Good Morning, All.

Yes, I did watch President Bush's address last night.  I wasn't very impressed.  First, the 'history' of how this mess came about was nicely sanitized.  No mention at all of how politicians from both sides of the isle deregulated like sailors on a drunk and replaced the so-called outmoded regulations with----absolutely nothing.  No mention of the FBI's recently started investigations into possible fraud and malfeasance.  Instead, what ever went wrong was simply people making 'mistakes.'  Mistakes are something you say you are sorry for.  Fraud is a crime for which someone should do time in a facility that is not a country club with a fence.  I am extremely suspicious of any 'solution' that merely tries to get the credit wheels greased and that is the sole thrust of this bailout.  It reminds me of the mantra in Herbert's 'Dune' (books and movies): 'The spice must flow.'  In our case it is the credit that must flow.  Nor did the President notice that the housing bubble was only the latest in a string of bubbles occurring at increasingly frequent intervals.  Nor that the latest round of bankruptcies and 'reorganizations' are simply the latest in a string of such happenings going back to the Savings and Loan crisis.  After twenty-five+ years of this kind of crap one would think someone would have a clue that the 'fundamentals' of our economy not only are not strong but seriously askew.  But I didn't get that from the President's remarks.  And I haven't gotten it from our major candidates for that office.

It is now Friday, Sept. 26.  I left off yesterday because I had errands and thought I would finish when details about the 'agreement in principle' came out.  It appears that there was no agreement, in principle or otherwise.  

Eric Altermann has a nice column here that examines how the mainstream media has covered the economic crisis.  Reading it I recall my reaction during a morning news show on Wednesday I think it was.  The news readers spent nearly five minutes giving a blow-by-blow account of the first elimination on Dancing With The Stars.  I looked at mom across the table and asked why they spent so much time on THAT story.  The economy seems to be melting down and they give us this fluff??  Where has the news media been?  I have been reading international news about mortgage defaults in Ireland and Spain, rising unemployment in India and China,  and banks across the world writing down bad assets (many mortgage based) with hardly a whisper on any mainstream outlet, national or local.  The powers that be and wanna be had better hope that the mushrooms out here don't get tired of being kept in the dark and fed shit.  When that happens they might find themselves eating that shit.

I got this link by way of a link on  Altermann's Altercation blog on MediaMatters.  I simply had to follow the links laughing hysterically all the way.  Look down in the body of the article on Forbes.com and see this wonderful section:

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Wow. If it wants to see a bailout bill passed soon, the administration's going to have to come up with some hard answers to hard questions. Public support for it already seems to be waning. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, 44% of those surveyed oppose the administration's plan, up from 37% Monday.

They just wanted a 'really large number'???  In other words they don't know what the hell they are doing and wanted something that would scare the dumb masses into giving them what they wanted.

Talking about laughing hysterically:  I am sitting here looking at the blogs and writing every now and then while Mom is looking at the TV schedule.  Mom: Well, they have the "Mentalist" pilot at seven followed by the debate.  Me:  Well I guess they aren't going to start the new season of 'Numbers' starting tonight.  I thought Scifi had the start of 'Sanctuary."  Mom:  No, it has 'Stargate' all night with a new episode at nine.  I guess we will give 'The Mentalist" a look and then go into the comedy show.  Neither one of us, it seems, has high hopes for any information out of the debates.

I think I will leave this for now.  See you all later.