House nixes $700B bailout bill in stunning defeat

hiya,

I say do not worry about it, as long as we keep our jobs and those that are responsible and pay their mortgages on time, these good people will pull us out. So store some cash on the side for an emergency and store gas filled cans also. This is Bush's self created crisis, and also the past 8yrs. of Congressional members have screwed us over. I wish that we were as lively as France and would wildly take to the streets and make our lawmakers work for us. Instead they do not know what they are doing, and continue to screw us over, because we let them. Our congress tends to fail to pass things we need and pass things we don't, they vote against programs to help the average man and woman, but for tax cuts for those that are doing well. It is a messed up way of thinking.

I have yet to give my comments about the debate between Mccain and Obama, I think that Obama should have mentioned the fact that Mccain voted against the G.I Bill, Mccain is a fraud. Obama seems afraid to challange Mccain or maybe he was not as prepared as he should have been that night. Always know how your competition votes. I hope that Obama wins though, he is great, he is intelligent and determined to do good for this country, while Mccain is more of Bush's politics which suck. lol

Love,

Cynthia Yildirim
_____

House nixes $700B bailout bill in stunning defeat

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, leaving both parties and the Bush administration struggling to pick up the pieces. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.
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"We need to put something back together that works," a grim-faced Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after he and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke joined in an emergency strategy session at the White House. On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders said the House would reconvene Thursday in hopes of a quick vote on a reworked version.

All sides agreed the bill could not be abandoned.

On Monday, not enough lawmakers were willing to take the political risk — just five weeks before the elections — of backing a deeply unpopular measure that many voters see as an undeserved bailout for Wall Street.

The bill went down, 228-205, even though Paulson and congressional leaders proclaimed a day earlier that they had worked out an acceptable compromise in marathon weekend talks.

Lawmakers were caught in the middle. On one side were the dire predictions from Bush, his economic team, and their own party leaders of an all-out financial meltdown if they failed to approve the rescue. On the other side: a flood of protest calls and e-mails from voters threatening to punish them at the ballot box.

The House Web site was overwhelmed as millions of people sought information about the measure.

The legislation the administration promoted would have allowed the government to buy bad mortgages and other sour assets held by troubled banks and other financial institutions. Getting those debts off their books should bolster those companies' balance sheets, making them more inclined to lend and easing one of the biggest choke points in a national credit crisis. If the plan worked, the thinking went, it would help lift a major weight off the national economy, which is already sputtering.

Stocks started plummeting on Wall Street even before Monday's vote was over, as traders watched the rescue measure going down on television. Meanwhile, lawmakers were watching them back.

As a digital screen in the House chamber recorded a cascade of "no" votes against the bailout, Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley of New York shouted news of the falling Dow Jones industrials. "Six hundred points!" he yelled, jabbing his thumb downward.

The final stock carnage was 777 points, far surpassing the 684-point drop on the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In the House, "no" votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill. Several Democrats in close election fights waited until the last moment, then went against the bill as it became clear the vast majority of Republicans were opposing it. Most vulnerable Republicans refused to back the bill.

In all, 65 Republicans joined 140 Democrats in voting "yes," while 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted "no."

The overriding question was what to do next.

"The legislation may have failed; the crisis is still with us," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a news conference after the defeat. "What happened today cannot stand."

Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he and other Republicans were pained to vote for such measure, but he agreed that in light of the potential consequences for the economy and all Americans, "I think that we need to renew our efforts to find a solution that Congress can support."

Those positive comments aside, a brutal round of partisan finger-pointing followed the vote.

Republicans blamed Pelosi's scathing speech near the close of the debate — which assailed Bush's economic policies and a "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" of financial markets — for the defeat.

"We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House," Boehner said.

Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the whip, estimated that Pelosi's speech changed the minds of a dozen Republicans who might otherwise have supported the plan.

That amounted to an appalling accusation by Republicans against Republicans, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the Financial Services Committee: "Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decide to punish the country."

More than a repudiation of Democrats, Frank said, Republicans' refusal to vote for the bailout was a rejection of their own president.

The two men campaigning to replace Bush watched the situation closely — from afar — and demanded action.

In Iowa, Republican John McCain declared, "Now is not the time to fix the blame; it's time to fix the problem."

In Colorado, Democrat Barack Obama said, "Democrats, Republicans, step up to the plate, get it done."

"We're all worried about losing our jobs," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote. "Most of us say, 'I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it — not me.' "

With their dire warnings of impending economic doom and their sweeping request for unprecedented sums of money and authority to bail out cash-starved financial firms, Bush and his economic chiefs had focused the attention of world markets on Congress, Ryan added.

"We're in this moment, and if we fail to do the right thing, Heaven help us," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080929/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

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DREAMING THE PYRAMID

Along with God and our cosmic offworld brethren, we (as spirits who had not yet taken physical form) co-created the Earth and left proof of our divine nature within the design of Egypt's Great Pyramid. This is the premise behind Stephane Wuttunee's DREAMING THE PYRAMID, located at www.dreamingthepyramid.net

Wuttunee reveals how the Pyramid was designed to portray human beings as they originally once were: androgenous, immortal, and omniscient. He details step-by-step how and why the structure depicts the following key elements within its design:

1) The Zodiac’s twelve signs – including a secret “thirteenth” sign.
2) The four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
3) Sexual androgeny in the form of two opposing genders blended as one.
4) The seven Chakras.
5) Kundalini – the sacred serpent energy dwelling within our bodies.
6) Third eye.
7) A crystal. Physical immortality as demonstrated by a new understanding of the value of Pi.

Is it possible that the giant structure has only just begun revealing its true nature and secrets? Could Extraterrestrials or a much more highly advanced civilization have helped design and build it? Wuttunee believes so, and is doing all he can to promote the message through his free E-Book and forty-nine minute video.

The author’s awakening started in 1991 at age 22. He began dreaming of humanity’s past, various mathematical symbols, and pyramid shapes similar to the ones found in Egypt. These progressed to feeling physical touches on his skin and hearing voices. Fearing he was becoming delusional, he left on a journey that involved 9000 km of wilderness canoeing, as well as living out of a backpack for ten years. Insights imparted by his travels and research as well as time spent with Indigenous elders from around the world became the basis for the information found on his website.

Besides providing an alternate view of the Great Pyramid’s nature and purpose, his mission is to help us remember that we are not victims trapped in a cold, uncaring Universe. Rather, we are powerful spiritual beings who long ago decided to build, along with God, a virtual environment through which our creative abilities could be explored. Thus, we helped manifest not only the Universe, but also the Earth and its flora and fauna. Unable to take physical form ourselves, we gradually took over the will and bodies of the planet's newly evolving organisms to experience living through them. Smitten with the Earth’s pleasures, we eventually became unable to free ourselves of their grasp except through death and rebirth. In short, we became trapped within an invisible cage, struggling to wake up ever since.

DREAMING THE PYRAMID differs from other pyramid works in that it treats the Great Pyramid as a spiritual symbol rather than a stone structure. It is also unique in that it is authored by a Native American (Wuttunee is both French Canadian and Plains Cree First Nation).

Unconstitutional FISA Bill Becomes Law

Unconstitutional FISA Bill Becomes Law

On July 10, President Bush signed into law the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act, which gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked powers to monitor Americans' international phone calls and emails, and grants immunity to telecommunications companies that illegally aided in the president’s warrantless wiretapping program.

While we may have lost this round, the fight is far from over. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the law. In addition, Democratic leaders have promised to revisit the issues surrounding the FISA Amendments Act during the 2009 debate over reauthorization of USA Patriot Act provisions. The ACLU will be at the forefront of this debate.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), born after the Watergate scandal, establishes how the government can secretly eavesdrop on Americans in their own country in intelligence investigations. It was originally passed to allow the government to collect foreign intelligence information involving communications with "agents of foreign powers."

On July 10, 2008, President Bush signed the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), supposedly aimed at “updating” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Unfortunately, the law meant to “update” FISA instead gutted the original law by eviscerating the role of the judicial oversight in government surveillance. The law also gave sweeping immunity to the telecommunications companies that aided the Bush administration’s unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping program by handing over access to our communications without a warrant. On the same day the FAA was signed into law, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

This is not the first time that Congress has undermined FISA. The USA Patriot Act, passed in 2001 and re-authorized in 2006, amended FISA to make it easier for the government to obtain the personal records of ordinary Americans from libraries and Internet Service Providers, even when they are not suspected of having connections to terrorism.

Congressional leadership has promised to address the issues surrounding the FISA Amendments Act before it sunsets in 2012 during the 2009 debate over reauthorization of USA Patriot Act provisions. Until then, the ACLU will fight in the courts to block the law from taking effect.

More information about the ACLU’s lawsuit to block the FAA is available online at: www.aclu.org/faa

George W. Bush has launched a new assault on birth control and reproductive freedom.

Subject: 25 days to protect women’s health

George W. Bush has launched a new assault on birth control and reproductive freedom.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed regulations that could seriously undermine access to basic reproductive health services — including birth control and abortion.

Instead of striking a careful balance between individual religious liberty and patients’ access to reproductive health care, the Bush administration has taken patients’ rights and their health care needs out of the equation.

This far-reaching proposal doesn’t need congressional approval. But, it can’t go forward without allowing for public comment. That’s where you come in.

The deadline for public comments is fast approaching — September 20 — and we have to generate intense opposition to these dangerous regulations.

I just sent HHS my comment urging them to stop efforts to block women's access to basic reproductive health services. You can do the same here:

http://action.aclu.org/hhs_comment

NSA Spying FISA Admendment

Home : Safe and Free : NSA Spying
H.R. 6304, THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 (6/19/2008)

The ACLU recommends a no vote on H.R. 6304, which grants sweeping wiretapping authority to the government with little court oversight and ensures the dismissal of all pending cases against the telecommunication companies. Most importantly:

• H.R. 6304 permits the government to conduct mass, untargeted surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States, without any individualized review, and without any finding of wrongdoing.

• H.R. 6304 permits only minimal court oversight. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) only reviews general procedures for targeting and minimizing the use of information that is collected. The court may not know who, what or where will actually be tapped.

• H.R. 6304 contains a general ban on reverse targeting. However, it lacks stronger language that was contained in prior House bills that included clear statutory directives about when the government should return to the FISA court and obtain an individualized order if it wants to continue listening to a US person’s communications.

• H.R.6304 contains an “exigent” circumstance loophole that thwarts the prior judicial review requirement. The bill permits the government to start a spying program and wait to go to court for up to 7 days every time “intelligence important to the national security of the US may be lost or not timely acquired.” By definition, court applications take time and will delay the collection of information. It is highly unlikely there is a situation where this exception doesn’t swallow the rule.

• H.R. 6304 further trivializes court review by explicitly permitting the government to continue surveillance programs even if the application is denied by the court. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever it gathered in the meantime.

• H.R. 6304 ensures the dismissal of all cases pending against the telecommunication companies that facilitated the warrantless wiretapping programs over the last 7 years. The test in the bill is not whether the government certifications were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that they were, all the cases seeking to find out what these companies and the government did with our communications will be killed.

• Members of Congress not on Judiciary or Intelligence Committees are NOT guaranteed access to reports from the Attorney General, Director of National Intelligence, and Inspector General.