A Rare Moment For Me

I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to President George W. Bush

The US government has said it will provide $17.4bn (£11.6bn) in loans to help troubled carmakers General Motors and Chrysler to survive.

President George W Bush said allowing the US car industry to fail would not be "a responsible course of action".

Ford has said it hoped to get by without government help.

The government will use part of the $700bn originally pledged to rescue US banks. It has set a deadline of 31 March for the firms to become viable.

General Motors will get $9.4 billion and Chrysler $4 billion before the end of the year. A further $4bn will be provided later.

GM chief executive Rick Wagoner said his company would quickly start to restructure itself.

"Our focus now turns to fully and rapidly implementing the restructuring plan that we reviewed with Congress earlier this month in conjunction with all of our key partners," he told a news conference.

Why You Have To Be Careful When Reading Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan's blog "The Daily Dish"is nothing if not consistently entertaining pretty much on a daily basis. From his "obsession" with Sarah Palin's pregnancy to his firm stance against torture not a day goes by that he doesn't offer something that is either very informative or very funny or both. But there is a danger in reading Sully's blog for some liberals and progressives. And that danger is that at first glance he looks pretty progressive or at least moderately conservative. He is an advocate of gay rights and gay marriage, of course that is a personal cross for him but it still doesn't take away from his passionate advocacy. He was also firmly against John McCain for president. He has even spoken out against the war in Iraq. But then he posts something like this and you are reminded once again that once a conservative, always a conservative.

"Every time the government protects someone or some company from the consequences of their own economic profligacy, the chances of future profligacy increase. It's vital that the government let the Big Three automakers go down, and vital that only minimal help be given for those so greedy or so stupid that they took on loans they had no way to pay off."

So let me get this straight. The government should not intervene to help homeowners facing foreclosure not because it would be good for the economy (which it won't) but because to do so would encourage more bad behavior. Hmmm And he then goes on to smear anyone facing foreclosure as being either "greedy" or "stupid". Hmmm again.

A few thoughts:

It's amazing to me that Sullivan doesn't see the parallels between his reasons for opposing a homeowner bailout and the reasons many of his conservative bretheren oppose gay marriage. Isn't it always that the Social Conservatives don't have anything against teh gais but they think something like gay marriage will encourage further bad behavior like, I don't know, gay adoption, or maybe gay indoctrination in schools? But when that kind of framing is used against gay people Sullivan is all gung ho to lead the charge against it. But when he uses the same kind of framing, that human nature is such that if you help someone in need then you will encourage bad behavior, in this case the offense in question is having the nerve and the unmitigated gall to want to live the American dream and buy a home for you and your family, then I guess in his world thats different.

NEWSFLASH, unemployment rates are pushing towards double digits right now. Maybe, just MAYBE people can't pay their mortgages because they are being laid off in numbers not seen in over a generation. Maybe just MAYBE the fact that you and your conservative bretheren pushed so hard for deregultion of the financial system adverely affected very responsible people who took out very responsible mortgages but lost their jobs because of irresponsible assholes on Wall Street screwing up the financial system and THATS why they are in foreclosure.

Maybe just MAYBE there were people who wre fooled into signing for a mortgage that they could afford at the time that has subsequently reset to unmanageable levels.

Maybe just MAYBE there are people who are losing their home because they had to choose between paying the mortgage or paying for emergency health care.

Calling people who are losing their homes and being put out in the street, many of them with kids in tow, "greedy" or "stupid" is directly analogous IMHO to bigots blaming gay people because of their "depraved and deviant choices" when they get discriminated against.

As for letting the Big 3 fail, what exactly does he think that would do to our economy? Yeah lets let over 3 million people get shit canned so you can try to validate your irrational belief in the "free market" system. And then we can let those 3 million people lose their houses also since obviously they won't be able to pay their bills without a job right? I mean I guess they will fit neatly into your two categories of "greedy" or "stupid" for wanting to own a home and not forseeing that they would lose their jobs because some conservatives thought it was more important to live by princples that have never ever worked than to actually help the people who need helping and proactively help get our economy back on track.

Sullivan is very good on some issues but its obvious to me that he should definitely leave financial matters to the experts and shut his frikkin pie hole before people start to see him for the self righteous self centered ass that he REALLY is at his core.

Ok Im done ranting, and I feel a LOT better.