451-Page Senate Version of "Bailout Bill" Now Online Here

As you know, the U.S. Senate is going to vote on the Senate version of the Bailout Bill, which is now at 451 pages. What are the highlights? As I read past the definitions of the bill, which are many, I find..

1) This interesting text:

18 (4) In order to provide the Secretary with the
19 flexibility to manage troubled assets in a manner de20
signed to minimize cost to the taxpayers, estab21
lishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to super22
vision by the Secretary, to purchase, hold, and sell
23 troubled assets and issue obligations.

This means that there'a mandate to protect Taxpayers from exposure.

2) This provision seeks to curb profiteering:

17 (e) PREVENTING UNJUST ENRICHMENT.—In making
18 purchases under the authority of this Act, the Secretary
19 shall take such steps as may be necessary to prevent un20
just enrichment of financial institutions participating in
21 a program established under this section, including by pre22
venting the sale of a troubled asset to the Secretary at
23 a higher price than what the seller paid to purchase the
24 asset.

For the total bill and to download it, click here.

The Ongoing Pakistan Issue

In light of Pakistani President Zardari's warning that US troops crossing the border into Pakistan without authorization would be subject to attack, a new BBC poll on world attitudes toward Al Qaeda is particularly interesting.

Zardari's cover for his position, while asking out of the other side of his mouth for US aid, is that the terrorist organizations in his country will 1) unify; and 2) attack inside Pakistan in protest if the US continues its policy of only informing Pakistan of its cross border actions instead of asking for permission from that sovereign nation. His point was more than borne out when terrorists blew through the Marriott in downtown Islamabad on September 21 of this year. It should be no surprise that Al Qaeda is suspected in the attack.

Which brings us full circle back to the BBC poll regarding world attitudes toward Al Qaeda. To a country, attitudes were negative toward the organization, except in Egypt and ... can you guess? ... Pakistan. We are in the process of spending obscene amounts of money and obscene numbers of American lives to "root out" Al Qaeda in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan only to encourage it, by our actions, to gain strength in Pakistan. We are playing a very dangerous game in Pakistan: enforcing our will against the wishes of the people and government with the effect of strengthening the one terrorist organization we fear most. This is one to watch, folks, and watch very closely.

Gallup Daily: Obama Up 4 Points; Daily Kos Tracking: Obama Up By 10 Points

The war of poll methods can be seen in the major difference between Gallup and Daily Kos. Gallup Daily has Senator Obama ahead of Senator McCain by 4 points, 48 to 44. By contrast, Daily Kos has Obama with a 10 point lead 51 to 41. The Daily Kos poll is done by Research 2000 and uses Likely Voters. Since they tend to be Republican, that spells danger for McCain. But it must be noted, Gallup should be more transparent about their methods.

SENATE VOTE ON BAILOUT BILL TODAY - MARKET WAITS

Today is the next critical step in the road to the passage or failure of The Bailout Bill. This is the day the Senate takes up the matter of the legislation with Senators and presidential candidates Barack Obama, John McCain, and Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden expected to attend for the voting process.

According to the Huff Post, the new version of the bill has tax reductions in it to gain more Republican support than the last version.

The vote takes place tonight.

Average Voters Don't Get It

What's upseting to me is how many people just plain don't understand the problem we face. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said it best when he observed that "Commerce could stop", and Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed that “Everything that is happening in the economic and financial sphere has started in the United States. This is a real crisis that all of us are facing," the former president told a government meeting in Moscow.

“And what is really sad is that we see an inability to take appropriate decisions. This is no longer irresponsibility on the part of some individuals, but irresponsibility of the whole system, which as you know had pretensions to (global) leadership."

What's galling is that Americans don't seem to understand how their finances are tied to Wall Street and the World Economy.

Ralph Nader - Presidential Candidate On The Bailout Bill

http://www.zennie62.com - Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader took time to talk with me specifically about what kind of form he would like to see the Baillout Bill take before he could support it.

Nader appeared today at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California as part of a California and Bay Area event swing which saw the consumer crusader take in 10 events in one day.

On CNN iReport

Sarah Palin and Katie Couric - More From Their Interview

You've just got to see this video to get the idea that Governor Sarah Palin sometimes doesn't think about what she's saying. If we make it out of this election in one piece, Palin will become a permanent Saturday Night Live skit

AN OBAMA MINUTE - 10/6 @ Noon

Check it out.  This is the power of grassroots organizing at its best.  A group of people from across the country have come together to bring back the Obama Minute.  Here is it's fundamental message:

Come join us and kick off the the last month of this campaign with a bang!  

Imagine all of the things you can do in a minute - nearly boil an egg, lie about weapons of mass destruction, make out on a first date, ignore a national travesty (Katrina), break a leg, minute rice, change a bulb, read someone's mind, lose $700 Billion, RAISE $1 MILLION  and support Barack Obama in an Obama Minute.  Oh and get those clowns out of office!

The first Obama Minute, in April, raised over $250,000 from 5000 people.  This time 4300 address books and more are being leveraged. 

It is about One Moment and One Strong Voice.

YouTube streamlines its video uploader, bumps size limits

Over the weekend YouTube quietly began testing a new uploading tool for users to publish their videos. The tool now allows users to begin plugging in information fields about the video while the upload is happening, much like Viddler, Vimeo, and others have offered for years. The company is testing the new player with a small number of its users.

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Microsoft Should Look To Ask.com For Commercial Ideas

Who needs Jerry Seinfeld when you’ve got a pole-dancing babe? Ask.com, the search engine formerly associated with a butler named Jeeves, is running an advertisement that features a voluptuous young woman doing acrobatic moves on a stripper pole under the heading “What are the best aerobic workouts?”

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The 25 Most Influential People on the Web for 2008

Each year, we turn to readers and BusinessWeek staff for the Best of the Web list, asking them to contribute names for a list of the Intern­et's movers and shakers. Take a look at the slide show to see which people have the most impact on the Web these days.

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Zakaria: McCain's VP choice is 'fundamentally irresponsible'

World affairs expert and author Fareed Zakaria said he thinks it would be best for Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, if Gov. Sarah Palin bowed out as his vice presidential running mate. Zakaria says McCain did not put the country first in making his V.P. choice, and he says Palin is not qualified to lead the United States.

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The New Yorker's Sarah Palin Cover

The New Yorker cleverly points out that the distance to Russia from the governor’s mansion in Juneau, Alaska, is about 1,200 miles.

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