Dear sirs,

I understand you are very busy trying your best for one last great looting spree of the US Taxpayer. So busy, I doubt you will even bother to read this, even though it is a present view of your own immediate future.

We all know you are still involved in election rigging and politicizing the offices of the US Government to ensure republican domination in all aspects of our domestic systems. The questions surrounding 911 are still entirely unanswered. The lies surrounding Valerie Plame and the Iraq war are also still unanswered for. Billions, nay, trillions of dollars have gone missing on your watch. Everything you have touched, you have broken. our military is broken, our soldiers, left behind and forsaken.

"I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power..."

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And to give Sarah Palin a bigger migraine, today, the judge ordered her to preserve all her government emails even if sent via her private email account. Now, she is forced to gather all of those and submit them for review.

This isn't a good day to be a Sarah Palin fan but it is a good day if you're an open-honest government fan.

This news is still breaking. So keep you're ears and eyes open for more details.

I am going to watch the debate tonight at my university, and will put my observations here. Feel free to join me on this thread or sip cocoa on a chilly night, eat popcorn, and relax as the economy goes ever downwards...

Now that you've watched the video, let's talk.

It looks like the financial wizards at the A.P. finally realized what we've been saying all along: A top-down bailout doesn't work! We need a bottom-up solution.

Read their belated words of wisdom and while you do so think about the video clip you just watched on how the banking/credit industry is run:

Washington's financial bailout plan is now law. So the credit spigot will start flowing again, banks will resume lending, and an economic recovery can begin, right?
Wrong. Experts say the most important thing that needs to happen before the $700 billion bailout even has a chance of working: Home prices must stop falling. That would send a signal to banks that the worst has passed and it's safe to start doling out money again.

The problem is the lending freeze has made getting a mortgage loan tough for everyone except those with sterling credit. That means it will take several months or longer to pare down the glut of houses built when times were good — and those that have come on the market because of soaring foreclosures — before home prices start appreciating.

Housing is a critical component to the U.S. economy and by extension the availability of credit. Roughly one in eight U.S. jobs depends on housing directly or indirectly — from construction workers to bank loan officers to big brokers on Wall Street. A turnaround in housing prices would boost confidence in the wider economy and, experts hope, goad banks into lending again.

"Housing traditionally does lead the economy through a recovery. I think it's going to be critical for a sustained recovery in this cycle, too," said Gary Thayer, senior economist at Wachovia Securities.

In my family we have a phrase for that, "No S*** Sherlock."

Look....the rich were stung by the massive de-regulation that they themselves had begged for and received. But we, the middle-class and the poor, were pinched even harder.

Why is this happening?

...because...
1. There has been an ongoing forty year assault on the middle-class and labor unions.


2. There has been a reversal of higher wages to lower wages--particularly in the last eight years.


3. There has been incredibly high high inflation for our basic needs with a President and administration who told us we could help ourselves and the country by "Spending and shopping...or the terrorists win."


4. The average person didn't understand how the banking system borrows money on credit to create loans and then creates more borrowed money in a vicious cycle.


5. We didn't understand how much the de-regulation had created an inflationary housing bubble that would burst and send home values to the floor. So we borrowed against the home we had to pay down debt, or we bought a home that was presented to us as a sure investment in your future! and we, the-oh-so-gullible, payed more than we should have for it!

And now the A.P. admits what we've been saying all along--although they more politely phrase it as "Wait and see..."--

But when you read the rest of the testimonies in the article from people who aren't buying homes or cars and can't get the loans, it's clear that the remedy to bad credit wasn't simply to give more credit to the institutions who created the bad credit!

The correct remedy was one they didn't even put on the table. The correct remedy would have required a concerted effort across the board, beginning with the people on the bottom who are facing acute financial crisis and job losses and wage reductions and who need the bail out to pay on those loans to the same banks who wrote up those loans.

President Bush and his Bailout Bunch would have you believe that this whole country, from Wall Street to Main Street, is in the grips of a dire economic crisis. Using the same rhetoric of inflated urgency he employed to ram through the Iraq war resolution and the PATRIOT Act, President Bush is hoping his gut-gripping tales of doom will confuse us all into supporting his bloated bailout ideas.

Judging by the pork-a-thon in the Senate today, and the swamping of the House website Monday by angry constituents, not everyone’s buying it…yet.

Angry folks are marching on Wall Street chanting, “The bailout is bullshit. You broke it; you bought it.” Just-as-angry folks in the Rust Belt and across the country, squeezed by their finances, can’t understand why the “coastal elites” are teaming up with isolationist and Republican economic libertarians to curse a “rescue plan”.

“Let the fat cats go broke!” resonates uneasily with “I can’t pay my bills”. Which President Bush hopes will pull strong enough to pass his handoff (costing every American, baby to grandpa, $2300 each).

Here’s the trick: the economic problems of Main Street and Wall Street are DIFFERENT. SEPARATE. Don’t let the president fool you.

from Backbone Bill...

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.

THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.
WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.

PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION.
AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.

YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON

(actually from my friend Arthur)

Here are some of the findings:

But, before the ass kicking, let us have a moment of reflection as both democrats and just ordinary people. How was your day today?

How many of you went to work today, or the store, or the doctors office, ect., and overheard someone loudly talking about politics? And, let me guess, were they deliberately trying to be overheard repeating lies, distortions, and making untrue historical assertions in a room full of strangers who all sat listening in silence to utter nonsense? Is it just me, or has that also happened to you recently?

Of course you've seen it, we all see it almost every day now as the election swings into its final stretch. People are mad, people are upset, they are talking about it all over. In intense whispers, the beginnings of a true political awakening are stirring. Everywhere we go, suddenly it is hip to be politically engaged. But for some reason, it seems only the assholes that mistakenly believe Iraq hit us on 911, or thinks that our economy is good, are the only ones being heard in the public square on a day to day basis. Why does that keep happening? Where do all these assholes come from?

Watch. Listen.

Obama.

Watch. Listen.

So I thought it would be an interesting discussion to bring here.

When my brother and I talked, we had to define a few things:

1. What is mudslinging?
2. Does mudslinging have to have truth in it?
3. What is a negative attack?
4. Does a negative attack have to have truth in it.
5. What is scorched earth attacks?

Why is mudslinging, scorched earth, and negative attacks so much more effective than just the facts?

So, what do you think about those questions?

Sorry I couldn't post sooner, but my day job continually interferes with my political activities...

Anyway, I was in downtown St. Paul when the RNC protesters came through. I brought a video camera to capture any misdeeds either by police or by protesters.

There were many different groups, but the largest had held their gathering on the Capitol lawn earlier in the day. They were marching for peace, billing their protest as "family friendly," which, from everything I saw was very accurate. As they came down from the capitol into downtown, many of the other groups joined them. Most of them peaceful and respectful.

Unfortunately, there was a handful of self-titled "Anarchists" who had alerted the media and the police that they intended to do harm to property and/or people that they deemed unacceptable. Ironically, the Anarchists had placed a small blurb in the newspaper to point out how organized they were. I desperately hoped to find one of them and thrust a dictionary in their face with the definition of 'anarchist' highlighted... but alas I was not given such an opportunity. They wore black masks and makeup to cover their faces because they are immensely proud of their activities.

According to the Pacific Radio website, Amy and the whole crew were detained and as of yet, there is no further information.

Here's the video of her arrest. (I'm trying to figure out what is swinging from her neck. Is that a press pass?

In light of this happening, I contacted our own Polly Sigh to see if she is safe or if she needed the DCP to bail her out.

Polly is safe and will be posting more information tomorrow.