http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/F/FINANCIAL_MELTDOWN   Henry Paulson, the CEO of Goldman Sachs until 2006 and current U.S. Treasury Secretary succeeded in scaring the public and Congress into giving him a $700B blank check to bail out his friends. If you think that money will "trickle down" to you or small business owners, or anyone other than the people it's directly going to, you are mistaken.

The DOW plummeted to 10,365 on Monday September 29th when the bailout bill failed to pass. Every proponent of the bailout screamed, "I told you so!" Then on Tuesday September 30th, even without the bailout bill the DOW rocketed up to 10,850. Then on Friday October 3rd when the bailout bill passed and was signed into law, the DOW dropped yet again to 10,325 (even lower than Monday when the bailout bill failed).

This bill will not help the credit markets, the debt markets, the equity markets or anyone reading this comment. It will help Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the rest of the former investment banks de-leverage from 60:1 leverage down to traditional 12:1 leverage on your dime while the economy goes down the tubes.

What I find MOST incredible about this whole bailout, is the fact that nationwide polls of the general populace indicated between 70% and 75% were AGAINST the legislation, yet the Senate passed it through with FLYING COLORS, and House of "Representatives" were swayed to voting for it in a matter of only a few days. All it really took was throwing in a few key financial incentives and bonuses to the appropriate special interests, and some empty promises by potential presidents to be.

The whole time, these "Representatives" were being flooded with demands from the American people NOT to vote for the bailout - but they turned a deaf ear to everyone, and made bold claims like "I may not be re-elected because of this, but I'm confident I did the right thing for America's future anyway." One moron said he changed his vote from NO to YES, simply because "I talked with potential president to be, Obama, and he personally assured me he would enact legislation after his election that's in alignment with what I want to see." (WHAT?!? You were VERBALLY promised some B.S. by a guy who MAY or MAY NOT become president, so that's more important to you than listening to the people who elected you and trusted you to represent their wishes?!)

When HUGE taxpayer expenditures like this are voted through and signed into law in less than a week, despite 3 out of 4 Americans being strongly against them - it's clear we no longer live in a Democracy at all! This seems like as good a reason for an overthrow of our government as what we dealt with back around 1776! Yet people will not only sit back and accept it, but probably not even vote in protest for a 3rd. party like the Libertarians. (Incidentally, Bob Barr has been speaking out against this bailout the whole time, unlike our Democratic or Republican contenders.)