The Wacky World of Chris Knight

A while back I ranted about the terms of the bailout, specifically that “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” I compared giving one person this much power to believing that SuperMan is going to fly down out of the sky and solve our problems.

So, what happened with the bailout? Well, this Lex Luthor wannabe named Henry Paulson went to Congress, the House of Representatives, and the President and said “I have a plan” and he gave them a quick overview of a not-likely-to-work idea, and they gave him nearly a trillion dollars. They also gave him absolute discretion over how that money would get used, at least for the moment since the ‘oversight panel’ they added to the revised bailout has not actually been created. No panel, no oversight. Big surprise, but right after he gets the money his shouts “Gotcha!” and with complete control over the funds starts changing the game.

Now, I’m not going to say that either plan is better, as I think they will both fail to prevent the inevitable depression-era type market correction that is coming. What does bother me is the bait and switch. If Paulson wasn’t working for the government this would be called a con game. All the Nigerion 419 scams in all of history have not netted the amount of money Paulson has in his checking account right now; and he’s going to spend it where he wants and you (including your elected officials) can’t do a damn thing about it.

Think about that the next time someone suggests that what the government needs to fix this mess is a blank check. You all voted for ‘cake and circuses’ and now the killer clowns come home to roost.

Treasury changes course on bailout, won’t buy bad mortgages

Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

(11-12) 18:20 PST — The Treasury Department reversed course on its massive bailout effort today, saying it would not use the $700 billion rescue fund approved by Congress to purchase bad mortgage securities but instead will continue pumping money into banks to boost their lending ability while it looks for ways to get more money flowing for school loans, credit cards and other consumer purchases.

In answering questions about the shift in strategy, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ruled out using the fund to bail out the troubled auto industry and said his priority would be stabilizing the financial system and reviving a consumer credit market that "has for all practical purposes ground to a halt."

Although Paulson abandoned the plan he pitched when he sold the bailout to Congress, an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was never keen on buying subprime mortgage securities and considers Treasury's current course - investing $250 billion into banks - a better financial fix.

Follow the link below for the scariest video you have seen since Michael Jackson released Thriller:

Palin Didn’t Know Africa Is A Continent, Says Fox News Reporter (VIDEO)
"didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself."

What the fuck??????

I have no other words than “What the fuck??????”

Let me say that one more time…

What the fuck??????

The whole damn world dodged a very serious bullet. We are damn lucky that the narrow minded holier-than-thou nutjobs in this country didn’t send us straight back into the dark ages in this past election.

I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she’s
too young to have logged on yet. Here’s what I worry about. I worry that
10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say “Daddy, where were
you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?”
- Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Proposition 8 in California, the one that defines homosexuals as having LESS rights that heterosexuals, passed by a very slim margin on Tuesday night. We re not talking a landslide. It was a mere 52.5% for to 47.5% against. Nearly 50% of the voting population voted against Proposition 8, voted against H8 (hate), voted for equality. That doesn’t, in any way, suggest that 50% of the voters were homosexual; it only suggests that nearly 50% were in favor of equality for all no matter what their sexual orientation.

Let’s assume for a moment that those statistics don’t change over the next few years. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that it stays a very close race over the next decade even. That would still indicate that nearly 50% of new voters, over the years, would vote in support of equal marriage rights. (Please, Prop 8 supporters, don’t try to tell me that your children will follow your lead exactly; to even try is to forget the ways you rebelled against your parents.) Assuming that I am wrong, from another post, about bigots dying off one generation at a time, and that the margins stay close over the coming years:

What will you, the supporters of Proposition 8, tell your children when they ask you where you were the day that people voted to create a second class of citizen? After years of teaching your kids to ‘do what is right’, will you admit you cast your vote to create a caste society in the United States itself? Will you admit that you feel you are better than people who do not believe as you do?

What will you do if one of your children is brave enough to admit to your bigoted self that they are homosexual? Will you tell them you love them no matter what, or will you tell them they are a second class citizen that is not deserving of the happiness that you have? Will you tell your own child they are not as good as you?

To misquote Mike Godwin: “Daddy, where were you when they took away ‘and justice for all‘?”

-Chris