At the minimum we need stringent requirements for record keeping.

Joe

snydly
Of course, the most progressive ideas are the ones to implement!
The only solutions that will work are solutions that interfere with the status quo. Let BHO know we will back him up.

Early in the campaign Obama said, "If the Republicans come at me with a knife, I'll come at them with a gun." (McCain professed to be shocked, shocked at the use of such violent imagery.) Now that he's won, Obama has to tell the DLC types the same thing, you use a knife, I'll use a gun. Clintonism is not dead by any means; I hope Obama knows that he cannot completely recycle that old motor oil. Please, bring in some totally unexpected people along with the retreads and put them in high positions. Show everyone you meant what you said.

I like Naomi Klein very much but I must disagree that an act, to react to the Treasury at this time, to stop its fleecing is a prerequisite to being able to carve out fundamental change later. Although it would be nice to stop the Treasury from its present course, the movement for change will still go one whether we stop the Treasury or not. It might be argued that the fleecing of the Treasury in the waning days to the Bush administration, will cause us to make an even greater move to benefit the working and middle classes, such as a Postal Savings Bank for small accounts free of fees funded by a commercial bank assessment fee.
“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.” - John Maynard Keynes

Throughout the struggle to elect the new president there has been a current in the liberal/progressive intelligentsia to express disappointment with Barack Obama’s unwillingness to be a failed candidate or a dead hero for them. How could he vote for the FISA bill, how could he cave on offshore drilling, how could he talk of expanding the war in Afghanistan…? Among other things, these folks are out of touch with their own racism.

That attitude is on display in one sentence in particular of Naomi Klein's essay. Likely from the comfort of her well appointed den she writes, "The question is now whether Obama will have the courage to take the ideas that won him this election and turn them into policy." This man who spoke Tuesday night to the throngs in Grant Park between shields of bulletproof glass, and who is now compared by many with Dr. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy must still prove his courage to Ms. Klein by fighting for her judgements. A stunning display of self-centeredness.

After the hoopla, and reality drama of choosing between twiddle-deedee or twiddle-deedum is over, Americans wake up with a hang over having to decide now how to deal with the lesser of evils apparently chosen.

Fools celebrate, the faux demise of racism in power, something the civilized got over years ago, or some mythical messianic character of a nebulous dream on “change” and determination, “yes we can” (we can what?). That is soap opera not democracy. The minority, with some education and the ability to reason beyond the media brainwashed, self-serving, instant satisfaction addicted masses, instead of grabbing this as their last chance for America, ….. reaching for, clutching hard, crying out for this slim chance to organize and send this post-democratic elitist corrupt oligopolistic state to its rightful place in “irrelevance” where it deserves to languish, are procrastinating while posting more or less intelligent comments to more or less obvious articles on CD and the like.

The enemy of the elite tyranny is, far more frightening than any Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas or Iranian and N. Korean nukes all combined that they keep telling you about. Their worst nightmare is the potential of rational minds of the 300 million Americans, of which 1 in 3 are poor and getting poorer fast, really putting to some good use the annual 515 billion plus “de(of)fence” budget, or even thinking that they could do better than bailing out crooked bankers with 830 or more billions.
-.-.-
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger.
He fled, the tiger after him.
Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge.
The tiger sniffed at him from above.
Frightened and trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, he spotted another hungry tiger waiting to devour him.
Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, appeared and started to gnaw at the vine.
Nearby, the man spotted a luscious strawberry growing out from the cliff face.
Grasping a sure hold of the vine with one hand, he reached out and plucked the strawberry with the other.
Ahh, how sweet is tasted!
-.-.-
Your time is now! Forget the latest spectre of promise, the black or white night on the horizon. There are no laurels on which to rest. Organise!

I believe Ms. Klein is right -- the grassroots movement must stay active, energized, and mobilized.

Our representatives are only able to get away with their thefts BECAUSE we are not involved. We vote and then we watch.

If you sincerely want change, then I respectfully challenge you to get involved and stay involved. If we want real change, web site posts will not be enough.

-- We, the people, need to be regular fixtures in our local Congressman's office. Please visit them over and over again. Offer to help out.
-- We need to organize groups and march in front of our politicians. And we need to invite the media.
-- You could organize a 5- or 10-person Letter to the Editor or OpEd column writing campaign. Use this tool to get your message into a wide assortment of newspapers.
-- You could gather signatures on petitions on issue you care about and elevate those petitions to your representatives.
-- You could walk into City Hall and ask to speak to your civil servants. Tell them your stance on issues that are important to you.
-- Attend meetings.
-- Find out how to get issues on the ballots.
-- Run candidates you'd like to see elected.

Ms. Kelin is right. If we don't stay involved, nothing will change. We just witnessed the power of a large grassroots campaign. Let's see what else we can do with that power.

Respectfully,

This is actually a golden opportunity (the pun was intended despite no precious metal backing our current money)to solve an even bigger problem than the looting of the treasury by Wall Street.

I say let those miserable little crumbs have their ill-gotten loot and just as quickly reform the tax codes to retroactively tax windfall profits (this would go after the greedsters at big oil too!), raise the capital gains tax, the percentage of income taxes paid by the uber-wealthy, and the level at which social security tax is deducted from pay.

Now if Pelosi and Reid cannot get behind those reforms then it is time for serious torch-light parades of respectful protest and cosntant harassment of them and all the rest of the Democrats refusing to support such needed reformsso that they know that "business as usual" cannot continue.
Poet

First of all, in case you failed to notice, Obama was all FOR the bailout. If people voted FOR Obama because they were against the bailout, then illiteracy in the US is worse than we thought.

Secondly: this is NOT Busch's final heist: He's got 100 days left in 'office', just watch him. Currently him and the veep are pushing thru all kinds of legislation, with the people looking elsewhere (elections).

The real enemy is the Federal Reserve. Each day, The Fed alters the value of your money by printing new money. Eventually the Fed's "inflation" is passed down to the rest of us as higher prices (when there's more dollars, each has less value and thus more are needed to buy the same item). This ability to counterfeit money makes it SOOOO much easier for government to expand in bad ways: how friendly towards the Iraq War would Americans have been if days before the first bombs fell, the President had to tell us the war was so important that we'd all have to pay an additional 20% in taxes?

In the short term, the U.S. gov is coming close to the point where we will have to borrow money to pay the interest on the federal government's debt (we're borrowing to pay interest on the principal now). Borrowing money to pay interest can't go on for long before bankruptcy--and that bankruptcy will be either we tell our creditors, sorry or the Fed inflates our money supply so much it has no value (think Zimbabwe).

Don't worry, the political class is digging their own graves (for years with a hand shovel, now with a small earth mover). Sadly, bankruptcies are almost always followed by dictatorships.

Of course, we might be able to give our creditors all those military bases around the world to satisfy our debts, maybe missiles, government buildings, parks, etc.

People here seem to be missing the central point Naomi Klein is making in this article. She states quite clearly and quite concretely, amidst a flurry of absurd and presumably tongue in cheek hypotheticals, in paragraph seven: "We can forget about Obama making good on the more progressive aspects of his campaign platform." Her words. Her article. Her main point, missed over and over again by posters here.

The Electoral College votes have not been counted yet. This is a time of war. The Founding Fathers foresaw this situation: a reality into which the likes of John McCain ought to step. In the meantime Obama may be impeached before 20th January because he forged his birth certificate. Far too early to be talking of "transition".

Mr. Obama, put Elliot Spitzer as the SEC head and Nader as the the Attorney General. Then we will get change we can believe in.

Otherwise, it will be the SOS.

The Dominate O

O is rather overwhelming
the constance of a dominant sound

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
like the scream of money
honing in on moony cheeks
squatting at the trough of desire

Oh Prophet O
Oh Prophet O
Oh Prophet O

All aboard the O
for a steep circular climb
to...
obliterate Osama?
with a collateral Oh Oh o bomb a?

Moony cheeked money
ushers in a new black don
as the empire fades in the dusk.

Spare some change please...?
Chump change trillions
for a chance at toxic sleaze?
just...
leave it in the can
Or for .....
change we can believe in

Yes the can.

Much can and will be predicted about Obama's win. Whether Americans have once again been duped by the two party campaign season remains to be seen. Obama's choice for Chief of Staff is one indication that what we are seeing is over five billion dollars and two years spent to make sure that there is the ideal appearance of change rather than change itself.

There is something of the smell of public relations and advertising industry slight-of-hand here: change the colors and logos on the package and put NEW AND IMPROVED! on the same product and one is bound to generate interest and even enthusiasm... or at least buy time until everyone awakens to the fact that no real change has taken place.

One is tempted to hope otherwise. One also hesitates to interrupt the real emotion that has arisen due to the breaking down of boundaries made of hate and bigotry, especially among those who have been most direly affected by that hate and bigotry. But celebrations pass. Then what?

Who can save capitalism from itself?

Henry Paulson while an executive at Goldman-Sachs, made over 500 million dollars in pay, bonuses, and stock options. Maybe he could put this next bailout on his Visa card?

The bailout will inevitably fail. The creation and then payment of the bailout debt (by the US taxpayer) will ultimately leave the taxpayer with less to spend, causing their economy to drop even further, resulting in more job losses, less investment and, once again, a further downsizing of the economy. This economic animal is eating its own tail.

http://blogoffanddie.wordpress.com
http://theimpolitecanadian.wordpress.com/
I would never hit someone with a hockey stick, unless of course, we were playing hockey. Then I swing at anything that moves.

It was the doublecross by the Clintons with Nafta and Daddy Bush with his
"New World Order". Why did Bill Clinton recieve $10,000,000 from the Saudies?
Why another ten million during the primaries?
We voted for Obama, not Hillary and her gang.
Will Opra and Obama wake up in time? Will Obama take a look at that Bail-out money?
Who is getting what? What about Main St?
We are in a major depression. Unless Obama acts now, we are doomed..

The author is right. The corporate bailout is robbery, and it was perpetrated by the very party that always cries "keep govt out of our lives" and always chastises citizens to "take personal responsibility." I am sure the hypocrisy is what turned many against the republicans at the end of the campaign. BOTH parties have a lot of repair work to do, to gain people's respect and support again. Obama's hereby put on notice that "more of the same" will not be acceptable. It's a lot on the shoulders of of one man at best, but if he succumbs to industry lobbying, he will be done like dinner.

Barack Obama will have to take a big chance and put his 2012 reelection at risk in order to do the right things for this country. I'm betting that he is exactly the kind of guy who will do that. It is too early to judge him as just another politician, especially to do so solely on his choice of Emmanuel as CoS.

Rahm Emmanuel? Oh, no. As Bay Buchanan said this morning, "Rahm Emmanuel makes Newt Gingrich look like the Dali Lama."

Why can't we get new names and faces in government for a change? These retreads aren't going to instill confidence in anyone.

Galbraith would have been a more intelligent pick.

Exactly, stop the heist! May I also suggest arresting the Bush gang for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity? That would be dramatic positive change.

There will be no "Un bel di", Chio Chio San.

Voters were forced to choose between voting their racism or voting their fear of being homeless and living on cat chow.

They chose--but what did they get?

Bill Clinton's Third Term.

Calling these banksters Bailout Profiteers doesn't do justice to the scope and longevity of their efforts. The bailout contract is the final step of the Federal Banking Profiteers' privatization of the federal Treasury Department, which was institutionalized with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act and the concomitant creation of the Federal Reserve Banking system. End the Fed and you end the profiteering.

Absolutely Naomi.
Obama owes his victory to his grassroots organization and they should morph into an activist group for executive accountability. They need to remind him why he got elected early and often.
Obama's choices to recycle the Clintonites that took the first steps that resulted in the current economic failure and an uber-Zionist as Chief of Staff do not bode well for his administration.
If voters had wanted another Clinton White House, they would have selected Hillary. They overwhelmingly did not.
Obama's Afghanistan plan is a non starter. Invading and occupying Afghanistan is no more legitimate than our invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Though Obama's campaign did start to bog down when he abandoned the progressives policies that won the primary and the economic tsunami worked in his favor, I do not think the selection of Palin did McCain any favors. For once the press did its job in revealing how unprepared Palin was for the national stage.
she proved to be drag on the McCain candidacy.
I only wish the press had done a better job of reporting on McCain's anger management problems and other personality defects that would make a dangerous occupant of the Oval office.
Obama could have done a Kerry during the last weeks of the campaign and retreat back to the progressive positions that won him the primary. The danger was that, like Kerry, it would be too little too late to inspire the kind of support he was able to garner because the nation blamed the economic mess on Bush.

There are a number of 'first 100 days' email campaigns to Obama.

Transportation
http://t4america.org/

Just Foreign Policy
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/askBarack.html

National Security Archive alerts: Court rebukes CIA on Freedom of Information
http://www.nsarchive.org

Let's see, Obama not only voted for the Wall Street bailout but actively encouraged others to do the same, all the while ignoring letters, e-mails, and phone calls that were 100 to 1 against it. And now a 180 degree turn around is being called for after you have already given him your vote and elected him. Remember that he needed your vote to get elected when he ignored you before, and now you expect him to listen you?

Lobo Gris

Naomi Klein, whose SHOCK DOCTRINE is my bible for the understanding of these times, is right as usual about the fact that Obama will have no chance of delivering on his campaign promises unless he can somehow tame the same Wall Street beast on whose back he rode into the presidency. What neither she nor any commenters on this post have so far mentioned, there likewise there will have to be "lowered expectations" for domestic social needs until he lowers the monstrously high expectations for expenditures for wars that shouldn't be fought and for weapons systems that shouldn't be developed and maintained. But in a sense Obama rode that beast as well into the presidency is he put himself at the beck and call of an Israeli lobby that is the tail wagging the dog of U.S. foreign policy; our "staunch ally," Israel, is an extremely expensive mistress to maintain if we want to have any decent sort of "home" life.

whoah. Looks like you might have to come up with something else. Clearly there aren't many in the old school who want to help you.

And it doesn't bode Well. Rahm Emannuel? ---

Oh no. Looks like it's not morning in America after all. Looks like happy hour might be over soon, too.

"Hire Dean Baker ( Or James Galbraith or Naomi Klein) as your economy person! Baker, one of the few economists who saw the Crisis coming, has a well conceived stimulus plan to revive the economy through health care reform ! "

Naoni Klein is a Canadian so that would present some problems. James Galbraith would be interesting. (His father John Kenneth, was also born in Canada)

"The question is now whether Obama will have the courage to take the ideas that won him this election and turn them into policy."

There's no question about this.... more than any one individual, obama played *the* pivotal role in providing the corporatists their ransom. In essence, he gave his himself an $850 billion campaign contribution... strapped onto the backs of American taxpayers.

THAT is what won him the election... he knows it works... that he can do it again with even more impunity... denying representation and continually fleecing the taxpayer to support his corporate masters' greed and his insatiable thirst for power.

He is as corrupt as any other corporatist politician. He is NOT the solution. He is the problem.

Want a reality check? Take just a quick peek at the talking points that are flooding the communication channels... It is all about "position adjustment" - for American taxpayers, you had better get intimately familiar with lowered (zero) expectations.

Translation: I got mine... you're on your own... and oh, yeah... I'm going to need another trillion or so for my "banking" buddies.

The honeymoon is over.

- the loyal opposition

Obama and the democrats passed this bailout. It was their baby. When it didn't pass the first round, Nancy Pelosi declared "this will not stand", and soon the first failed vote was followed by the even larger $800+ billion successful bill.

If I'm not mistaken, the website bailoutmainstreet.com has already been discredited. It had dubious connections and little to no information as to who was behind it.

Great start, people.

When we were a country the people had some input. But now that we are an empire only corporate interests will be considered. Changing kings won’t change the kingdom.
Hoa binh

Day One on my odyssey to keep Obama from turning into a dud:

Job #1 for Obama:

Hire Dean Baker ( Or James Galbraith or Naomi Klein) as your economy person! Baker, one of the few economists who saw the Crisis coming, has a well conceived stimulus plan to revive the economy through health care reform !

Remember, Mr. Pres. --Wall Street is not necessarily the people's (aka Main Street) best friend!

Also, say no to the Clinton free-market fundamentalists/Wall Streeters who were at least half responsible for the Crisis. Say no to Rubin, Summers... Also say no to the University of Chicago Milton Friedmanites...Ayn Rand, John Galt too, Forbes, Greenspan, etc

Might as well say no to the neo-cons who still yearn for American hegemony in the Middle East--Dennis Ross, et. al.

Dr Wu, the last of the big-time thinkers

Naomi is a Goddess.

But finding progressive financial advisors in a sea of conservative plutocrats is going to be next to impossible. Robert Reich and Paul Krugman are the only ones I know of, but they don't have the Big Money and Power connections that people like Summers do.

On second thought, that could be a big plus.