John McCain Fails To Deliver Republican Bailout Vote!

Let's go back to last week when John McCain STOPPED HIS CAMPAIGN and went back to Washington, DC to get the job done. We all remember that day, the fact that his RASH move gave him the news cycle. Now lets fast foward to right now.

McCain FAILED to bring his Republicans to the table, failed to deliver the votes needed to pass the Wall Street Bailout! While Senator Obama and the Democratic leaders brought their vote to the table to (65 percent of their caucus members) in the hopes of Bailing out George Bush and his failed policies, John McCain was only able to bring to the table 33 percent of his own party on a bill brought forward by George W. Bush, and his appointee Mr. Paulson.

When it comes to leadership, John McCain's has been found to be lacking, has shown America he just does not have the RIGHT STUFF...which might explain how it was that he crashed not one, but FIVE military aircraft during his Naval Career.

Putting Bailout In Perspective For Minimum Wage Workers

Our Federal Government is about to give Wall Street $770 Billion dollars! Meanwhile, back in July the minimum wage LEPT to $6,55 per hour. Working a 40 hour work week, that is a pre-tax weekly wage of $262.00 or a yearly pre tax income of $13,624 IF YOU WORK 52 WEEKS A YEAR. It would take roughly 58 million 40 hour weeks of work at minimum wage to pay off this debt (with no interest).

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/esa/esa20081024.htm

Federal minimum wage to increase to $6.55 on July 24

Agency also marks 70th anniversary of Fair Labor Standards Act

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor reminds employers and employees that the federal minimum wage will increase to $6.55 on Thursday, July 24. With this change, employees who are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will be entitled to pay at no less than $6.55 per hour.

This increase is the second of three provided by the enactment of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. A third minimum wage increase to $7.25 an hour will become effective on July 24, 2009. Last year, on July 24, the minimum wage increased to $5.85 an hour.

Ali, CNN's Money Man Is Mouth Piece For Wall Street Bailout Legilation Part One

To listen to Ali, we in the Middle Class should be jumping for joy...I find it offensive that he is trying to SELL the agreement/bill that Wall Street Lobbyist have played such a crucial role in writing. I have started to break down the proposed legislation, and am posting what I have so far that concerns me.

The Bill as written cannot and will not meet its very purpose. It’s a false mandate that spends $770 Billion dollars of our money, while creating a whole new agency with all of its inherent financial costs with, of all people, Mr. Paulson have the powers of a GOD! It’s George W. Bush and Mr. Paulson’s original 3.5 page bill with a whole bunch of fluff added to it that provides America’s Middle Class ZERO PROTECTIONS.

The purposes of this Act are—

(1) To immediately provide authority and facilities that the Secretary of the Treasury can use to restore liquidity and stability to the financial system of the United States; and

(2) To ensure that such authority and such facilities are used in a manner that—

(A) Protects home values, college funds, retirement accounts, and life savings;

(B) preserves homeownership and promotes jobs and economic growth;

(C) Maximizes overall returns to the taxpayers of the United States; and

(D) Provides public accountability for the exercise of such authority.

If you read the bill completely, or browse through the section provided here, you will see it does none of the above. There is no mechanism to protect our home values, and in fact said values will continue to drop, with no mechanism in place to make us whole, to bailout our own failing assets. The bill fails to promote home ownership, as there is no mechanism in place to address the egregious reality that our first homes are not adequately protected in Bankruptcy Courts, and that judges are powerless to step in and take appropriate steps from the bench to protect our homes, to keep us in them. Further, this bill will not promote job growth, and in fact economists on both sides of this bill have said the bailout will not stop the continued erosion of jobs, nor slow the flow of the recession we as a nation are in.

AUTHORITY.—The Secretary is authorized to establish a troubled asset relief program (or ‘‘TARP’’) to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, troubled assets from any financial institution, on such terms and conditions as are determined by the Secretary, and in accordance with this Act and the policies and procedures developed and published by the Secretary.

Read this paragraph…the bill is giving one Mr. Paulson, formerly of Goldman Sak’s and his cronies the ability and legal right to establish A) a new program/agency, B) make the rules by which it will abide by, C) establish the criteria that decides what assets will and will not be bought out, as well as the price to be paid for those assets, and D) gives him the right to make all these rules in a very DICTATORIAL fashion. There is no real oversight, no checks and balances, no one but a dishonest Wall Street insider guarding the hen house. It gets even worse when you realize the bill also gives Mr. Paulson sole rights and discretion to decide who will work inside this newly created labyrinth. This is reminiscent of the fatally flawed legislation that created the NRC, while failing to give Congress any meaningful oversight of the agency.

The Secretary shall implement any program under paragraph (1) through an Office of Financial Stability, established for such purpose within the Office of Domestic Finance of the Department of the Treasury, which office shall be headed by an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

When you read that the office shall be run by A POLITICAL APPOINTEE, you are being told this new office will be around for ever, and that it will be a highly political position, a plumb AWARDED to those deserving souls that wrote out the right kinds of checks, or did the right kind of favors during a Presidential Election year. This reality is born out in the next section when you read:

Section 5315 of title 5, United States Code, is amended in the item relating to
Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, by striking ‘‘(9)’’ and inserting ‘‘(10)’’.

So, this Emergency Legislation, this BAILOUT OF WALL STREET for Wall Street FAT CATS is creating a permanent new program, and increasing permanently the number of POLITICAL APPOINTEES nominated by the President from 9 to 10. These are PLUMB JOBS with many perks, including a very nice six figure income, a spacious office, and a lavish government expense account. Worse, such a position and the person who holds it is going to be the target of a lot of Special Interest lobbying on a never ending basis.

If you read the next section, we need to tell our elected officials to exercise GREAT CAUTION…the Secretary is only required TO CONSULT with others, but there is nothing in the entire law that LIMITS HIS POWERS, or instructs him/her to abide by or accept any of the counsel they would be getting in consulting with others.

The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation, the following:

(1) The Secretary shall have direct hiring authority with respect to the appointment of employees to administer this Act.

(2) Entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code.

(3) Designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Federal Government, and such institutions shall perform all such reasonable related to this Act as financial agents of the FederalGovernment as may be required.

(4) In order to provide the Secretary with the flexibility to manage troubled assets in a manner designed to minimize cost to the taxpayers, establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase troubled assets and issue obligations.

(5) Issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities or purposes of this Act.

Ask yourselves if you trust ANY ONE MAN (or woman) with this much uncontrolled, unchecked power. There are no safeguards built in here, this is FAR MORE THAN A BLANK CHECK.

PREVENTING UNJUST ENRICHMENT.—In making purchases under the authority of this Act, the Secretary shall take such steps as may be necessary to prevent unjust enrichment of financial institutions participating in a program established under this section, including by preventing the resale of a troubled asset to the Secretary at a higher price than what the seller paid to purchase the asset.

There is a very KEY REASON this section is worded this way, it is a LOOPHOLE they do not want us the taxpayer to catch…we are supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy good that the Secretary will be prevently UNJUST ENRICHMENT by being careful not to buy assets from these companies for more than the companies PAID FOR THEM! Hello, without exception, most of these assets are worth FAR LESS than what was paid for them! How about changing the above to read that a fair market price will be ascertained for the assets, not to exceed the price the seller paid to purchase the asset, but which may be less? Remember how we as citizen taxpayers were supposed to be protected trough OWNERSHIP…don’t hold your breath.

If the Secretary establishes the program authorized under section 101, then the
Secretary shall establish a program to guarantee troubled assets, including mortgage-backed securities issued prior to March 18, 2008.

(2) GUARANTEES.—In establishing any program under this subsection, the Secretary may develop guarantees of troubled assets and the associated premiums for such guarantees. Such guarantees and premiums shall be determined by category or class of the securities to be guaranteed.

(3) EXTENT OF GUARANTEE.—upon request of a financial institution, the Secretary may guarantee the timely payment of principal of, and interest on, troubled assets in amounts not to exceed 100 percent of such payments. Such guarantee may be on such terms and conditions as are determined by the Secretary, provided that such terms and conditions are consistent with the purposes of this Act.

Someone tell me I am wrong here…I am reading here that a situation/program would be created wherein the company gets to KEEP AND ASSET, and have the treasury paying the interest and principle on the load that secures that asset? If this is true, this is INSANITY.

Stopping here on the draft and posting it to my blog as I have just learned that a NEW FINAL agreement has just been released by the Congress…BE AFRAID PEOPLE, be very, very afraid.

Warrants Are NOT Stocks! Call Capital Hill NOW!

I am not a learned man, just your average Middle Class Main Street kind of a guy doing my best to get by in these hard times. Like everyone else, I am not happy about this bailout, but was reluctantly willing to go along with it if there were certain strings attached (which were promised to us before negotiations began). What concerns me, is where is the press in holding Washington DC's heels to the fire as it were, instead of going along with them in beating the FEAR DRUMS? I've been doing a bit of reading today, and one thing above all others is ringing alarm bells for me, and I am amazed the press is not all over it.

We the taxpayers were supposed to be protected, we were supposed to get STOCKS as a part of this whole $770 Billion dollar bailout of Wall Street. Well, if you snoop around, you will see that the Lobbyist for Wall Street have twisted things around into some cruel hoax on everyone. We are not getting stocks, but instead will be given WARRANTS! Follow me...stocks are stocks, and right now recieving stocks at greatly depressed values might be a good deal for the US tax payer. Warrants on the other hand give the holder (the treasury) the right to PURCHASE SHARES at a future point and time at a price HIGHER THAN THEY ARE RIGHT NOW! Further, the treasure can sell THOSE WARRANTS...to their croonies and friends, but in the fashion as the USEC stocks were let out into the public domain.

The only way we get ownership is to go back into the market place at some later date and time if the stocks recover to a price point higher than our warrants, and BUY THEM with MORE TAX DOLLARS. Further, there is nothing in the agreement to dictate how those warrants will be dealt with, or how they could be sold or leveraged. So, we lend them $700 Billion, maybe get $400 Billion in WARRANTS, and we A) have nothing of value, and B) would end up giving Wall Street $1.1 TRILLION if we exercise our warrants. Call your elected officials and tell them NO WARRANTS, we want stock, and we want it at the DEPRESSED CURRENT VALUE!

The Wall Street Bailout Main Street Survivors Guide

Have you Bought Your Military Vehicle Yet?

News is leaking out (deliberately) into the media that Congress in on the verge of securing the necessary votes to bailout Wall Street to the tune of $770 Billion, perhaps more if you factor in other expenses. Further, the original 3 page bill is now over 100 pages LONG, and getting bigger! The lobbyist this week have been on a feeding frenzy, and for various reaons, this bailout does not look good for those of us living on Main Street.

1. The MAJOR elected officials who are writing/negotiating this bailout have taken over $20 million dollars in Campaign Donations from the very people they are bailing out. Talk about CONFLICT OF INTEREST!

2. Because of SPECIAL INTEREST lobbying on behalf of Wall Street, the first thing to hit the cutting room floor were any and all REAL PROTECTIONS for average lower and middle class citizens.

3. We are going to get it coming and going. The Conservative Wing of the Republican Right sees this as the perfect storm to eliminate Capital Gains taxes, and are sticking to their guns. Further, they are pushing for a new form of FICA like insurance, and guess who in the long run will pick up the tab for that one, which will make some insurance companies even richer than they are...meanwhile, Buffett is running around like a kid in the candy store buying up all these bargains after certain villians deliberately CRASHED THE MARKET to once again redistribute Middle Class wealth back to the Rich and Elite!

It is going to get ugly, and this bailout of Wall Street is not going to help out the man or woman on Main Street in middle America. More homes are going to be lost to foreclosure, property values are going to continue collapsing, more people will lose their jobs, and CRIME RATES are going to increase. So, what can you do to be prepared?

1. Seriously consider bailing on your own mortgage, banking the monthly payments for the recession/depression that is on the way. Fact is, most Middle Class Americans have lost some or most of their equity through no faught of their own, have little or no equity left in their homes. So, why keep making your payments? You have the ability to prepare yourself for the storm, put away for a rainy day...it will take the banks months, if not years to evict you, to foreclose on your home. If you buy 6 months, and your monthly payment is $1800 dollars, you just put away $10,800 for the impending storm to help carry you and your family through. No bailout for Main Street...create your own. That's RIGHT, STOP PAYING YOUR BILLS, just like Wall Street!...doing so, we can FORCE our government to bail us out, and lose America as they know it today.

2. Call your credit card companies and offer them SIX PERCENT INTEREST on what you owe them. If they say no, STOP PAYING THEM, let them choke on their Robber Baron interest rates, sometimes running to 30 percent. If our government will not listen to us, if our government insists on kowtowing to the rich and elite, then the time has come for us in the lower and middle class to take stronger actions, including crashing the economy to wake the Federal Government up...tell them we will start paying our bills again when they deport the 15-25 million illegal aliens that are inside our borders who are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages.

3. Down size your possessions, and have a plan to escape from cities and suberbs into Rural America. That's right, BE MOBIL! Might not be a bad idea to bring in some seeds to grow a garden with after you make your escape.

4. Start CASHING your payroll checks, and investing some of each week's pay into precious metals that you can have with you. (Gold, silver, even copper.) Take the rest of your cash and HORDE IT!

5. Arm yourselves! It is your right, protected by the Second Amendment. High unemployment rates, people losing their homes, their pride, people unable to feed themselves and their families...IT IS GOING TO GET UGLY and crime rates are going to shoot to the ceiling. You want guns, and not pea shooters! The criminals have guns...DO YOU? Oh, don't forget the AMMO! A good rule of thumb is about 10,000 rounds per household...I know, a bit overboard, but we are talking about a $770 Billion dollar bailout that is not going to work, but instead is simply going to save the asses of a few rich fat cats.

6. If you are going to ride out the storm in urban cities and the suberbs, start turning your home into a FORTRESS that you can defend, first from criminals, and perhaps from people in authority wanting to declare Marshall Law, wanting to force you and your family into FORCED LABOR CAMPS.

Extreme? Look around you, look at the signs. We have almost 25 million illegal aliens inside our border who are stealing our jobs, depressing our wages...WHY? Because as bad as it is here, it is worse where they came from. With all due respect to these illegal aliens, sorry but AMERICANS come first, and the time has come for you to go...we have 600,000 plus Americans who have lost their jobs this year. Have you read the news...banks closing their doors, runs on banks in HONG KONG, 10 years of home equity GONE IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE! Forget the pundits advice, don't listen to Ali Velshi when he tells us to KEEP PAYING OUR BILLS! Why should we keep paying our bills, making our mortgage payments on a house we are now only renting since our EQUITY IS GONE!

We here at Dick Cheese are not about being politically correct, we are not about candy coating the truth. Facts are facts, and the rich and elite are about to put us into serfdom, and if you want to avoid that, you best start preparing yourself, your family, and your home for the seige.

Let's Play, "Wall Street Bailout".



Stories on Bailout:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=5898363