The market is overreacting to every move made. If Paulson coughs in the morning the DOW shifts 100 points. Trying to play to the day-to-day drama or influence the day-to-day numbers is a self-defeating measure (Think McCain playing to the day-to-day news cycle).

What we need now is a STRATEGY.

A short term one for the next 6 months to a year and long term one looking out 2-10 years. Any short term stimulus package doled out now needs to take into account the long term needs of building a sustainable economy. An infrastructure package is good. An infrastructure package geared to light rail, communter rail, and alternate power (solar, wind and yes nuclear) is far better.

An auto-industry bail-out that just hands the people who screwed up more money is bad. A bail-out that requires and funds a shift to sustainable manufacturing is better.

And if you want to deal with all the long-term costs that are supposedly killing the industry. Put into place real universal healthcare so that burden is lifted from industry.

Forget about trying to please the day traders on Wall Street. Make a plan and stick to it.

The problem with the market is volatility. Shifting hundreds points a day. Swinging wildly because nobody knows what the hell is going on or what's going to happen next. That's why we need a PLAN. And we need to stick to that plan. A calm consistent government response would go a long way to calming markets. Even if that response does not include a bailout for the big three at the market would KNOW what's happening.

Over the last two months the Bush admninstration and Paulson have changed course a a dozen times. Sometimes on the same day. And Congress has not been much better.

Go read my previous posts. I did and I do oppose the finacial bailout. The money was/is being handed out with no strategy, no oversight and does NOTHING to address the underlying problems with the financial markets. It does not address the failure of the ratings agencies, the derivatives market, over leveraging/reliance on debt, lax regulatory oversight etc etc.

There is nothing in any of these plans that will prevent these same companies from coming back in six months and asking for even more money nad then again six months later.

I get Keyesian economics. I get we need to stimulate the economy. What I do not support is just sending money down the rabbit hole. Giving it to the same people who made nothing but bad decisions over the last 10-15 years and expecting anything good to come out it is the very definition of insanity.

I honestly can not think of better performance by any actress in the last decade. She put so much nuance and grace into Claudette Wymms.

Wymms saw through Vic's mask from the beginning. More than Acevada, who didn't see Vic for what he truly was until it was far too late. More than than even the other members of the Strike Team.

Wymms saw Vic as only an opposite can. Pounder played Wymms as the moral center of The Shield, the counter to Vic's anything that works for me attitude. She made genuine sacrafices for her believes.

That final confrontation with Vic was pitch perfect. Showing Vic exactly how he betrayed and destroyed those around him. Reading Shane's suicide note and laying out the pictures for Vic to see.

And having Ronnie arrested in the barn in front of everybody, a perfect tweist to the knife. Showing every cop in the place that Vic would betray even those loyal to him. That was the key to that moment. Claudette took away any respect other cops may have had for Vic and his record.

Up until that point, many cops might have understood or even sympathized with Vic. Stuck doing an impossible job with idiotic restrictions. As bad as he was, most cops felt Vic would never turn on one of his own. But Claudette ripped that illusion away using a method guaranteed to make certain Vic will never be able to reach out to a 'friend' on the force.

And it was Claudette who made certain Vic's family got into Witness Protection by pointing out to Olivia just how much it would hurt Vic.

And CCH Pounder was one of the only people who could stare down Chiklis when he was in full Vic mode.

Pounder also played her desperation to make something good come out the disaster at the barn before she can do no more with such quiet intensity. The mix of determination and pain on her face. Just brilliant.

If CCH Pounder is not at least nominated for an Emmy this year (and she should win hands down) than the Emmy selection commitee is even more idiotic than I thought possible.

Sell tickets to Bush's execution?

The same type of securitizatoin done with Mortages has been done with credit cards and car loans. Just wait until defaults in those areas start to heat up over the next couple of months.

If we're lucky this is only the beginning stages of what will be a LONG drawn out recession. If we're unlucky this is the beginning of the next Great Depression.