( – promoted by buhdydharma )
That was the sign that used to hang behind the building permit counter at one of our local municipalities.
I didn’t much like it then, because I thought it represented the worst of an ossified bureaucratic outlook toward public service.
But after the vote in the the House today on the bailout bill, I completely understand the sentiment.
Neocon, please. Don’t work on a bailout plan for seven months then wait for a moment of panic to spring it on me, and then tell me OMGITMUSTBEPASSEDINTHENEXTTHREEDAYSORWE’REALLGONNADIIIEEEE!!!!
Smoking guns and mushroom clouds.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Is this financial crisis serious? Duh.
Can the federal government help to solve it? Lord, I hope so.
But is this THE ONLY POSSIBLE PLAN EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE THAT CAN POSSIBLY SOLVE THIS PROBLEM IN THE NEXT 72 HOURS OR WE’RE ALL GONNA DIIIEEEE??
Umm, I seriously doubt it.
Look – one of the cardinal rules here in the Reality-Based Blogosphere is this:
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY PROOF.
We’re told that OMGTHEECONOMYWILLCOLLAPSEIFWEDON’TPASSTHISBILL!!!
Really? Do tell. No, seriously: Do, tell us how exactly that will come about, ’cause that’s some seriously extraordinary shit you’re claiming there.
Now, when Paulson et al. pulled congressional Democrats into that House of Horrors a couple weeks ago and the Dems came out ashen and trembling, just exactly WTF was it that they saw? What blood-curdling apparition was presented to them that caused them to numbly nod their assent to handing over unprecedented money and power to Hank Paulson?
I have no idea. And neither does the American public.
And yet those who “crafted” the bailout bill expect American taxpayers to blithely open their wallets and give Paulson anything he wants, without having produced a shred of evidence.
And I don’t mean aluminum tubes and mobile chemical labs-type “evidence,” either. I mean the Real Deal. Tell the American people what you told congressional Democrats.
If you’re not willing to do that, why, then, you’re gonna have to do more convincing – and so far, we’re not convinced.
To quote that sign at the Building Department:
If you want an answer RIGHT NOW, the answer’s ‘No.’
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Convince me. Treat me like an adult.
(at least, all of us who were paying attention)
that a bailout is needed.
But, yeah, OH, why do we need this one? And why the rush?
Couldn’t they postpone their vacation for the greater good of the people? /rhetorical
Probably somthing so unbelievably UN-scary that they came out of the meeting all ashen faced and trembling because they knew that someone would start asking WTF was it that they saw and they had nothing good enough to justify stealing a trillion dollars from you except pure Bush style fearmongering all over again and they figured they’d probably get the kind of vote result they got.
The democrats have let themselves be manipulated into becoming the GOP. Fools.
with my colleagues by offering far more plausible scenarios related to US and world events. They are after all rational compassionate humans and can not make sense of the utter nonsense their “trusted” media outlets are feeding them. After all one of these guys had the smarts to build his very own astronomical observatory in his back yard. The thing looks like a mini Palomar.
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/p…
Anyway be it for comic relief the sum total of the situation all of us are in is simply the Illuminati Plan to Destroy America. They are starting to look to me with their mainstream media talking points of the day in search of my latest Armageddon theme of what the third anti-christ and his underling Illuminati minions have planned for the future. I have become the accepted New World Order political affairs consultant and it has made for some hilarious coffee breaks. We are a most diverse group.
Just can’t wait 35 more days, till election’s over. Dems must be handed the hot potato of responsibility NOW–because the real crisis is how the GOP’ers can get the Dems to take the fall for 8 years of GOP’er malfeasance before November 5.