Enzo Titolo

Politics, Paranoispiricies, neologisms, diary, creative, ruminations

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

No Blank Check Bail-Out --- Invest in Infrastructure, Communities, and People

Woah! Let’s slow down on this first $750 Billion blank check installment towards whatever the Executive Branch deems necessary.

George W. Bush’ Administration has a poor track record of using emergencies for terrible and costly policies – the Patriot Act rushed to vote during the Anthrax Scare a month after the September 2001 plane attacks, the Iraq Occupation which enriches military contractors and oil companies while increasing Al Qaida recruitment and distracting us from fighting the enemy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, and the de-populationing of New Orleans in the wake of the botched hurricane response, a major failure of Bush’ Homeland Security Mega-Department.

This first $750 Billion bail-out installment will cost me and each citizen $2000 and it will saddle our children and grandchildren with debt, higher interest rates, higher inflation, and a lower dollar worth.

It also significantly and further weakens Congress’ power over the Budget and Executive Oversight. I was already distressed by Congress’ weakened powers over the past sixty years, but the use of alarmism in the last eight years has greatly usurped Congressional power.

Congress should push for and get for our hundreds of billions of dollars these things:

• Consent and Oversight as to how the money is invested not spent;
• Equity or Warrants to buy bail-out equity at a good value;
• Strengthened Community Reinvestment Act (CRA);
• Revitalized and modernized Glass-Steagall Act;
• Demand-driven (consumers), not supply-side investments, such as
• Refinancing at-risk-of-foreclosure properties, including subsidized interest;
• Financing for worthy renters of foreclosed homes and buildings to buy the properties they rented as cooperatives, condominiums, or mutual housing associations, as long as they were responsible payers;
• Increased student loan financing and increased interest rate subsidies;
• Subsidized Financing for Microloans, Credit Unions, Economic Development Corporations;
• Subsidized financing for research, including energy, medicine, information, and space technology;
• Bridge loans with subsidized rates to Non-Profit Organizations, State and City Governments;
• Subsidized financing for infrastructure development and repair, mass transit, and affordable housing development and preservation;
• The financial institutions can earn profits from servicing these bonds, mortgages and loans, and will repay Congress;
• The financial institutions must keep jobs in the USA and not outsource their activities;
• All institutions receiving investment must blatantly report their lobbying activities;
• No Golden Parachutes for Executives of companies that Congress invests in.

While you're at it... Reign in the Patriot and Military Commissions Acts' Excesses

To my Congressperson:

Please join Representative Ron Paul of Texas and co-sponsor the American Freedom Agenda Act.

The American Freedom Agenda Act would:

bar the use of evidence obtained through torture;
require that federal intelligence gathering is conducted in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA);
create a mechanism for challenging presidential signing statements;
repeal the Military Commissions Act, which, among other things, denies habeas corpus to certain detainees;
prohibit kidnapping, detentions, and torture abroad;
protect journalists who publish information received from the executive branch; and ensure that secret evidence is not used to designate individuals or organizations with a presence in the U.S. as foreign terrorists.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Pre-empting Pre-emptive Pardons, a letter you might send to Congress

As we approach the end of the Bush Administration we are likely to experience a flurry of Presidential pardons.

President Bush has expanded his powers at every opportunity. For the first time in our republic, we are at risk of pre-emptive pardons, pardons for crimes that may be uncovered in the future.

The pardon was not meant for members of one’s administration, oneself, or for crimes that haven’t yet been prosecuted. This would not be a pardon, but a license to break the law. This means that the Bush Administration can try to put itself above the law, which is not what pardons are for or were intended to be.

President Nixon once asserted that if the President does it, it cannot be illegal. President Bush seems to think similarly.

Now is the time to write the President warning him of your concern and to sponsor legislation in the House/Senate to prevent the President from such an abuse of power.

Thank you.

FAIR USE NOTICE:: This site contains images and excerpts the use of which have not been pre-authorized. This material is made available for the purpose of analysis and critique, as well as to advance the understanding of political, media and cultural issues. The 'fair use' of such material is provided for under U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with U.S. Code Title 17, Section 107, material on this site (along with credit links and attributions to original sources) is viewable for educational and intellectual purposes. If you are interested in using any copyrighted material from this site for any reason that goes beyond 'fair use,' you must first obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.