Well my friends – and the conservatives just now waking up after an 8 year mental vacation – to call the Bush administration’s Wall Street bailout bill anything but fascism in the final stages of overthrowing democracy would be laughable. Here is the Bush administration’s thinly cloaked coup, via the NPR Planet Money blog, posted by Adam Davidson:
We will, no doubt, spend the rest of the week analyzing it and watching it transform as it moves through Congress.
Here are some tentative, initial thoughts
Section 2:
(a) Authority to Purchase.–The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.
(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:
(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;
(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and
(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.
I would guess that this has to be one of the biggest peacetime transfers of power from Congress to the Administration in history. (Anyone know?). Certainly one of the most concise.
Adam goes on to note summarize the above as follows:
The Treasury Secretary can buy broadly defined assets, on any terms he wants, he can hire anyone he wants to do it and can appoint private sector companies as financial deputies of the US government. And he can write whatever regulation he thinks are needed.
Now here is the worst of it, emphasis mine:
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Whoa.
That “Whoa” is Adam’s, not mine. I think, my friends, this was the end game all along, the final piece of the paper coup started in 2000. And if Congress even considers this Bill, they should be arrested for treason. In fact, if this coup – and it is a coup – is passed by Congress, I advocate total, open revolution (and those of you who know me should know that I do not say this lightly). Forget being a Republican or Democrat for a moment and just realize that you are [thisclose] to becoming slaves.
UPDATE:
I wrote about this more forcefully at Huffington Post. Please comment there too if you get a moment.
Source: http://www.atlargely.com/2008/09/fascist-coup-ne.html
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