Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

And the Economy Was Squashed Flatter Than a Grass Mat!*

For those of you desiring a visual explanation of the current economic collapse, Wile E. Coyote plays the part of the government in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPHUtFxaJ8M

The bailout, somewhat modified but still far from a good idea, continues to develop:

Treasury Will Emerge With Vast New Power
Floyd Norris, The New York Times: "During its weeklong deliberations, Congress made many changes to the Bush administration's original proposal to bail out the financial industry, but one overarching aspect of the initial plan that remains is the vast discretion it gives to the Treasury secretary. The draft legislation, which will be put to a House vote on Monday, gives Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and his successor extraordinary power to decide how the $700 billion bailout fund is spent. For example, if he thinks it wise, he may buy not only mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, but any other financial instrument."


ImpeachBush offers the following option for protest:

If this Congress was carrying out the will of the people, today's Grand Theft bankers bailout legislation would result in an overwhelming NO vote.

Take one minute and help the VoteNoBailout.org movement flood Congress with hundreds of thousands of NO votes right now.

The vast majority of the people oppose giving 1 trillion of their tax dollars to super-rich bankers who drove the economy into the ground. Will our elected representatives represent the will of the people or will they serve the thieves on Wall Street? Let's make sure that they feel the heat of the people. Click this link to send your letter.



* Explanation for the title:

Sometime when I was little, I heard a storyteller tell one of the many traditional Native American "Coyote" stories, in which Coyote falls off a cliff, "...and Coyote was squashed flatter than a grass mat!" It stuck, and I tended to say it while watching the cartoons. Then in college, I took a Native American literature class. One of our readings happened to include a Coyote story with that phrase in it -- and I mimicked the Wile E. Coyote sound effects, "Fweeeeeeeee ... kerploff!"

Pause.

Gales of laughter from several students who made the connection.

Pause.

"Oh my god ... do you think somebody really got the idea for Wile E Coyote from the old trickster stories?"

Yeah, that was one of the classes that was actually worth the time and money put into it.

Anyhow, now you know why the economy is flatter than a grass mat.
Tags: activism, economics, personal
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  • 5 comments
glitteringlynx

glitteringlynx

September 29 2008, 17:40:35 UTC 12 years ago

Had I been in that course, I probably would've started laughing right away after the coyote went off the cliff (even before your sound effects). I LOVED the Wile E. Coyote cartoons. :) I always felt sorry for him. :(
ysabetwordsmith

ysabetwordsmith

September 29 2008, 20:54:15 UTC 12 years ago

At least Wile doesn't lose his penis or get into an argument with his own anus.
glitteringlynx

glitteringlynx

October 1 2008, 02:30:25 UTC 12 years ago

Well, he *is* a super-genius. ;)
janetmiles

Because I am sick of the current occupants

janetmiles

September 29 2008, 17:54:55 UTC 12 years ago

My letter was not terribly tactful. I wrote
What are you people thinking?! Look, I understand why the bailout is important. I don't understand why the bailout is giving essentially unlimited power with no oversight to the Executive Branch, and allowing the CEOs of the companies involved to keep their exorbitant bonuses. (Well, no, I do understand that. It's because the bill was *written* by the Executive Branch, and because the current occupants thereof want to arrogate all possible power to it, and because it's been written at the behest of the industry lobbyists, whose motto seems to "socialize losses, privatize profits"). Why are you letting them get away with this?)

Surely you can do better than this. Surely you can find a way to sneak in some oversight to confirm that the money is being spent relatively wisely, some regulation to keep this from happening again, and some easing of the pain for the individuals who are being hurt, rather than just handing over money THAT WE DON'T EVEN HAVE.
tinhuviel

tinhuviel

September 30 2008, 03:12:31 UTC 12 years ago

Brilliant. I need to post this over on The Cliffs of Insanity. The peeps need to see it.