Bailout: NO! My inner libertarian speaks

I've decided that I'm glad it failed. It's a bad plan to "rescue" a terrible system. We have a chance here to create something new and better- not something that will just collapse under its own weight when the next bubble bursts. It will hurt for a while for all of us and the poorest will really suffer, but when Barack wins we can get a "New Deal" and start to recover. Who knows what will happen with McCain- end of democracy I guess- but I'm not too worried about that old loon. He won't win.

I believe the system is too broken and corrupt to be fixed at this point and we simply need a new system- not an ungodly amount of money whose numeric figure was pulled, literally, out of thin air for, literally, shock value. Isn't economics a science after all? What the hell is this we don't know EXACTLY how much we need or EXACTLY where it will go mentality? This whole thing stinks to high heaven! If it was a legit plan to socialize the economy for the people, that would be one thing. But is is not- regardless of how the PR consultants who have "consulted" the politicians on how to sell it to us have packaged it. It is a plan that will effectively give us the fascism that those in power have been slobbering for since 1980 when the deregulatory wheels for this day were put in motion.

One thing I'll give the repubs credit for: They finally found a way to push the scare button for everyone. They really got us this time. But it's important to remember that this is how they operate: make everyone think the end of the world is nigh and they'll be so frightened they'll let us do whatever we want and then give us credit for "saving" them when they don't lose the ability to buy that flat screen TV they can't afford. Don't be a sheep! Stand firm as we have against the war and every other wretched policy this administration has shoved up our asses. Don't let fear cripple good judgment. This is America- home of the BRAVE! We'll survive whatever happens but we cannot give away all of our money to a few greedy, satanic, little fat men.

Here are some links. Be sure to read the third article which presents a common sense practical reality check and workable solution to the problem- that does NOT involve draining the treasury to the benefit of the very very few.

Happy reading! (Feedback, disagreement, debate: WELCOME!!!)

Michael Moore

Wall Street Journal blogger

Jeffrey Miron- Economics Professor at Harvard

Terrett

No problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it-- Albert Einstein

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear-- Mark Twain

Brollies

This series is called Brollies after the British slang for umbrellas. I wanted to document the moment of extreme "FUCK-ITness" that comes from a realization that all urban dwellers have experienced at some point: The moment of recognition that a brutal combination of rain, wind and urban horror- when the umbrella blows inside out, snaps and is lost beyond repair- when you know that the only thing left to do is have tantrum and angrily fling the brolly to the ground and abandon it physically and emotionally. When I had such a moment which required nothing less than throwing my brolly disgustedly under a bus it became clear to me why there always seems to be discarded brollies all over the place after a storm. The truth and near rage of that moment seems powerful to me.


The following are the end result from brolly calamities in New York City, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and London over the past couple of years.