efforts to flourish.

Americans love the system so long as it benefits them, but when something goes wrong, fingers start pointing all over - the other guys fault!

Want "freedom" from corporate democracy..start your own business!.. work 24X7, pay for your own healthcare, forego vacations and job security. So instead of wanting your corporate employer to survive, you want your president to have some brains and creat an environment where your business can survive!

Democrats don't get it - they think people are too brainless to work and survive themselves and need their help.. If they just refrained from creating economic meltdowns such as this latest one it would be a wonderful change. (hint, not every American can afford a house).

The dems should go back to what they do best- sit in the background and complain how the repubs always prevent them from accomplishing anything! America would be a happier place!

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Was the crisis cooked up so that Bu$shCo could seize assets?
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Posted by: gunboat diplomat on Oct 5, 2008 10:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Evidence in support:

1) The massive bonuses given to Goldman Sachs executives - to pay them off and shut them up?

blogs.villagevoice.com

2) New claims that JP Morgan deliberately crashed Lehman Brothers:

business.timesonline.co.uk

3) Interesting statements made by politicians in the House:
"Members have described themselves as hostages. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks (Los Angeles County), who voted against the bailout, said the original Treasury plan was "a ransom note that said if you ever want to see your 401(k)s again, send us $700 billion in unmarked bills."

Let's be clear about what this means: major finance corporations appear to have conspired with Bush-appointed federal regulators at the SEC to crash the market by deliberately withholding credit - and now those same companies (the ones still existing) will be given $700 billion of taxpayer money - which they will use to consolidate their new and more powerful positions in the financial markets.

The crime of the century. A crisis is manufactured, the public is whipped into a state of fear, and the bill that screws them over even more gets passed - conclusion? Naomi Klein is right - although the phenomenon is not new, or restricted to the latter half of the 20th century. Hitler and Stalin were also ardent believers in the power of shock, a topic that Klein neglects in her otherwise excellent book.

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Somebody needs a dictionary
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Posted by: eiu101 on Oct 5, 2008 11:27 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. From Merriam-Webster.

Sorry, but George W.'s socialist government using stolen tax dollars to buy failed corporations has NOTHING to do with any "free market." In fact, we haven't had truly free markets in this country in decades.

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If I could afford land, I'd gladly take a stab at subsistence farming. Keep in mind, though, that
[Report this comment]
Posted by: andabottleof_rum on Oct 5, 2008 11:55 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
it would be very hard work, very physical, and you'd need people working with you, like a family.

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The so called Bailout was needed to restore liquidity to the market and save MAIN Street.
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Posted by: yellow on Oct 5, 2008 2:14 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bill Clinton was correct in his Florida speech on behalf of both Obama and the bailout. He aptly pointed out that the big investment houses on Wall Street were either bankrupt or under Federal Reserve supervision as bank holding companies with access to the Fed's discount window but without the ability to make dubious, high risk investments that caused the current financial mess.

The FED should have been the one to bail out the investment banks and not the US Treasury Department. Restoring liquidity to the banking system is the Fed's job and part of their normal function as a central bank. In 2007, the Fed purchased about $840 billion in bonds from member banks to boost their reserves. Why couldn't the Fed purchase the toxic waste from the likes of Morgan, Stanley and Goldman, Sachs in return for legal supervision and regulation of their normal investment banking operations? This would restore liquidity to the markets in order to prevent a credit crunch and depression thus saving Main Street while establishing a possible future basis for renewed federal banking regulation. Hopefully, this will be the ultimate consequence of the bailout.

Regulation is important but it is also imperative to grasp the origins of the current crisis. The trend in financialization began in the early 1980s recession on behalf of finance capital. This especially deep recession hollowed out the US economy's industrial base with high real interest rates and a constriction of monetary reserves while restoring real value to financial assets and providing subsequent opportunities for new financial investment in mergers and acquisitions, public equity asset management, the growth of the stock and bond markets and a series of risky financial innovations, including securitization, in order to diffuse risk and generate large cash balances for new lending by moving risky loans off the books and into secondary financial markets. The 1980s were a time of sudden accumulation of wealth and income on a world scale. Wealth concentrated due to the 1970s energy price shocks; the 1980s third world debt crisis which shifted wealth from the global south to the global north through interest payments, privatization of public assets and currency devaluations; and rapid wage deceleration through union busting and the shifting of manufacturing production to low wage areas creating high chronic unemployment in the global north. As a result, large surpluses subsequently accumulated in the world's growing financial sector. These surpluses now required constant outlets for profitable investment.

The chronic, secular stagnation trends created by the global restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s led to deepening financialization. According to economist James Crotty, the notional value of all US financial assets as a proportion of US GDP was just under five times as much in 1980; in 2007 the financial sector was more than ten times the US GDP in dollar terms. Furthermore, US credit market debt was 168% of GDP in 1981 growing to over 350% by 2007. Clearly the financial economy had overtaken the real economy. The result has been chronic stagnation and financial instability.

It is important to restore the real economy by restoring the middle class. Economist Robert Pollin has suggested not only asset based reserve requirements by risk levels, taxing speculation and restoring Glass-Steagall but also loan guarantees for productive investments that will save resources and contribute to full employment. In practice, a small portion of bank reserves would either be committed to certain kinds of productive investment or become part of the total reserves required to be held over and above outstanding loans. Regulation and fiscal policies of this sort will be very effective. They are a useful replacement for failed free market approaches and constrictive past monetary policies.

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» In Other Words... Posted by: pdxjoe
» The New Left Posted by: pdxjoe
 
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The Hollywood Double Standard: Tiger gets cooked, Charlie Sheen gets another free pass
 
Is Greece the New AIG?
 
Confused About Nutrition? Eat Food!
 
Insurer Denies Life-Prolonging Treatment To Five-Year-Old Boy With Cancer
 
Budget Paranoia
 
Why Does the U.S. Assassinate Americans?
 
Jon Stewart: Why Does Sarah Palin Need a Cheat Sheet?
 
We Must Lift the Veil on US Troops in Pakistan
 
Pushing for “Zero Tolerance” on Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
 
Updated: Obama Calls GOP Bluff on Health-Care Reform
 
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  1. Why Are Americans Passive as Millions Lose Their Homes, Jobs, Families and the American Dream?
  2. 5 Ways Techno-Gadgetry Is Bringing Out the Worst in Humanity
  3. Why Has the FDA Allowed a Drug Marked 'Not Safe for Use in Humans' to Be Fed to Livestock Right Before Slaughter?
  4. Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Are Upending Our Democracy
  5. New Poll Results Are Proof That Republicans Don't Think
  6. White "Savior-Afflicted" Christians, Black Haitian Babies: This Won't End Well
  7. Why I Had to Stop Making Hardcore Porn
  8. It's Now More Dangerous to Give Birth in California Than It Is in Kuwait or Bosnia
  9. Sarah Palin Aims to Bust Up the Republican Party -- And the Tea Party Movement
  10. The Newest Diet Trend: What Would Jesus Eat?
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