Just in case US voters rebel against the biggest theft ever of their money… Wall St and Washington have got it covered.
US politics
An Addendum
WordPress is being arsey and won’t let me edit the previous post, so I have to post this separately.
It’s not the JDL (at least not directly) that’s distributing the DVD, it’s an outfit called The Clarion Fund.
Clarion Fund denies partisan intent
The video itself was made in 2006 and does not explicitly endorse any Republican candidate….
Of course not. Perish the thought.
The Other Theft
While the public’s attention is on taxpayer billions being stolen with one Republican hand, the democratic process is being stolen with the other…
I found this description of dirty electioneering in the comments to another TPM post re the anti-Islam agitprop DVD that’s being inserted and distributed in newspapers in key voting districts by an unknown (possibly the JDL) lobby group. They’ll try anything to confuse and obsfuscate voters out of their ballots:
The mailing was addressed to me, but using a form of my name (an extra initial) I don’t use – and am not registered under. It was two forms for absentee ballots inside. But on the reverse of the address – photos of 4 “bad guys” (Chavez, Osama, Kim Jong Il, and the president of Iran… not gonna try to spell his name). When I went to City Hall I found out that many people had received a mailing telling them to send the request for absentee ballot to the WRONG city!! Our city clerk was annoyed because this costs the city postage, telling someone they sent the form to the wrong place. Or if I had applied under the name as they addressed it to me, I would not have shown up as registered! That was my concern, as I have a hispanic last name – and was concerned I’d been targeted for that reason.
This is just one person in one voting district – how many hundreds of thousands of others are being taken in by this Republican ratfuckery – and is it enough to swing the election?
Must I Draw A Dia-Gramm?
The perfect illustration of just how corrupt this bank bailout plan is comes from an NYT report [via Josh Marshall at TPM]that overseas banks have successfully lobbied to be included in the bailout :
….The Times further reports that two of the biggest foreign banks in need of such relief are Barclays and UBS. In fact, my understanding is that UBS is more on the line here than any other foreign bank.
Let’s add this up.
John McCain’s top economics advisor, who is widely believed to be his choice for Treasury Secretary, should he win in November, is former Sen. Phil Gramm. (Indeed, just last night his spokesman refused to say Gramm wouldn’t be McCain’s choice for Treasury Secretary.)
Gramm is both vice chairman of UBS’s US division and a lobbyist for UBS.
Good grief, how much more blatant can this be?
Well They Would, Wouldn’t They?
Congressional Democrats think that stealing national assets to cover private losses is just fine and dandy and want to act fast to save the banking system:
Rep. Frank sees Congress acting fast on bailout plan
They think Bush’s bailing out the banks is brilliant:
Democrats see boost for $50 billion econ stimulus By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The urgent need for the U.S. Congress to approve a Bush administration plan to rescue Wall Street has given Democrats renewed hope of enacting another economic stimulus package for Main Street, congressional aides said on Friday.
For months, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats in Congress have been pushing $50 billion in emergency spending they say would spur the flagging U.S. economy.
I wonder why? Here’s your answer:
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — The market storm that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., American International Group Inc. and other pillars of U.S. finance may have also blown holes in the portfolios of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress.
Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. — some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath — according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The most recent annual disclosure filings list investments as of Dec. 31, 2007, and reveal the size of holdings only within a range of values. Lawmakers may have sold shares since then.
I should’ve known.