I know I’ve put up a lot of political posts lately, but it seems to be saturating my life. You can’t turn on the TV or Radio with out hearing something about it. That doesn’t even count road side signs, billboards, bumper stickers, magazines, newspapers, etc. All that and I don’t think we can afford 8 more years of the same old crap.

Any plan to clean up the mess on Wall Street must:

1. Ensure that middle income and working families are not the ones who are paying for this bailout by
   • Imposing a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue over five years;
   • Ensuring that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and
   • Requiring that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the taxpayers’ assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.

   Taken together these three provisions will substantially reduce the likelihood that this bailout will end up on the backs of average American taxpayers.

2. Include a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Further, we must protect our must vulnerable families from the very difficult times they are experiencing.
3. Repeal the disastrous de-regulatory legislation that facilitated this crisis.
4. End the danger posed by companies that are “too big to fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We need to determine which companies fall in this category and then break them up.

If you agree with this you can sign his petition online (even if you’re not a Vermonter) at:
http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/?petition=Financial_Crisis_1

Looks like they’re still going to tell lies and fear monger people into voting Republican. So much for the McCain’s “Straight Talk Express.” I wish America would wake up and stop falling victim to these tactics.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a liberal and a registered Democrat. I find many of the things the GOP does to be morally wrong, unethical, and even just plain stupid.

The 2008 RNC has been no exception to this.

Thanks to Sarah for the video.

“I believe artificial timetables of withdrawal would be a mistake. … I will strongly reject an artificial timetable withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job.”
George W. Bush, 4/23/07.

Let’s rewind to 1999, when Dubya was criticizing President Clinton on Kosovo:

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”
George W. Bush, 4/9/99

“I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”
George W. Bush, 6/5/99.