Hey, guys? Remember that $700 billion dollar bailout? Turns out our President, once again, is looking out for the interests of the people who are really hard up in this situation.

Yep, you guessed it. He threw in a provision to ensure executive pay was kept intact.

Turns out you only get executive pay penalized if you sold troubled assets to the government... but instead, if the government just hands you a blank check, you're good to go.

Wow. After all these years, I couldn't have even fathomed something like this. I'd love to hear a Republican apologist explain this one. Sorry for the short diary... this just boggles my mind.

From the article:

"Michele Davis, spokeswoman for the Treasury [...] would not say when the guidance would be issued or what penalties it might impose..."

In other words, expect close to nothing.

"But she said the companies promised to follow the rules in contracts with the department."

Where's an image of Nelson from The Simpsons when you need one?

And anyway, with no friggin' legislation in place at the time a contract is signed, precisely what do you believe the odds would be, to successfully prosecute anyone?

I think this picture is in order here.

There's more...

I commented earlier on Jerome's front page diary 'Oil, uh-oh' that we should explore other ways to lower gas prices over the short term other than drilling offshore.  One of the solutions I wondered about was whether we could put some controls in place to prevent speculation from driving up the price.  The other solution was could we draw down the oil reserves.  

The attached link to DU contains a video of Olberman's Special Comment about the Enron Loophole, John McCain's position on it and how closing it would affect our gas prices.  You will also be surprised at who holds the biggest oil reserves.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis cuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum= 385&topic_id=149189&mesg_id=1491 89

Anyone who hasn't already seen it should watch.  Same as it ever was, the Republicans have gamed the system in order to appease their rich friends at the expense of everyone else.  Now they want us to believe that the reason gas prices are so high is because we Democrats are blocking offshore drilling, not because they have relaxed the rules for oil speculation and driven up the price.  We need to tackle this one head on as Keith has done.

There's more...