Regarding the secret deal the banks received from the fed, Eliot Spitzer’s article at Alternet gives a realistic account of the reality of it but also some measures we can take to correct it.

“Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth: At the time you made the statements to the bank, you actually were unemployed, you had a $1 million mortgage on your house on which you had failed to make payments for six months, and you hadn’t paid even the minimum on your credit-card bills for three months. Do you think the bank would just say: Never mind, don’t worry about it? Of course not. Whether or not you had paid back the personal line of credit, three FBI agents would be at your door within hours.

Yet this is exactly what the major American banks have done to the public.”
http://www.alternet.org/economy/153291/eliot_spitzer:_5_ways_to_make_banks_pay_for_their_secret_$7_trillion_free_ride/?page=entire

Not surprisingly I agree with Scheer’s position
regarding the issues.

I have to take exception to Tony Blankley’s comment
(twice) in which he said the tax proposed to offset
the payroll tax extension was going to come from
“what they call millionaires and billionaires”.
Mr. Blankley, are you claiming that they are
NOT millionaires and billionaires…!?

From what I have read the proposed increase (on the rich) WON’T
EVEN APPLY TO THE FIRST MILLION DOLLARS OF INCOME. Sheesh…. I think they’ll make it through the winter.

BTW, Mr. Blankey I agree with that Muslim Brotherhood
concern you have, they’re nutty. Not unlike our
extremist Republicans! Absolutely NUTS!

(ni**erhead, orphanges, personhood amendments, privatize the schools, selling off state assets to their criminal buddies, divorcing your cancer-stricken wife for your new fling, collecting 1.5 million plus “historical” consulting fees, letting the bottom fall out for homeowners, do away with 5 govt. dept., trash EPA, trying to figure out where they put Libya on the map, smoking criminals in your campaign ads, 999 (which is 666 upside down ya’ know) lowering the work age so children can take their parents’ menial job, no healthcare, tax breaks for the rich, paying to protest,claiming creationism is science, privatize social security, giddily loving up a bottle of maple syrup…....and on and on and on. It never ends)

So yeah, it’s a concern, and it’s scary.