I just watched David Letterman with Katie Couric on the show.
They spent an entire segment, 15 minutes trashing Sarah Palin.
The ONE time Katie mentioned Barack Obama Dave said no no no I'm still talking about Sarah Palin.
If it's any indication of the possibility of positive change for the future, these media people can't move forward from 3 weeks in the past.
I've yet to see Letterman do a single joke on Obama in the style that he enjoys ripping republicans new arsholes on a nightly basis for the last 8 years.

People refusing to work is a drain on the taxpayer, and it erodes the person self worth not to be working. Second, explain to small business owner why his or her hard should pay for people to be on the dole as a lifestyle. Society is willing to give hand up to those able work to work, but not long term handout at the expense of the taxpayer , No way!!!!

all political websites are of no value to me at all
I educate myself with facts and make my own decisions

last thing in the world I want , is someone else's opinion

Why has it been four years, eight years and it's still allegations?

Wait for the truth then you will know the truth of it. We all will know.

You have to ask yourself, whatever the truth is, can you accept it?

It was between midnight and 2am during the 2004 election that the Ohio majority for John Kerry electronically became a winning margin for George W. Bush. The "miraculous" shift occurred after Ohio's official vote count was outsourced to private company SmartTech's servers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The servers housed a virtual who's who of Republican and anti-Kerry websites.

The Free Press has also learned that SmartTech technicians took over control at then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's office at approximately 9 p.m. on Election Day 2004.
------------------------------------

Without neutralizing these twin towers of electronic disenfrancisement and vote theft, a McCain-Palin victory on November 4 is all but inevitable, no matter what the polls now seem to say.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-fitrakis-and-harvey-wasserman/beware-the-twin-towers-of_b_139299.html

I think Obama is an ***hole, because just like Helen thinks Palin’s a bad mom for having her baby on television at a late hour, I think Obama’s a bad father for displaying his kids on televisions at all.

I think Obama’s an ***hole for Acorn. Come on. You’re just stupid if you think that one’s ok.

McCain Campaign Paid Republican Operative Accused of Voter Fraud

John McCain paid $175,000 of campaign money to a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states, it has emerged.
The documents show that a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party, made the payment to Lincoln Strategy, of which Mr Sproul is the managing partner, for the purposes of "voter registration".
In October last year, the House Judiciary Committee wrote to the Attorney General requesting answers regarding a number of allegations against Mr Sproul's firm, then known as Sproul and Associates. It referred to evidence that ahead of the 2004 national elections, the firm trained staff only to register Republican voters and destroyed any other registration cards, citing affidavits from former staff members and investigations by television news programmes.

One former worker testified that "fooling people was key to the job" and that "canvassers were told to act as if they were non-partisan, to hide that they were working for the RNC, especially if approached by the media," according to the committee's letter. It also cited reports from public libraries across the country that the firm had asked to set up voter registration tables claiming it was working on behalf of the non-partisan group America Votes, though in fact no such link existed.

Such activities "clearly suppress votes and violate the law", wrote John Conyers, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The letter suggested that the Judiciary Department had failed to take sufficient action on the allegations because of the politicisation of the department under the then-attorney general, John Ashcroft.

That year, Mr Sproul's firm was paid $8,359,161 by the Republican Party, according to a 2005 article in the Baltimore Chronicle, which claimed that this was far more than what had been reported to the Federal Elections Commission.

I read lots of information and this is my understanding.
30% of Republicans say there should be a more even distribution of money and wealth, compared to 60% of independents and an overwhelming majority of 84% of Democrats.

The sentiment that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed does not address the issue of exactly how this objective would be achieved. One of the more contentious points on the presidential campaign trail in recent weeks has been McCain's continuing assertion that Obama's tax plan, which would involve higher taxes for high-income families, is "redistributionist," with some McCain supporters going so far as to argue that Obama's tax plans would be "socialist." These disputes focus on the longtime argument in economic and political philosophy over government's ideal role, if any, in attempting to redistribute money and wealth through the use of taxes.

Cheney broke no laws concerning Halliburton.

Youre Republican? Thats a complete surprise to me...I havent seen you say one single thing to lead me to believe that..

McCain Campaign Paid Republican Operative Accused of Voter Fraud

John McCain paid $175,000 of campaign money to a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states, it has emerged.
The documents show that a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party, made the payment to Lincoln Strategy, of which Mr Sproul is the managing partner, for the purposes of "voter registration".
In October last year, the House Judiciary Committee wrote to the Attorney General requesting answers regarding a number of allegations against Mr Sproul's firm, then known as Sproul and Associates. It referred to evidence that ahead of the 2004 national elections, the firm trained staff only to register Republican voters and destroyed any other registration cards, citing affidavits from former staff members and investigations by television news programmes.

One former worker testified that "fooling people was key to the job" and that "canvassers were told to act as if they were non-partisan, to hide that they were working for the RNC, especially if approached by the media," according to the committee's letter. It also cited reports from public libraries across the country that the firm had asked to set up voter registration tables claiming it was working on behalf of the non-partisan group America Votes, though in fact no such link existed.

Such activities "clearly suppress votes and violate the law", wrote John Conyers, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The letter suggested that the Judiciary Department had failed to take sufficient action on the allegations because of the politicisation of the department under the then-attorney general, John Ashcroft.

That year, Mr Sproul's firm was paid $8,359,161 by the Republican Party, according to a 2005 article in the Baltimore Chronicle, which claimed that this was far more than what had been reported to the Federal Elections Commission.

Also in 1995, the first organizing meeting for Obama's state senatorial campaign reportedly was held in Ayers's apartment. In a widely circulated article, WND first reported Obama served on the board of the Wood's Fund, a liberal Chicago nonprofit, alongside Ayers from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. Tax filings showed Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.

You may not think that McCain deserves to be president because he served, but you cant say it isnt a big plus as being experience the commander of the nations military forces could use. What experience does Obama have in that arena? Ummmmm, Zero? It only makes sense to me, McCain would be more qualified to run than a man who has zero time in the service. Especially since 911.

You're supposed to be the type of person that advocates that we should help the poor out, but yet you find it yuck and disgusting for people to give away cloths that they don't ware anymore to people in need? The greatest example of redistribution of wealth is charity, remember that.

I don't personally believe in debt. I've never even had a mortgage, but this is the way most of the country operates. Today's worker will never be able to pay off their home, and I don't see how they'd ever be able to retire.

They come to us courtesy of Marriner S. Eccles, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 1948 — think of him as the Ben Bernanke of his day.

In his 1951 memoir Beckoning Frontiers, Eccles detailed what he believed caused the Depression.

Eccles wrote:

"As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth — not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced — to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nations economic machinery. [Emphasis in original.]

Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

Nice try HT Dad but they were "freedom fighters" and the dead was necessary collateral damage. (Sarcasm not directed at you... it's the idiocy of picking and choosing who we want to consider "bad terrorists" and "good terrorists").

Mercy, mercy, why did we read it buried on the last page of our morning papers?
The plan was drafted, drafted in secret.
Gunboats met the red tide, driven to the rum trade for the army that they created.
But the bullets were bought by us, it was dollars that paid them.

Please forgive us, we dont know what was done in our name.
Therell be more trials like this in mercenary heydays.
When theyre so apt to wrap themselves up in the stripes and stars
And find that they are able to call themselves heroes
And to justify murder by their fighters for freedom.

coutesy of 1000 maniacs- please forgive us.

If you hate your country...it is because you have been brainwashed into believing we are bad...why would a person want to tear down their own house...It has always been the plan of our enemies to divide us...but public apathy has keep people from educating theirselves on the issues of the times....Its just plain stupid in my way of thinking...We should be uniting...not tearing our own house down...Where will we go? This is our country of origin...We have no place to go..so I think we had better take much better care of our own house..be proud.

Its just plain stupid in my way of thinking

There are already people that are not going to vote for Obama simply because he is african-american and haven't you heard of the Bradley Affect? That is in reference to the former mayor of L.A. when he ran for governor of CA and was leading in the exit polls and lost. The reason why is people voted one way and answered the exit poll the other way, so as not to sound racist.

But McCain's Oct. 1-15 filing showed that the campaign paid $22,800 to Palin's traveling stylist, Amy Strozzi, an acclaimed celebrity makeup artist. In contrast, McCain's foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500, the report showed.

I agree w/ photo and fingerprint ID. Those that argue that, have something to hide or are just too lazy to take the extra effort. Now days with identity theft so rampid, fingerprinting only makes sense. Just my opinion.

McCain Campaign Paid Republican Operative Accused of Voter Fraud

John McCain paid $175,000 of campaign money to a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states, it has emerged.
The documents show that a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party, made the payment to Lincoln Strategy, of which Mr Sproul is the managing partner, for the purposes of "voter registration".
In October last year, the House Judiciary Committee wrote to the Attorney General requesting answers regarding a number of allegations against Mr Sproul's firm, then known as Sproul and Associates. It referred to evidence that ahead of the 2004 national elections, the firm trained staff only to register Republican voters and destroyed any other registration cards, citing affidavits from former staff members and investigations by television news programmes.

One former worker testified that "fooling people was key to the job" and that "canvassers were told to act as if they were non-partisan, to hide that they were working for the RNC, especially if approached by the media," according to the committee's letter. It also cited reports from public libraries across the country that the firm had asked to set up voter registration tables claiming it was working on behalf of the non-partisan group America Votes, though in fact no such link existed.

Such activities "clearly suppress votes and violate the law", wrote John Conyers, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The letter suggested that the Judiciary Department had failed to take sufficient action on the allegations because of the politicisation of the department under the then-attorney general, John Ashcroft.

That year, Mr Sproul's firm was paid $8,359,161 by the Republican Party, according to a 2005 article in the Baltimore Chronicle, which claimed that this was far more than what had been reported to the Federal Elections Commission.

2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS ISSUE

(How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)

OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)
Obama will let Bush Tax Cuts EXPIRE

INHERITANCE TAX

MCCAIN

0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)

OBAMA

Restore the inheritance tax

Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.
[/quote}

This is the biggest lie of all! No one has ever lost their farm from an inheritance tax! It only applies to over $1 million anyways. When w was repealing it the Dems tried to get it for estates of $10 million and still couldnt. By eliminating it they were making a permanent aristocracy- which BTW does not include you.

The tax breaks and policies of trickle down economics has created the largest wealth disparities in this country since 1929. It is what has caused the situation we are in.

Now you want me to feel bad and be scared that Obama plans to do something to address it? Get a clue!

McCain Campaign Spent $150K on Palin Clothes, Accessories
In other campaign news, the McCain campaign has been forced to admit it’s spent more than $150,000 on Palin’s clothes and accessories since she became the Republican vice-presidential nominee in August. Republicans say they’ve always intended to donate the clothes to charity after the elections. But critics say the spending reinforces the perception Republicans have falsely constructed an image of Palin as being in touch with average Americans.

Somehow I doubt that Jacqui Onassis (Kennedy) would shop for 1000 dollars a month today, or buy the Walmart specials.

I suggested ONCE that you might use paragraphs to make your posts more readable, and mentioned ONCE the proper spelling of Reagan's name. If you think that's all I have posted here, then you should read more.

Both sides were to blame. But deregulation - and that is what caused this - is a GOP mandate, and you know it! Clinton did sign the Gramm-Leach Act but as you all point out so much, congress writes the laws. It was a REPUBLICAN BILL. Infact written by McCain's economics advisor.

It wasn’t President Bush who got us into this, but rather it was former President Clinton who signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Title I of that bill states that its main purpose was for “Facilitating Affiliation Among Banks, Securities Firms, and Insurance Companies.” The text of the bill explains that it repeals the 1930s protection legislation known as the Glatt-Spiegel Act. 1

The problem with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as Lauren Stefen of the Houston Chronicle explained, was that: “The new law blurred the lines among financial institutions, allowing them to dabble in home lending, stockbrokering, wealth management, investment banking, commodities trading, insurance and a slew of other activities that swirled into the miasma from which the current crisis grew.”

They come to us courtesy of Marriner S. Eccles, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 1948 — think of him as the Ben Bernanke of his day.

In his 1951 memoir Beckoning Frontiers, Eccles detailed what he believed caused the Depression.

Eccles wrote:

"As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth — not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced — to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nations economic machinery. [Emphasis in original.]

Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

AMY GOODMAN: Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media, culture and communication at New York University is our guest. His most recent book, Loser Take All. Who is Stephen Spoonamore?

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Stephen Spoonamore is a conservative Republican, a former McCain supporter and, most importantly, a renowned and highly successful expert at the detection of computer fraud. That’s his profession. He works for major banks. He works for foreign governments. He works for the Secret Service. Those are his clients.

He knows personally the principal players in Bush-Cheney’s conspiracy to subvert our elections through electronic means since 2000, and he has named these principal players. Specifically, he has named a man named Mike Connell. Mike Connell, according to Spoonamore, is Karl Rove’s computer guru. This is the guy who has helped Bush-Cheney fix election results through computers since Florida 2000, in Ohio in 2004, also in the stolen re-election of Governor Don Siegelman in Alabama in 2002, also in the stolen re-election of Senator Max Cleland in Georgia in 2002.

AMY GOODMAN: How?

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Well, basically, they use a kind of architecture that’s called Man in the Middle, and it involves shunting election returns data through a separate computer somewhere else. This is something that computer criminals do all the time with banks. Spoonamore explains that the Man in the Middle setup is extremely effective and basically undetectable as a way to change election results.

Now, the scariest thing is that Connell told Spoonamore that the reason why he has helped Bush-Cheney still these elections for the last eight years has been to save the babies. See? We have to understand that there’s a very powerful component of religious fanaticism at work in the election fraud conspiracy. We saw a little bit of that in Greenswald’s film, where Paul Weyrich was talking about how we don’t want people voting.
AMY GOODMAN: The conservative activist.

ARK CRISPIN MILLER: Well, because the majority is a majority of unbelievers. They’re pro-choice. They’re corrupt. They’re evil. They don’t get it. It’s therefore necessary to fix election results in order to prevent the unjust and the unrighteous from taking over.

WV Voting Machines Switch Votes from Obama to McCain
Early voting in the presidential election has already begun in many states, and problems are already emerging at the polls. In West Virginia, voters in at least two counties using touchscreen voting machines have claimed their votes were switched from Democrat to Republican. Six voters reported having this problem in Jackson and Putnam Counties. In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. One voter, a retired nurse named Shelba Ketchum, said, "I hit Obama, and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.” Election officials blamed voters for not being more careful. Both counties use machines made by Election Systems & Software.

Since MOST of the citizens in this country have been brainwashed into believing that the war in Iraq is all about oil, then why don't we go ahead and prove them right by taking the oil being produced and ship it straight to our refineries? I would love to have 27 cent/gallon gasoline.

*grumble--while I am as patriotic as the next American, why oh why don't we pay for this extended c_ockfight in Iraq with the oil being produced over there??????

The Democrats' support of women's rights, it seems, is restricted only to the most convenient political situation: liberal women versus white males. When it's liberal women versus black males -- see Clinton vs. Obama -- the left dumps women's rights in favor of racial gains. When it's conservative women versus anybody, the left ignores women's rights completely.

For Sarah Palin, according to the left, it's back to the kitchen and the minivan. And for liberal women who sit by idly as Palin is excoriated for her gender, there's a special place in hell. At least according to Madeleine Albright. Who, so far, has said nothing.

I feel the way about Palin that I would any man that shared her view of the world. It has nothing to do with her gender... she's just a politician with a limited and extremist viewpoint period.

I didn't want Hillary as President because I felt she represented too much the status quo in government. My feelings on that in no way reflected any diminishing view of her capabilities as a leader. Just because I didn't prefer her leadership doesn't in any way mean that I didn't think she would be a good leader. At times I consider she might be brilliant in that capacity.

Palin is not even within light years of Hillary's capabilities as a leader. Even if Palin was a man holding the same beliefs, that would not be different. Palin's issues are not the result of her gender, they are the result of what she knows and how she thinks. Hillary knows more than a couple of words in the Constitution (I'd say probably all of it).

I know our military budget is by far the highest in the world. Depending on whose figures you trust it's either slightly more or slightly less that all the other countries' military budgets combined. That's obscene. And I don't think those numbers include the dedicated funding for Iraq. You wanna save a few tax dollars for a quarter million dollar plumber? Cut back a smart bomb or two. Retire a few past prime generals. The opportunities are boundless.

"As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped."

Marriner S. Eccles, Franklin D. Roosevelt's chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 to 1948

"The connections all fit the pattern. The actions all fit the pattern. This guy is exactly what he has been groomed to be under the tutelage of Ayers, Farrakhan, Wright, and others. His true purpose; deceive the American public by a "change" rhetoric that morphs into what ever is politically expedient. He has been tremendously successful at persuading the far left wing of the Democratic Party, into believing that he is simply liberal like them. With this support and the very negative feelings with respect to the Bush administration, a large faction of voters, has had the wool pulled over their eyes. Fact is he is a radical with a secret agenda that is bent on the destruction of virtually all the values most Americans hold very dear. If elected, the destruction he will level on our democracy will be greater then ten thousand of Mr. Ayer’s bombs, wreak more havoc that ten million of Mr. Farrakhan’s militant Black Muslims, and loose a demonic force greater than even Mr. Wright might imagine. "

Teaching his daughter that she should look to the government to protect her is the ultimate irresponsibility.


What was I teaching my daughter? I would expect the point to do a flyby over the head of an indoctrinated one conditioned to not think outside of the cave.

Here is something that totally amazes me: with all of the research literally at our fingertips, WHY do some folks continue to spread the lies that abound on the internet?
WHY wouldn't a reasonable person want to know the FACTS before posting something that identifies him/her as gullible, naive, and/or desperate?

It wasn’t President Bush who got us into this, but rather it was former President Clinton who signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Title I of that bill states that its main purpose was for “Facilitating Affiliation Among Banks, Securities Firms, and Insurance Companies.” The text of the bill explains that it repeals the 1930s protection legislation known as the Glatt-Spiegel Act. 1

The problem with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as Lauren Stefen of the Houston Chronicle explained, was that: “The new law blurred the lines among financial institutions, allowing them to dabble in home lending, stockbrokering, wealth management, investment banking, commodities trading, insurance and a slew of other activities that swirled into the miasma from which the current crisis grew.” 2

Bill Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, his Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin approved it (Rubin is now chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup), and three Republicans (Phil Gramm, James Leach and Tom Bliley, a former Virginia congressman) wrote it.

[pg. 261]:" Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

And about McCain: When he began to resort to simply lying about his opponent, and when he said nothing to quell the mob mentality of his supporters, and when his ads in two states are 100% negative, he has not only lost the race, he has lost some vital part of what made him a decent human being.

2008 is the death of journalism.

Sure Kerry was a vet with 3 unearned purple hearts, doesn't make him much more qualified(to be honest though maybe a little, afterall he would have a better idea of what the troops were going through).

I think that McCain truly will lower taxes, because the hope is that lower taxes will actually result in the government making more money. If I thought that lowering taxes would somehow hurt the economy(as well as how much money the government makes), then I would be much more likely to vote for Obama. Unfortunately, I believe that Obama doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to the economy.

It depends, if he can make the country see the true Obama(very scary, I recommended everyone watch: "Hype: The Obama Effect") then he has a chance.

Stella im' normally the liberal here, but frankly when it comes to being tough with criminals I'm not too liberal. I realize our justice system has many flaws, usually based on race and income. However, there are notorious killers and people who have abosolutely no conscience at all when it comes to killing. I read a lot of books on criminal psychology and about serial killers, and murderers. Most have no remorse at all.

I think why you see smaller numbers of inmates in overseas prisons is due to the fact there are many countries who do employ eye for an eye tactics in their laws (look at Iraq in the past, for example, piss Saddam off, no trial no jury--just a bullet in the head and a ticket to a mass burial plot), not to mention many prisons in many countries aren't fit for dogs to live in. Prisoners have little or no rights like they do here in America and in some cases are beaten daily, starved half to death and treated cruelly. It really doesn make people think a bit more before they commit crimes.

Well later on this afternoon ,I get an email from him telling me not to contact him, call him, email him, nothing-- he wont answer his phone, he will delete the email and the voicemail!! I called him 3 times between Friday and Sunday.and emailed him once, thats it!!! He also says that he did some checking on me and I wasnt truthful with him about my past!! What? I have no past..I have no earthly idea what he is talking about!! Thats it..He doesnt want to explain to me what he supposedly found..To say the least, I'm upset by this!! Just goes to show his character..I am better off without him..I'm not broken hearted..But what I am upset about is he accused me of something that I have no idea what it is!!!

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:

As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:

1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.

2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.

3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America's dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted.

For these reasons we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.