Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Do you need some money?

Well, then get to work! Democracy is a participatory process so you'd better start participating while we still (kinda) have a Democracy. Let's call our Senators and stop this bailout.
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You know you are cheap and you don't want to give $430 of your blood, sweat and tears to save the bankers and the Wall Street CEOs. I'm sure you could really use that $430 to heat your house this December or to fill up your gas tank or to buy groceries this month, because maybe you already lost your job.
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And don't believe that scary story about how we're all going to starve to death and suffer another Great Depression if we don't give $700 billion dollars to the bankers, CEOs and stockbrokers RIGHT NOW. Repeat this next part out loud, right now: No one is going to die if the bankers and stock brokers and CEOs do not get $700 billion dollars. At worst, the CEOs won't get their Holiday bonus.
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When was the last time you got a Holiday Bonus? I know when I got MY last Holiday Bonus. It was December of 2000.
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And who came up with this whole bailout scheme in the first place? Oh, yeah! The same guy who moved into the Oval Office two months after I got my last Holiday Bonus. Coincidence?
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Why can't Bush just get Halliburton to pay some taxes on all of their brazillion death dollars in government contracts in Iraq? Plus, they should pay back the millions in taxpayer dollars they "lost". I know it's only about 10% of what Bush says his filthy rich cronies need, but I bet we can come up with 10 more similar plans.
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For example, eliminating the $64 million going to every CEO of every bankrupt company -- I bet that comes to another 5 or 10%. Bush could throw in 10%, and so can every Senator who votes in favor of the bailout.
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And I've read a couple of things that are beginning to convince me that this bailout -- which will cost us more money than the Occupation of Iraq -- is not really going to save the economy. It could hurt the economy, as any $700 billion dollar expenditure will. (Here is a very informative article by Dean Baker and here is another one and here is one from the Washington Post and here is a whole list of them from a google search.)
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So if you haven't called your Senators to oppose this bullshit bailout, you'd better get on it -- they are voting on the bill at 9 pm ET tonight (10/01). Click on this to find both of your Senators' phone numbers. Then call and say, "I am a Constituent of Senator Blasé Blah and I vote and I volunteer time to campaigns I believe in. Tell Senator Blasé Blah to vote NO on the Bail Out Bill."
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If the Bill passes the Senate (which it will if you don't stop reading this and call both of your Senators RIGHT NOW) then call your Representative in Congress. Most likely, this version of the Bailout plan will be back for a vote in the House on Friday. You can see how your Representative voted on Monday here. (Make sure you note the total crap title of the Bill, as well.) Then you can encourage them to keep up the good work this Friday, or tell them to either change their position on Friday or pick up the want ads next month.

And go hear what Rep. Marcy Kaptur had to say about the bailout on JoeC's blog.

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