On the Border Line: This is a dark sad day ladies and gentlemen.. The reality here is that they will be back for more, that’s what socialist pigs do.

It always makes me chuckle when we get a full dose of unadulterated disaster capitalism the NeoCrybabies  call it socialist. No, this bailout is full blown capitalism folks. One can certainly argue the bailout is NOT constitutional (which it is not) or that it is NOT conservative, but it is capitalist through and through.

Those elitist, no good, liberals who sold out the American people for some foreign banks are not socialist.  Yes, folks that was a real problem with the first bill it did not bail out enough foreign banks.  I don’t know if it was bailing out the foreign banks that got more Republican votes, or Obama strong arming the Congressional Black Congress, but either way it put the bill over the top.

So, where would a socialist stand on this bailout. As I said in an earlier post a “true conservative” and a socialist actually agree when it comes to graft, bailouts, and corporate welfare. Here is what a real life, un apologetic, socialist said on the Senate floor.

Wall Street Bailout — 10/01/2008

The Senate approved a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.  Senator Bernie Sanders voted against the bill that would put Wall Street’s burden on the backs of the American middle class. “The bailout package is far better than the absurd proposal originally presented to us by the Bush administration, but is still short of where we should be,” Sanders said. “If a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, if we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from President Bush’s tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation who should pick up the tab, not ordinary working people.”

Sanders proposed a five-year, 10 percent surtax on  families with incomes of more than $1 million  year and individuals earning over $500,00 to raise $300 billion to help bankroll the bailout.  Senators, however, set aside the amendment on a voice vote.

In a Senate floor speech, Sanders elaborated on the bailout bill’s flaws:

“This country faces many serious problems in the financial market, in the stock market, in our economy. We must act, but we must act in a way that improves the situation. We can do better than the legislation now before Congress.

“This bill does not effectively address the issue of what the taxpayers of our country will actually own after they invest hundreds of billions of dollars in toxic assets. This bill does not effectively address the issue of oversight because the oversight board members have all been hand picked by the Bush administration. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of foreclosures and addressing that very serious issue, which is impacting millions of low- and moderate-income Americans in the aggressive, effective way that we should be. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of executive compensation and golden parachutes. Under this bill, the CEOs and the Wall Street insiders will still, with a little bit of imagination, continue to make out like bandits.

“This bill does not deal at all with how we got into this crisis in the first place and the need to undo the deregulatory fervor which created trillions of dollars in complicated and unregulated financial instruments such as credit default swaps and hedge funds. This bill does not address the issue that has taken us to where we are today, the concept of too big to fail. In fact, within the last several weeks we have sat idly by and watched gigantic financial institutions like the Bank of America swallow up other gigantic financial institutions like Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Well, who is going to bail out the Bank of America if it begins to fail? There is not one word about the issue of too big to fail in this legislation at a time when that problem is in fact becoming even more serious.

“This bill does not deal with the absurdity of having the fox guarding the hen house. Maybe I’m the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the Secretary of the Treasury, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem. Now, maybe I’m the only person in America who thinks that’s a little bit weird, but that is what I think.

“This bill does not address the major economic crisis we face: growing unemployment, low wages, the need to create decent-paying jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and moving us to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

“There is one issue that is even more profound and more basic than everything else that I have mentioned, and that is if a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, whose money should it be? In other words, who should be paying for this bailout which has been caused by the greed and recklessness of Wall Street operatives who have made billions in recent years?

“The American people are bitter. They are angry, and they are confused. Over the last seven and a half year, since George W. Bush has been President, 6 million Americans have slipped out of the middle class and are in  poverty, and today working families are lining up at emergency food shelves in order to get the food they need to feed their families. Since President Bush has been in office, median family income for working-age families has declined by over $2,000.  More than seven million Americans have lost their health insurance.  Over four million have lost their pensions. Consumer debt has more than doubled. And foreclosures are the highest on record. Meanwhile, the cost of energy, food, health care, college and other basic necessities has soared.

“While the middle class has declined under President Bush’s reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush’s tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. That is just 400 families, a $670 billion increase in wealth since Bush has been in office.

“In our country today, we have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth, with the top 1 percent earning more income than the bottom 50 percent and the top 1 percent owning more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.  We are living at a time when we have seen a massive  transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest people in this country, when, among others, CEOs of Wall Street firms received unbelievable amounts in bonuses, including $39 billion in bonuses in the year 2007 alone for just the five major investment houses. We have seen the incredible greed of the financial services industry manifested in the hundreds of millions of dollars they have spent on campaign contributions and lobbyists in order to deregulate their industry so that hedge funds and other unregulated financial institutions could flourish. We have seen them play with trillions and trillions dollars in esoteric financial instruments, in unregulated industries which no more than a handful of people even understand. We have seen the financial services industry charge 30 percent interest rates on credit card loans and tack on outrageous late fees and other costs to unsuspecting customers. We have seen them engaged in despicable predatory lending practices, taking advantage of the vulnerable and the uneducated. We have seen them send out billions of deceptive solicitations to almost every mailbox in America.

“Most importantly, we have seen the financial services industry lure people into mortgages they could not afford to pay, which is one of the basic reasons why we are here tonight.

“In the midst of all of this, we have a bailout package which says to the middle class that you are being asked to place at risk $700 billion, which is $2,200 for every man, woman, and child in this country. You’re being asked to do that in order to undo the damage caused by this excessive Wall Street greed. In other words, the “Masters of the Universe,” those brilliant Wall Street insiders who have made more money than the average American can even dream of, have brought our financial system to the brink of collapse.  Now, as the American and world financial systems teeter on the edge of a meltdown, these multimillionaires are demanding that the middle class, which has already suffered under Bush’s disastrous economic policies, pick up the pieces that they broke. That is wrong, and that is something that I will not support.

“If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush’s tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people. I introduced an amendment which gave the Senate a very clear choice. We can pay for this bailout of Wall Street by asking people all across this country, small businesses on Main Street, homeowners on Maple Street, elderly couples on Oak Street, college students on Campus Avenue, working families on Sunrise Lane, we can ask them to pay for this bailout. That is one way we can go. Or, we can ask the people who have gained the most from the spasm of greed, the people whose incomes have been soaring under president bush, to pick up the tab.

“I proposed to raise the tax rate on any individual earning $500,000 a year or more or any family earning $1 million a year or more by 10 percent. That increase in the tax rate, from 35 percent to 45 percent, would raise more than $300 billion in the next five years, almost half the cost of the bailout. If what all the supporters of this legislation say is correct, that the government will get back some of its money when the market calms down and the government sells some of the assets it has purchased, then $300 billion should be sufficient to make sure that 99.7 percent of taxpayers do not have to pay one nickel for this bailout.

“Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in three years, as did Henry Paulson, the current secretary of the Treasury, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past five years as did Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers. Most of my constituents did not cash out $60 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns after that failing company was bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O’Neill, former CEO Merrill Lynch did.

“Last week I placed on my Web site, http://www.sanders.senate.gov, a letter to Secretary Paulson in support of my amendment. It said that it should be those people best able to pay for this bailout, those people who have made out like bandits in recent years, they should be asked to pay for this bailout. It should not be the middle class. To my amazement, some 48,000 people cosigned this petition, and the names keep coming in. The message is very simple: “We had nothing to do with causing this bailout. We are already under economic duress. Go to those people who have made out like bandits. Go to those people who have caused this crisis and ask them to pay for the bailout.”

“The time has come to assure our constituents in Vermont and all over this country that we are listening and understand their anger and their frustration. The time has come to say that we have the courage to stand up to all of the powerful financial institution lobbyists who are running amok all over the Capitol building, from the Chamber of Commerce to the American Bankers Association, to the Business Roundtable, all of these groups who make huge campaign contributions, spend all kinds of money on lobbyists, they’re here loud and clear. They don’t want to pay for this bailout, they want middle America to pay for it.”

Poor Mal. It was not enough for him to comment on my site, but he had to write posts on 4 other blogs. Who does he think he is, the second coming of Barrack Obama. Mal went to Daily Kos to declare war against The Proletariat. The Kossacks turned on him when they found out out he voted for Nader in the last two election cycles.

As I mentioned last night NBC 15 had a little blurb about the Nader Rally. I did notice their cameras last night, so I hope more reporting will be coming down the pipes soon. Tonight WKOW had a nice video of Ralph and the rally.

This morning the Wisconsin State Journal beat the Cap Times to the punch with a piece on Nader slashing the major parties. I thought Nick Heynen gave a nice overview of the nights speeches. My favorite quotes was,

There’s no such thing as taking votes away. It’s up to the voters to decide who they’re going to vote for. I think McCain is going to take votes away from Obama and Obama is going to take votes away from McCain.

People say, We don’t want to throw away our vote. We want to vote for winners. OK, go ahead. You’ve been voting for winners, and you’ve been losing.

Later this morning, Robert Chappell of the Capital Times, wrote a piece about the relationship between the two “progressive” events.  It was easy to tell from the piece which event Robert was at, and that he just pulled a few quotes from Nader folks to complete the story. I do give the Capital Times credit for stating Nader is the one who introduced Donahue to the vet who starred in the film. The Capital Times is dead to me. I took them off my Google page and filtered them out of my news sources.

I am just glad that the Demopublican Convention is done.

What do you get when you cross an Obama and a Biden?

• Obama, McCain, and Obama vote for Patriot Act 2
• Obama, Biden, and McCain vote for FISA
• Biden and McCain vote for Patriot Act 1
• Biden and McCain vote for the Iraq War
• Biden and McCain vote for the Bankruptcy Act
• Obama votes for the Cheney Energy Bill
• Obama, McCain, and Biden voted against a 30% interest rate cap

A McCain.

Even Alex Bennett enjoyed the speech.

It does look like things are heating up.

The delegates voted this morning from their hotel rooms and the vote was so close that Pelosi is trying to do damage control.  We don’t know what the status of the roll call is at this time or whether there will be one.

Bill Clinton refuses to stick to the script that was written for him and may not be speaking tonight.

It turns out that Obama only want to give Bill Clinton 10 minutes. Now, you tell me who does not give a crap about unity. If Obama’s intent is to infuriante those voters who supported Hillary he is doing a heck of a job. Here is one of Obama’s “Uncle Tom’s”.

It is interesting how the liberal bloggers are using the word “if” instead of “when” in referring to an Obama presidency. I am curious when the last a Democratic nominee was down in the polls during their convention.  I know Kerry and Gore were up, and if memory serves so was Dukakis.

If you get tired of the Republican wannabees, watch Free Speech TV.  Crashing the Party Convention coverage begins at 8:00.

Logic would dictate that if you want the support of a voter or faction you would not symbolically whip them. You would not attack their character, and use fear tactics into scaring them into supporting your party or candidate. It seems to me logic would dictate that you’d attempt to win over their support. Of course, Democrats never do that and never will. They just want you to shut up and vote (Democratic).

It has always perplexed me why Democrats attack Green and Nader voters. As Truth Out demonstrated after the 2004 election, if Nader endorsed universal health care or the living wage, he would have won comfortably. The pattern seems to be the further a Democratic candidate moves to the right (like Obama is doing now) the greater the slave plantation mentality becomes.

Interestingly, Hillary has played the role of Nader this primary season. Immediately after Hillary suspended her campaign, and PUMA and other organizations were created, Obamacons went on attack. At a time when you think Obama would have tried to bridge the tensions of a very close primary season, he sent out his minions to use fear tactics to get those voters back.

I remember reading Obamacons posts referring to Hillary as a wench, bitch, and whore as if that would somehow win those voters back. Just like with Nader, they saw the Hillary voters as slaves leaving the plantation and acted as any southern slave master would. While the Obamacons were using their system of terror Obama continued to move to the right. And to nobody’s surprise Obama has lost ground in the polls. He is down 12 points with young voters and 12 points with city dwellers. One wonders if these groups will be the next to be vilified by the Obamacons.

Recently, alienated, Debra Bartoshevich, made an ad with John McCain. This, of course, after AT&T Lobbyist, Joe Wineke, kicked her out of the Democratic Party. Again, we go back to the same slave plantation metaphor of lashing out at those who deny Democrats their support, rather than trying to win them over. Here are a few of Wisconsin’s own Obamocons who defy logic,

Mal Contends: Really, how dumb is this Wisconsin woman, appearing now in a new McCain spot. … Hey Debra, why not write in Dick Cheney? He’s had eight years of “experience with foreign matters.”

Blogging Blue: Bartoshevich uses that quote to justify her unwillingness to support the Democratic Party and its nominee, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the candidate and party she plans on supporting in November has historically ignored women, especially when it comes to reproductive rights.

Blue Racine: So, imagine my shock and horror to get up this morning and make a cup of coffee, light a cigarette and flip on MSNBC to catch the latest political drivel from the MSM and what do I see but none other than Deb Bartoshevich doing a McBush commercial……………oh God, will this nightmare ever end for me?

Reform Dem: I suspect that this is an act that Debra Bartoshevich will look back on with well deserved shame.

In contrast to these Obamacons, at least McCain is willing to compete for these votes. That is much more than Obama has done since Hillary suspended her campaign. The irony is Obama is willing to compete for Republican votes by putting Republicans on stage during a Democratic Convention, but as far as what used to be called the Democratic base he just throws them under the bus one by one.

I just don’t understand why the conventions could not have been the last two weeks.  I have already had two weeks of television watching wasted on the Olympics, and now another two on TV ads that never end. Well at least on Wednesday night I can watch Crashing the Party – Nader Rally.

The funny thing is during Obama’s little church thing at Saddleback Mountain, he stated Thomas was the one judge he would not nominate because he wasn’t “ee-ex,  strong enough”, and the man most responsible for getting Thomas on the court is none other than Joe Biden.

This all makes Biden a more eerie choice. The middle east is so passe, the real prize is Eurasia, a Biden specialty.  Liberals put down your anti war signs, the new war party is in charge.