Trashing the place

When the Bushies first moved into the White House back in '01, the story was that the Clinton staffers had 'trashed the place', removing Ws from computer keyboards, writing graffiti, vandalizing, and leaving obscene messages.

Though widely reported, by the 'paper of record' as well as Fox News, that 'news' has been debunked, though the myth lives on.

The Bush administration is now doing its own version of trashing, but they think too big to be content with childish pranks in the White House, they're going after the whole country.

Start with the 'bailout'. Paulson's $700bn does have some strings attached, but the Fed has already given away $2 trillion dollars and refuses to say to whom, or for what collateral.

AIG already sold itself to the government, but now it needs another $40bn. Moon of Alabama has a good review of the numbers, which don't add up.

And just to top that, while Congress and the press have been all distracted by the election and bailouts and other folderol, another $140bn has been given to Paulson's buddies:

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.

Then there is the environment:

The proposals include changes to the Endangered Species Act, new management plans for 11 million acres in Utah, an effort to revoke congressional committees’ emergency powers to protect public lands, and a rule change for mountaintop mining regulations.

So, what's left for the next two months? One thing you can be sure is going on, documents are being destroyed, computer files are being deleted, and every piece of evidence that would serve to incarcerate these criminals is being scrubbed. And pardon season is going to be a thing of beauty. Everybody walks!