The Rescue: A Proposal to Help Fix the Current Financial and Housing Crisis – Link to Dissent Magazine

I was thinking the same thing about what Congress needs to add to the bailout legislation, though the article linked above didn’t go into the justice and why component of helping the victims of foreclosure as much as I would have liked.  Why is it that giant wall street corporations get bailouts – BIG bailouts – without anyone talking about them paying for their ‘irresponsible behavior’.  But if a homeowner can no longer pay on a predatory loan, they are ‘irresponsible’ for taking more than the government says they should have.  The CEO’s aren’t going to be homeless when they fail (they might have to sell a vacation home or two) – but ordinary Americans will be!  And they are the ones asked to take the fall without any government help!  Where is their bailout!?  Why are the most vulnerable again taking the fall with a finger of blame while the rich are cut a nice check?  We need a moratorium on the foreclosures, and someone needs to step in to help the REAL victims of this crisis – the ordinary citizens of this nation.

It’s also time to point out that these companies are getting more tax payer funded welfare than the poor in this nation ever has.  So, where is the dehumanizing monologue for them?  Where is the disdain?

Preach it brother.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here.  I think I’ll just say that I had blog fatigue, and then I became lazy and out of practice.

I now work in the Michigan Legislature.  Michigan is kind of a mess right now.  Unfortunately, there are no short term, immediate fixes for our woes.  People are losing their homes, jobs, and hope.  It’s definitely an interesting experience working in this place, and I can see the frustration everywhere.

My non-profit is keeping itself busy.  The next few weeks will have a whole bunch of events and speakers.  We have Nicaraguan peace activists that helped draft the peace accords after the civil war coming, the Wheels of Justice campaign making a stop here to talk about the occupations in Iraq and Palestine, Michael Brownlee will be talking about how to create a relocalization movement and sustainable economies, and our upcoming alternative holiday sale is going to be filled with fair trade and local goods for all – and much, much more that just hasn’t been set in stone quite yet.

So, moral of the story, I guess, is that I have plenty to blog about, and I need to get back to it ASAP.

[Edit] I should add that I was one of the people who helped organize One Voice to come to my University. They brought two of their youth activists, one from Israel and one from Palestine, to give a talk about what they are doing and have been doing to achieve peace in their land. It was truly amazing…. If only the images in this video would be what we see on our television screens.

Bush has a lot to say about success in Iraq. It’s the same s**t all over again, but at least he admitted that things are a mess and added a new and improved key word – surge.

And just for fun… let’s take a look at a summary of his speeches from the previous 3 years:

This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Saddam still had planned trials for the future to convict him, and now he can’t be there to hear the charges against him because he’s dead… They killed him after the very first trial. He can’t defend himself for these future charges, and he cannot be punished for these future charges. Maybe they should have thought twice about killing Saddam, for at the very least, they were not done with him yet:

Hussein trial to resume with ‘vacant’ chair

This cartoon started on Amp’d Mobile, became popular on youtube, and now has caught the attention of Comedy Central. It looks like Comedy Central will pick it up as a series sometime this year:

I’m not the biggest fan of former President Ford, considering that he carried the torch for former President Nixon and held onto such monsters as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld from Nixon’s administration, but according to this embargoed interview from the Washington Post, President Ford disagreed with the war in Iraq, it’s justification, and his own former appointees along with President Bush’s handling of the situation:

Ford Disagreed with Bush About Invading Iraq

“I think that what this election was about was a rejection of the disastrous policies of Bush, Cheney, and the Republican leadership. It was the war in Iraq. It was incompetence. It was Katrina. It was bad public policy, but it certainly was not an embracing of an alternative philosophy, because in fairness the Democrats are all over the place, and what I have said to the Democratic leadership and will say publicly every chance I get, if the Democrats — having this opportunity no one thought they would have — if they do not move boldly and decisively and make a difference in the lives of ordinary Americans, they’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”

–Senator-elect Bernie Sanders from the Mother Jones interview “A Socialist in the Millionaires Club”

http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2006/11/bernie_sanders.html

I read this statement while at work.  Our government at times seems to make absolutely no sense.  Do they honestly believe that they have no boundries, no one to answer to, and no rules to follow?

November 17, 2006

Pentagon Wants to Build a White Elephant, According to