A Chicago Blog

I felt a little like a superhero yesterday when I received this message from Barack Obama on my cell phone:

Barack Obama needs your help in battleground states! If you can travel to WI, MI, IA, or IN this weekend REPLY with: TVL your NAME and DESTINATION.

It’s like I’m Batman and he’s Commissioner Gordon, inviting me on some clandestine mission. On a serious note, I wonder what’s going on this weekend. My guess is that it is just a voter registration drive.

UPDATE 10.3.2008: House passes bailout bill, H.R. 1424 - Roll Call available here.

You probably heard the Bailout failed in the House. The full vote is here. Below are the ‘NO’ votes (Republicans are italicized).

Abercrombie Aderholt Akin Alexander Altmire Baca Bachmann Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Becerra Berkley Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Boustany Boyda (KS) Braley (IA) Broun (GA) Brown-Waite, Ginny Buchanan Burgess Burton (IN) Butterfield Buyer Capito Carney Carson Carter Castor Cazayoux Chabot Chandler Childers Clay Cleaver Coble Conaway Conyers Costello Courtney Cuellar Culberson Cummings Davis (KY) Davis, David Davis, Lincoln Deal (GA) DeFazio Delahunt Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doggett Doolittle Drake Duncan Edwards (MD) English (PA) Fallin Feeney Filner Flake Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Giffords

Gillibrand Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Graves Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Hall (TX) Hastings (WA) Hayes Heller Hensarling Herseth Sandlin Hill Hinchey Hirono Hodes Hoekstra Holden Hulshof Hunter Inslee Issa Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jefferson Johnson (GA) Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Jordan Kagen Kaptur Keller Kilpatrick King (IA) Kingston Knollenberg Kucinich Kuhl (NY) Lamborn Lampson Latham LaTourette Latta Lee Lewis (GA) Linder Lipinski LoBiondo Lucas Lynch Mack Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCarthy (CA) McCaul (TX) McCotter McHenry McIntyre McMorris Rodgers Mica Michaud Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Mitchell Moran (KS) Murphy, Tim Musgrave Myrick Napolitano Neugebauer Nunes

Ortiz Pascrell Pastor Paul Payne Pearce Pence Peterson (MN) Petri Pitts Platts Poe Price (GA) Ramstad Rehberg Reichert Renzi Rodriguez Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Rothman Roybal-Allard Royce Rush Salazar Sali Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Scalise Schiff Schmidt Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Shadegg Shea-Porter Sherman Shimkus Shuler Shuster Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Solis Stark Stearns Stupak Sullivan Sutton Taylor Terry Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Tierney Turner Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Visclosky Walberg Walz (MN) Wamp Watson Welch (VT) Westmoreland Whitfield (KY) Wittman (VA) Woolsey Wu Yarmuth Young (AK) Young (FL)

My sports thoughts for the day. Kyle Orton proved last night why he’s our starter. No only can he make the throws, but even when he makes mistakes that not usually obvious boneheaded ones. Of the four turnovers last night only one was VERY clearly his fault.

On the Cubs. Let me state for the record that I’m a little worried about the Dodgers. They’re a good team and we’re going to have to play hard to beat them. My guess is we barely take the series 3-2.

A testament to the state of public discourse in America.

It seems it hasn’t been that long since the first redesign. Actually, it was just January of this year. But they apparently felt the need to re-redesign. The new version, out today, is a microcosm of the news industry. More color, bigger pictures, shorter stories. In fact, it’s eerily reminiscent of the Red Eye.

The reader comments are worth reading too. Here are some favorites:

Wow! I can’t wait to save 30 bucks a month by not buying it!

…

The Red Eye looks great … wait, it’s the Tribune?!?

…

It looks like you are turning the paper into a cheap tabloid, but I’ll withhold comment until I actually see the paper. I do hope the five or six sections of car ads get lost in the process! [They didn't by the way]

…

Please don’t prove Jay Mariotti right.

A buddy of mine who is also under-employed emails these comments about the bailout bill that pass over the weekend.

---

Just reading through this morning - about 20% through but here are some highlights so far:

Section 101 (The Very First Section)

(a) OFFICES; AUTHORITY.—

1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary is authorized to establish a troubled asset relief program (or ‘‘TARP’’) to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, troubled assets from any financial institution, on such terms and conditions as are DETERMINED BY THE SECRETARY and in accordance with this Act and the policies and procedures developed and published BY THE SECRETARY.
How About a New Position in Govt.?

3) ESTABLISHMENT OF TREASURY OFFICE.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall implement any program under paragraph (1)
through an Office of Financial Stability, estabished for such purpose within the Office of Domestic Finance of the Department of the Treasury, which office shall be headed by an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, except that an interim Assistant Secretary may serve pending confirmation by the Senate.

My emphasis

(c) Necessary Actions.—The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessaryto carry out the authorities in this Act, including, WITHOUT LIMITATION, the following:

(1) The Secretary shall have direct hiring authority with respect to the appointment of employees to administer this Act.

(2) Entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5,United States Code.

3) DESIGNATING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AS FINANCIAL AGENTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and such institutions shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Federal Government as may be required.

(4) In order to provide the Secretary with the flexibility to manage troubled assets in a manner designed to minimize cost to the taxpayers, ESTABLISHING VEHICLES that are authorized, SUBJECT TO SUPERVISION BY THE SECRETARY, to purchase, hold, and sell troubled assets and issue obligations.

(5) ISSUING SUCH REGULATIONS and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities or purposes of this Act.
He also get to write his own rules (i.e. program guidelines)

(d) PROGRAM GUIDELINES.—Before the earlier of the end of the 2-business-day period beginning on the date of the first purchase of troubled assets pursuant to the authority under this section or the end of the 45-day pe riod beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall publish program guidelines, including the following:

(1) Mechanisms for purchasing troubled assets.
(2) Methods for pricing and valuing troubled assets.
(3) Procedures for selecting asset managers.
(4) Criteria for identifying troubled assets for purchase.
Hey, but Congress was decent enough to give some oversight by comprising a board to watch over him! However, this is the perfect example of Washington oversight if ever there was such a thing:

(b) MEMBERSHIP.—The Financial Stability Oversight Board shall be comprised of—

(1) the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
(2) the Secretary;
(3) the Director of the Federal Home Finance Agency;
(4) the Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission; and
(5) the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

ANY GUESS AS TO WHAT ALL THESE GUYS HAVE IN COMMON??

THEY ARE ALL APPOINTEES OF THE PRESIDENT - HOW’S THAT FOR OVERSIGHT? (Not to mention the bonus fact that the secretary of treasury is on his own oversight board).

Arnold Kling gives us these bailout talking points:

1. We don’t need to bail out Wall Street to protect Main Street. All we have to do is make sure that sound borrowers, especially small businesses, have access to credit. Banks can do the job, although regulators may have to reduce capital requirements.

2. The mortgage securitization industry is brain-dead. If it does not revive on its own, we should not spend taxpayer money trying to resuscitate it.

3. The stock market seems to want a bailout. While I hope for higher stock prices, I think that public policy needs to take into account more than just daily fluctuations in the Dow. In 1971, the market gave a huge thumbs-up to wage and price controls, which turned out to have damaging economic effects that persisted for years.

4. There is no reason to rush. President Bush wants to ram this through without deliberation, because that is how he operates. The Democrats want to act without deliberation, because putting the financial sector under government control is what they want. The rest of us would be better off if the issue were carefully debated first.

Every day without a bailout deal is just more proof that we don’t need a bailout. I signed this petition and you should too. NO CASH FOR TRASH.

One of life’s cruelties is the fact that there’s a Bar Louie right next to my fitness club. I was reminded of this last night when I was assaulted by the smell of something heavenly just as I was entering the gym.

This is really just an advertisement. But at least it’s a fun advertisement.