[CitizensTruth] Truthout and a host of others, including many Republicans, against blank check for Bush & The Street

[Daniel Stafford]

Here's Truthout's articles on it, but you can look anywhere on the web 
and see no one wants to hand Paulson, a former head Streeter at 
Goldman-sachs, the keys to the purse with no oversight and no 
accountability and nothing in it for the Public. - DS

Democrats Battling to Add Restrictions to Bailout
http://www.truthout.org/article/democrats-battling-add-restrictions-bailout
David Lightman and Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers: "Congressional Democrats inched close to agreement Monday on the terms of a $700 billion rescue package to stabilize shaky financial markets, but continued to encounter White House resistance to key points. 'The Bush administration has called on Congress to rubber-stamp its bailout legislation without serious debate or efforts to improve it. That will not happen,' said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev."

Obama Outlines Plan to Reform Washington's "Greed and Excesses"
http://www.truthout.org/article/obama-outlines-plan-reform-washingtons-greed-and-excesses
David Nather, Congressional Quarterly: "Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama outlined a broad plan to 'reform the greed and excesses of Washington' on Monday, calling for a series of changes in the way Congress does business. It's not clear whether Democratic leaders in Congress are willing to go along with what their party's nominee is suggesting. The plan goes well beyond responding to the financial meltdown, which has become Washington's top priority. It would require Congress, among other things, to hold all conference committee meetings and committee markups in public and spell out who benefits from all tax breaks in all new tax bills - in keeping with the open-government theme the senator from Illinois has championed throughout his campaign."

$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says
http://www.truthout.org/article/13-billion-iraq-aid-wasted-or-stolen-ex-investigator-says
Dana Hedgpeth, The Washington Post: "A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes. Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, an arm of the Democratic caucus, that an Iraqi auditing bureau 'could not properly account for' the money."  

David Sirota | The $700 Billion Questions
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-700-billion-questions
David Sirota, In These Times: "If a museum in the next superpower nation ever commemorates the decline of the last great superpower, it will make the two-and-a-half page bill introduced this week the center of the display. Just as they do today at the National Archives' Declaration of Independence exhibit, tourists in the future-perhaps in Beijing, perhaps somewhere else-will line up to see a framed draft of this week's White House legislation demanding Congress surrender its power of the purse, and give an unelected appointee-in this case, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson-the power to hand over $700 billion of taxpayer money to 'any financial institution,' 'without limitation…on such terms and conditions as determined by [him].' In a nation priding itself on separating powers between the branches of government, the bill explicitly states that decisions by Paulson may not even 'be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.'"