JayBlair's blog

On the morning of October 14, in the midst of our financial crisis and the Dow Jones trading at 9388, the Federal Reserve announced that it would be taking even more drastic measures to "save" Wall Street. Specifically, the United States taxpayers were about to buy stock in the nine largest banks in the country. $250 billion of stock.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernancke stated: "These steps will allow us to restore more normal market functioning, and encourage private capital to further support the reinvigoration of financial markets">

President Bush adressed the nation tonight. Here is a summary of what he said:

"I have evidence that there are weapons of mass destruction on Wall Street. To keep you safe I need $700 billion to enrich broke bankers. Trust me."

Let's hope the media, Congress, and the American people don't fall for this again.

All day long the former Wall Street bankers who now pose as government regulators on behalf of the Bush Administration have argued that we have to save Wall Street to save Main Street. That Americans will be much worse off if we don't protect the mansions of millionaires with a welfare check worth $700 billion. Larry Kudlow has gone so far as to say this is a Main Street bailout not a Wall Street bail out. Are you kidding me?

Millions of Americans have been in a "financial crisis" for decades. The poor. The uninsured. The uneducated. The unemployed. The list goes on. And free marketers and Republicans and many Democrats have sought to limit and reduce government assistance to help the victims of this crisis. Now when millionaires on Wall Street face the potential of having their yachts confiscated we now have a "crisis" that demands government handouts?

I am convinced Phil Gramm only covorts with bankers and Wall Street brokers. They are the only ones really whining and demanding that the Government save them from their own free market, no oversight, excesses.

Here is a brief video of the recent Indy Bank failure. In the video you will meet Charles Tengeri who had his life savings in Indy Bank accounts and stands to lose over $50,000.

Rob Schofield in the Progressive Pulse posted an interesting piece about the recent US Supreme Court's hearing on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon was hit with a $5 billion punitive award after being held liable for creating the worst environmental disaster to hit this country. Exxon is asking the Supreme Court to eliminate the punitive award. Their lawyer, notes Schofield, is North Carolina's own . . .

What is going wrong with Richard Moore's campaign for Governor? After pulling an ineffective ad portraying the Treasurer as an angry white guy who doesn't want complex issues to be studied any more, he now borrows from the losing campaign playbooks of Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney.

"The era of rampant lynching is a shameful chapter in American history. The noose is not a symbol of prairie justice, but of gross injustice. Displaying one is not a harmless prank. Lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest. As a civil society we must understand that noose displays and lynching jokes are deeply offensive. They are wrong and they have no place in America today."

Today's News & Observer printed an op-ed authored by representatives of the John Locke Foundation, NC PIRG and NC WARN. Their common foe? Duke Energy.