Backbencher:

I believe an apology is owed for ANY remark that is a broad-brush generalization or stereotyping.  It has less to do with WHO is being broad-brushed or stereotyped (and it does not even have to do with religion) than it has to do with the person DOING the broad-brushing or stereotyping.

Peace.

ALL of them are in cahoots with WS. C’mon, they feather one another’s nest’s eggs. That the good ole boy and girl network that’s been in place from Day One. When our one of our ancestor’s doled out chunks of meat from his hunt it was done so not out of kindness but as a favor to be returned at later date. The meat metaphor hasn’t changed much since.

What is happening is we’re are getting bogged down in an oligarchic system that rewards each other. Instead of harping on that why not hunker down and attempt to fix that system? Despite these congressional dressing downs, the players remain in place and shenanigans masquerading as business practices continues full steam ahead.

The goose and gander collusion between Treasury and its supply side minded recepient-players devolves into this display of congressional histrionics and melodrama. I mean how many hearings will it take before congress archly puts its flat foot down?

The flip side of buttering one’s bread is to butter the other side, too. This doesn’t bode well for conscientously undertaking radical, fundamental change to the arbitrary ineffective system of free market institutions. Thus, the game and attendant inanity continues. Unabated, unenergized, ultimately enervating.

Once, when a young neighbor girl helped her brother through some hard times, I carelessly commented, after praising her unconditional love for her brother, “You’re a good Christian.” She laughed and said, “I’m a Jew ... but I know what you mean, and thanks.” That said, I think being a true “Christian” is a state of mind, a way of behavior, a standard all good people meet without thought or deliberate aim. We find “Christian” behavior in every religion and every walk of life.

I guess the standard we should all be aiming for is another title that expresses clearly how good and kind and loving all Gods children can be. Or all the children on earth, if one does not believe there is a God, which is OK. Actually thats a higher standard, where the individual clearly accepts full responsibility for their actions, without a God to blame. And therefore deserves high praise, having reached a high moral standard, absent Gods instruction. I guess that would be a perfect world. Maybe we could call it “Human.”

When we learn to daily try to reach for that level of perfection “christianists” already think they own, there will be no need for labels. No need for organized religion, and no need for all the associate prejudice and “hate in the name of love” that populates todays “religious” world.

Now to, Fun With Bailout Hearings:

Watching todays Congressional Hearings, “Treasury Departments use of Government Assistance Funds” I learn there are indeed very clear guidelines in the “bailout” bill. Specifically giving direct authorization and instruction for Paulson to direct funds to saving homes close to foreclosure.

Apparently he chooses not to do so.

Paulson responds to the charge that he has chosen to ignore the Congressionally mandated instruction to do so with his typically “wise” verbosity. Specifically, he states over and over, [after endless ya-da-ya-da] “for very good reasons,” which he then goes on to NEVER define. In fact on more than one occasion, committee chairman Barney Frank had to nicely ask him to stop babbling and answer the question. He never did actually give us that “very good” reason.

So I have come with my own.

As we approach the final collapse of the “Small Government Grand Design” [courtesy, for the most part, republican] we also approach the defining moment when we can credit them and their decision to place a moron in charge, with the revelation that the problem IS NOT to much government, but rather TO MUCH greed in the private sector.

OK, we’ve already figured that out, right? But there still remains a couple of months before the moron leaves. And even though they would love to see a complete recovery and be able to say, “See we were right, Bush saved the economy!” We have gone to far beyond that point. Besides given the choice, save Bush or get every last dime, the dime always wins!

So from the point of view of “fascist capitalists” everywhere, this is a win-win. Keep the Stock Market from collapsing altogether. Keep the “big” banks floating. And then, when the new administration moves in, let go. The really bad crash [for the people] will come right after the Bush moves out, and Obama moves in. Then, the republican party will begin their campaign to blame Bushes failures on Obama!

It has always worked before, so why should they be expected to do things any differently now?

By the way, there are demonstrably successful programs in place or proposed, that given the funding, would quickly and efficiently work. Paulson has not only chosen to ignore them, he apparently doesn’t understand them either.

ABDO: isn’t it incredible that the public is so gullible that while politicians have lived high on the hog off tax payers money they can claim a person on welfare drove a cadillac & everyone thinks THAT is where the problem is! The only reason a person on welfare would be driving a Cadillac would be #1 if she was screwing a politician & had gotten it as a “payout” from a businessman; or #2. If it was old, on it’s last legs, & had holes, dents, etc in it! When I was on welfare, I had to pay for my food stamps like everyone else out of the “money” you got. You paid $30 for $60 worth of food; it was a toss up to buy oil for the furnace for my daughter & me living in a studio unit or food, while the rich & wealthy kids attending college were getting food stamps for FREE & giving their DOGS steaks which was better than I could feed me & my daugher. SHAME ON AMERICANS for BELIEVING SUCH CRAP!

Louise:

Thank you for your clarification.  However, I think you are still overstating your case.

Even among fundamentalists on the right, not all of them (or possibly even most of them) are the “rapturists” you talk about.  Certainly that group exists, but it is a “subset” of the so-called Christian right - many (if not most) of whom DO give a damn about economics, both with respect to their own families and in general.

It is worth noting that Obama is the first Democratic presidential candidate to have “cut into” the Christian right vote (even Clinton was unable to).  Among the youngest fundamentalists (18-25, 26-44), Obama took 7 percent away from McCain.  That might not sound like alot (and the 44+ group did vote more heavily for McCain), but it is actually a RADICAL change in national politics since the emergence of the Christian right in the early 80s. At very least, it means that the “Southern strategy” is history, and that the G.O.P. can no longer count on the Christian right as a solid, reliable bloc.

I am not attempting an apologia for the rapturists, who I agree are obstructionist in their apathy and myopia.  But one should still be careful in making broad-brush generalizations and stereotyping, since there are few (if any) demographic groups for which there are NO exceptions to orthodoxy.

Peace.

Maani,

I too am a Christian. What I am not is a member of a thundering herd. And I don’t think you are either.

In other words, I am not a deeply entrenched slave of some man-made, man/woman led organization. My club is the club of man-kind. The vast majority of whom actually try to practice the general guide-lines we find in the ten commandments and most other religious writings.

Note: I targeted the “christianists.” That group who relish every tragedy, celebrate every war, plague and natural disaster. That group who knowingly nods everytime someone else suffers horribly, and mumbles “it’s prophesy.” That group who has elevated their conceit to the level of “I am better than you, and when I go to heaven in the RAPTURE, you remember while you burn ... I TOLD YOU SO!”  They enjoy our pain. A wholly un-Christian behavior.

I call them “christianists” because they do not deserve the title Christian! I think they are all wicked wacked out!
True Christians, if they take offense will forgive me. But I rather suspect they need no explanation.

As to my linking christianists to the current mess. They are PART of the current mess. They eagerly look forward to the end. Ergo they do everything they can to hasten the arrival of the end! Even if that is nothing more than doing nothing. While the Constitution burns, they do nothing. While the National Treasury is looted, they do nothing.

But my oh my, they did show up to vote for McCain! And while I respect everyones right to vote for whom they chose, I have a bit of a problem when the reason given is rooted in the wicked notion that Christ is incapable of bringing about Gods plan without their feeding the fire to help him along!
What kind of faith is that?

I guess most of all, I have a real problem dealing with people who look forward to my destruction!

Their numbers may be small, but big enough to have been credited with winning the White House for the wicked wacked out Bush. And big enough to still be given credence and legitimacy by mainstreammedia every time they seek out one of their “purveyers of wisdom” to expound on this political issue or that.
And big enough to be a sharp thorn sticking in the side of humanity!

I guess I just answered my own question. We should look forward to their disappearing.

One way or another.

Hopefully that way will come when they drop the scale from their eyes and embrace that marvelous instruction from Jesus Christ, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Louise:

While I agree with your economic points, why the cheap shot at Christians?  What on God’s great earth do they have to do with either this video clip or, in fact, the economic crisis?  In fact, Cummings is a Christian, while Kashkari is a Hindu-Christian.

I’m also a Christian, and I am squarely in the camp of those who feel as you, and so many others, do.  And so do almost all of the Christians I know - who are legion.

I think you owe Christians an apology for your completely unwarranted and irrevelant cheap shot.

Peace.

“Having said that, it will take a long time, for the banking industry to start lending money,” “We also have very strict guidelines for how this “TARP” money is to be used.”
Yes, we know all this Mr. Kaashkarian, yet the banks are now paying dividends, the companies including AIG are giving bonuses worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and these companies are funding with bailout money, extravagant trips worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, all on the taxpayers dime.
What in the world was Congress thinking when this $700 Billion boondogle was passed? Did they acutually think the the administration of the shrub would hold to their word and help the “man on Main Street,” instead of bailing out the person on Wall Street? I rather think that the Congress has been given the biggest snowjob in the history of the US.
We, the people are now faced with not only bailing out the speculative banks, but also companies like AIG, GM, and lots of others that cannot in this tightened credit market, get loans to compensate for the loss of capital and reserves.
Why does not the Congress shut down this absolutely wrong-headed scheme and close the purse shut on the bailout money that is coming from the people?
$700 Billion Dollars US cannot begin to touch the bailout as it is now structured. The derivatives that have been funded by the hedge funds and speculative banks, are just now coming to light. These exotic means of funding, which even some of the brightest minds in the economic and banking industries, cannot understand, are just now coming to the light of day, and should the banking grand poobahs, demand bailout money because these instruments of funding have failed, we the people will be left in the lurch, for somewhere in the neighborhood of $485 Trillion, not Billion dollars US.
President Bush will have and has overseen the worst banking disaster in the history of the world. His policies have made it impossible for the Congress and the People to understand the underlying causes of this global financial meltdown and furthermore, cannot understand how to fix it. Not only should the shrub and all his cronies face the music for misleading and bamboozling the American people into a war which is not a war, (the war on terror) but his policies, have led to the worst and most egregious financial deregulation in the history of the US. Herbert Hoover, could not have done a better job in helping his cronies on the Stock Market when he was president. President Shrub, took any and all regulations and tossed them right out the window and said to his cronies on Wall Street, “if anything happens, the taxpayer will fund your continued lifestyle and help bailout your end of the financial scheme so that you have the money to live on. All the while Rome is burning and the Nero of our age, the shrub, is fiddling and this sounds incoherent because of the lack of sound financial regulations that make this kind of happening a crime under Federal law and more than that a crime against the taxpayer for making us pay for the continuing sucking sound you hear coming from Wall Street.
We will in no way ever see the light of day in regards to this boondogle of a bailout.

We were used to hear about the welfare queens who are driving cadillacs and old fogies who are milking social security and medicaid. LOOK at this very healthy well feed man and his wall street people, these are the ones who are entitled to the nation’s wealth. When a penny goes to main street it is called by some entitlement, although it comes from taxes paid by main street. however, if hundred dollars is paid to subsidize corporations it is well placed investment. When Thousand dollars are wasted on war crimes, it is called protecting national security. We had it people

While we watch the unraveling of the well-intended rescue package into yet another Bush raid on the treasury. [Courtesy Treasury Secretary Paulson] We hear his interim assistant, Kashkari challenged by Rep. Cummings to contemplate is he a chump? And his body language says, “No, you are.”

And we watch the ever widening unraveling of the American work force. The crumbling of the backbone.

And all those good christianists weep or cheer.  [Depending on their respective leader of the moment] And prepare for the soon to come rapture, when they and only they will be lifted to Heaven.

And we wonder.

Should we welcome their disappearance, or fear the stupidity that encourages the unraveling and the crumbling?

Meanwhile the hopelessly insane Rush Limbaugh speaks violently to his equally violent fans about “Obamas Recession” and we marvel, yes marvel at how truly stupid [and lazy] some people are.

And then we realize there is so much more to the great unraveling than you or I losing our job. Or some poor shmuck’s dividends shrinking, or the overpaid and over-valued wall street gurus, possibly being unemployed.

Because now we see the States are in a world of hurt, and schools are threatened and classes and courses are being cut and hospitals and clinics are not far behind. And is it just a coincidence that so many of those States are Red?

And suddenly it all becomes so clear.

They absolutely have to restore the guarantee of a failed education system!
They need MORE dumbbells not less, else who will vote republican?

They need to destroy everything of value to the masses!
They need to maintane absolute wealth and power in the tiny priviledged few!

“Quick pal,” comes the plea to Paulson from those in the higher inner circle. “Get more money now! Get it all, before Dummy leaves the White House, because McDummy wont be replacing him!”

Then with even greater speed and determination, they continue blowing out the clay foundations that hold up their grand and gilded mansions!

Meanwhile the masses see so clearly ... greedy, wealthy, spoiled, non-producers are the most incredibly stupid of all!