You can not write good legislation in four days. Period. No matter what comes out of these negotiations any bill voted on will suck. There will be gaping holes, Lax oversight and dozens of missed opportunties.

The crux of the current 'crisis' (overhyped as it is) is that banks supposedly are concerned about lending to each other because they do not know how much bad debt is sitting on the other guy's books (or for that matter on their own). Hence it is too risky for the CDO market to work.

The only way to fix this is to find out how much bad debts are REALLY out there and what they are REALLY WORTH. The current plan (by Paulson's own admission) is designed to prevent that from happening by purchasing the bad debts at 'above market value'.

It would be better off both in the short and long term to let it play out. Let a couple of banks fail and be forced to sell off their 'assets'. That way the market itself can value these derivates at something close to their true value. If liquidy must be injected into the market, target it towards the banks that are still solvent. Give them the money to cherry-pick the good assets from their that fallen brethern.

But under no circumstances should the bad behaviors of the past decade be rewarded.

Yes this means pain for the entire economy, but:

1 - Main Street is already looking at a recession, the current 'plan' does nothing to forstall the decline in home values or the crash of the dollar (which in fact it will accelerate) and the corresponding jump in inflation (which again it actually accelerates).

2 - The bankers MUST suffer with the rest of us.

3 - We can not keep rewarding bad behavior on Wall Street. There is NOTHING in the current 'plan' that prevents these jerks from coming back in six months and doing this all again. Largely because it does nothing to address the underlying causes of this disater.

I keep saying this, but in needs to be repeared. No good legislation can be written in four days and under these conditions.

Jon Stewart did an excellent job of showing how Bush is just repeating his standard strategy of scaring everybody into acting without thinking.

A 100, 200 or even 500 point fall in the DOW is bad but not time for panic. Call me when the investory class starts pulling all the way out and DOW drops 2000 points, then its time to panic. The fact that they are still in there and still have money should tell people the situation is bad but not DAYS!!! DAYS!!!! away from complete meltdown the way everybody is scare us into to believing.

Now is the time to pause, take a deep breath and THINK. Throwing $700 billion at the same people who caused the problem is NOT THE ANSWER.

Despite what a lot of people think about McCain's scampering and constant shifting of positions and the House Republicans idiotic 'plan' they have done one thing right. They've stopped congress from making an enormous mistake with our money. Give this thing a few weeks to play out. Let some banks fail.

Seletively give money to secure institutions to cherry-pick the good assets from their fallen competitors and let the market decide what all these deravites and mortage backed securities are worth THEN proceed, if necessary, with a more targeted bailout.

And that scares the hell out of me. Granted my only real point of agreement is that this bailout (pardon me, 'rescue plan') needs to die. There particular 'solution' still sucks in that it demands even LESS regulation than we have now.

But watching the Democrats fall all over themselves for yet another one of Bush's "THE SKY IS FALLING' ploys just ticks me off to know end. Dear god, it's like watching Palov's dogs. Bush rings his little bell and congressional Democrats start slubbering at the chance to screw up once again.

For those of you who haven't seen it find Jon Stewart's opening monologue to the Daily Show last night. His comparison of Bush's 'We Must Declare War on Iraq' speech and the speech he gave on the 'Bailout' is truly funny/scary. They really were the EXACT same speeches. Just substitute 'Iraq' and 'Terrorist' with the words 'Economic meltdon' and 'financial collapse'.

I am constantly amazed by how incredibly gullible Democrats have been over the last eight years

The Democratic Congressional leadership blew this one bad. By once again buying wholesale into Bush's "THE SKY IS FALLING' rhetoric and implicitly buying into the basics of Bush/Paulson's 'plan (lots of money to investment bankers) they've trapped themselves in a no win situation.

Since they agree the problem is immediate and they must act RIGHT NOW and we are only DAYS!!! DAYS!!!! away from economic meltdown they now have no choice but to rush through something. If they don't do anything they Republicans can label them as freezing and tiddling their thumbs in the face of a crisis. But given strong public opposition to this idiot plan if they vote for the plan they will face the backlash of voters (an unfortunately a somewhat justified backlash).

Republicans on the other hand 9and McCain in particular) are in the best of all possible worlds. They have veto power over any bill (since Dems won't pass it without political cover). They can even play chicken with the Dems and force them to pass this unpopular bailout without their help (and since the Dems bought into Bush's rhetoric they may have no choice) and then ride a wave of populist rhetoric all the way into the White House.

What the Democrats should have done is declared Bush's proposals DOA on arrival and questioned the hell out of the underlying assumption that action needed to be taken RIGHT NOW!! or EVERYBODY DIES. If they'd stuck to their guns (pipe dream, I know) they could have prevailed. Such a strategy would have at least left them manuvering room.