Bailout: Manufacturing Consent for a rotten deal

Ramming the bailout in

When your government desperately wants to do something that they flog so vigorously as best for the people, reach out for Noam Chomsky [1] because the Orwellian Big Brother [2] looms large and you are probably being buttered up too far.

Now, I have not been convinced by the bailout package and each time it transmogrified from downright outrageous towards absolutely unacceptable, I have found myself yet less persuaded of the scheme, it still smacks of a letdown, a let off and a let loose.

However, as the day progressed with debates and supposed agreements, I really did think that the bill, that whopping bill that many large countries would be hard-pressed to foot would pass without much rancor – I saw it all and I was wrong.

They voted it down

The House Republicans voted down the bill [3] by two-thirds of their representation whilst the Democrats supported it by three-fifths of their representation and the stock markets went into free fall.

I have no democratic responsibility to vote for measures that affect markets and people in any appreciable way, so, I cannot really be too bothered with my stance that is resolutely against the bailout – if I were a constituent I would have been calling my representative threatening vote loss.

These representatives had a duty, a great call to service has been made to these people to appreciate a crisis situation and respond appropriately and they failed to rise to the occasion.

Tumbling to the greater good

With it came the largest tumble ever of the stock market even beyond that which happened soon after the terrorist attack of September 2001 giving some truth to the idea that democratic forces can exhibit menaces more devastating than a terrorist attack and still benignly be viewed in the light of the greater good.

There is no greater good in this bailout, because we have hardly heard the real truth of why we are where we are today. Rather than speak the truth we have had propaganda heaped on the issue that people are being railroaded into acquiescing to a travesty and an extortion of the American people for the benefit of the banking institutions.

Manufacturing Consent

Consent has been manufactured [4; 5] to meet despicably unprofitable ends; this bill is bailing out Wall Street, period! All this stuff about making loans affordable or cash available for salary, homes, cars and careers of the people on Main Street is the manipulation of people to want things they do not need by linking the bill to their fears – we all know that no bank would be as sympathetic to the people on loan issues again.

If would not trust each other, why would they ever trust customers even if their toxic assets have been safely taken off their hands without repercussion?

Manipulating events

After the vote, the Republicans came out and literally called ever observer a fool, having not had the votes to even secure anything near a majority, they gambled on the pressure of the moment in the hope their colleagues would do the “right” thing – the right thing was, if you are up for re-election and “Yes” was political suicide.

Maybe Speaker Pelosi’s speech did not help, but what she said was no different from what was on mainstream news, if she so varied from that rhetoric she might have been branded a hypocrite of sorts, it however should not have swayed the Republican from doing the right thing – if left one Democratic representative drawing laughter when he offered to talk uncharacteristically nicely to the offended Republicans so they could put their country first [6].

Do I remember that the Republican convention was all about putting country first or was that just patriotic hogwash masquerading as the fervent love of the fatherland and the cult of war?

Source

[1] Noam Chomsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] BBC NEWS | Business | House votes down bail-out package

[4] The Engineering of Consent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[6] Political Spirit Returns to Republican National Convention

A straight flush - Democrats win all

Seeking food for rage

Everyone once in a while, I allow the multitude of channels on my digital television subscription to excite my curiosity. The group of channels that come under the title of News and Documentaries has a lot to offer, probably 15 or so channels in all.

Then I look for one that would rile me, fill me with righteous indignation and leave me incandescent with rage and as I am astonished at what has come to my hearing.

No, channel excites that much vile and negative emotion than the Fox News Channel – anyone who gets a daily dose of that staple is bound to need augmented mental support be it medicinal or surgical – but, some are just so attuned to the stuff that they call opinion coming from pundits that would not qualify for the analysis of kindergarten skittles.

Giving a wet fish slap

The opinion is so malformed, skewed and radically “conservative” read Republican, none of which can bear educated scrutiny.

Only last week, they had people on who could not imagine the possibility of the Democrats taking the House of Representatives talk less of the Senate, as I sat and listened to the analysis, I saw myself pick up a decently sized wet fish, swinging it with the finesse of a Justine Henin-Hardenne backhand till it hit the pundit square in the face and do that three or four times till he woke up and smelt the coffee.

The President has lost this hand

Well, methinks we have moved beyond the cheap poker hand of a full house and now have a straight flush, the Democrats having taken the House of Representatives and just over an hour ago, the Senate too.

The President was left with a high card and with nothing to flop; he had to fold with the loss of a big bet (Rumsfeld). He now has to be smart with his new hand because, he probably does not have that many chips to play fast and loose anymore. The boy born with a silver foot in his mouth has done what they all do, squander favour, resources, goodwill, life and opportunity.

When we have a Royal Flush (Presidency & Congress) in November 2008 with Hillary Rodham Clinton as President-elect, the fox-hunting season might have been over with the hounds fully sated – basically, Americans cannot afford to have the ilk of the Fox News Channel continue to skew debate with impunity.

As for Dubbiyew, if I shed a tear for the loss of last Tuesday'elections, it would have been for the lives that missed the opportunity for a change to the misguided Iraq escapade.