Excellent, BUT: be sure to check voting records. Some in congress had the wisdom to vote against this treasonous bailout. Make sure they are rewarded for their bravery, or the net result may not be the reform we want to see!

Couldn't agree more! well...as time goes by, I find that I am agreeing more by becoming more enraged with each week that goes by. Let's see:

First we have the AIG debacle that confirms my (all of our) worst fears - in many cases it goes well beyond mere greed and into outright theft.

Next, recalling the extreme urgency the financial community placed on the passage of the $700 billion bill, I figured that 10 days later we should be able to find out, at minimum, how much had been allocated and to whom. HA! Wrong. It will be six weeks before the Feds will be set up and ready to process actual aid disbursements. Right now they are busy hiring firms to do the paperwork necessary to allocate - and carry out required oversight records. Why do I have a sudden conviction that Halliburton is ramping up for another contract? Yes, the bookkeeping is obviously necessary. and sure it takes time to set up a "whole new department" as Treasury spokesperson(s) referred to it. And yeah, I am most certainly a tad cynical by this time. But honestly - what happened to the dire predictions of total economic collapse if that bailout - oops, rescue plan - didn't pass within 48 hours?

But never mind. Just one week later we learn that over a third of the $700b will be used by the Administration to purchase large blocks of the failed home mortgages directly (as opposed to propping up the lending companies and letting them fix the messes they made). This new plan was being...well - planned - at the "highest levels" which tells me that more bids and contract placing will be going on pretty soon. Couldn't we avoid that expense by ... oh well. I'm sure you're already there ahead of me anyway. Too bad we can't turn our speedy assessment of these weighty, complex matters into a contract of our very own. Hm...