MY DEAR AMERICAN FRIENDS:

I AM NEEDING TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 700 BILLION OF YOUR DOLLARS (US). IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

I AM WORKING WITH HIGHLY REPUTABLE MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY IF MY POLITICAL PARTY WINS UPCOMING ELECTION, WHICH WE CERTAINLY WILL BECAUSE WE ARE IN CONTROLING OF THE HIGHEST SUPREME COURT. YOU MAY REMEMBER HIM AS A SENATOR AS LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S.

I AM ALSO WORKING WITH HIGHLY REPUTABLE MR. BARNEY FRANK, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY IF OTHER POLITICAL PARTY, LED BY MR. BARACK OBAMA, WIN UPCOMING ELECTION, WHICH HE CERTAINLY WILL BECAUSE HE IS IN CONTROLLING OF VOTING IN ILLINOIS, OHIO, FLORIDA, AND MANY OTHER STATES. MR. BARNEY FRANK IS VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS OF ALL KINDS, FROM WHOREHOUSE ADMINISTRATION TO HOME LOAN BUSINESS, AND FAITHFULLY TEACHES PRECEPTS OF MR. BARACK OBAMA ("FROM TINY A.C.O.R.N. GROWS GIANT FORECLOSURE OAK!").

THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE. YOU MUST TRUST ME COMPLETELY AND NOT ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TRANSACTION. YOU HAVE MY WORD NO ONE WILL DO ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE MONEY. THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED YOUR BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTH PERSONAGE WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.

YOU ARE THAT PERSONAGE. bailout

PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN, GRAND- CHILDREN AND ALL THOSE YET UNBORN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@ TREASURY. GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION.

AFTER I RECEIVE THIS INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS WE PROMISE WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS AND PRODUCE A LONG-TERM RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT FOR YOU AND THOSE YOU LOVE.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,

MINISTER OF TREASURY, H. PAULSON

P.S. LOOK AT DOLLAR BILL. MY SIGNATURE IS ON THE MONEY.

Congress OKs historic bailout bill; Bush signs it

Congress clears hotly contested bailout bill

By JULIE HIRSHFELD DAVIS and DAVID ESPO

WASHINGTON —

Congress has passed complex and highly criticized legislation authorizing $700 billion in government money to shore up the nation's stressed financial industry.

The 263-171 vote by the House sends the Senate-passed version to the White House for President Bush's signature. Among many features, the measure would allow the Treasury Department to buy up bad debt from various lending institutions.

Many members of the House voted for the bill even though said it was very attractive to them and to their constituents back home. The measure had been defeated in the same chamber on Monday, sending stocks on Wall Street into a record slide.

Announcement of the vote was greeted by applause.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House has started a roll call vote on historic legislation providing $700 billion in government money to bring stability to reeling financial markets.

Member after member went to the well of the chamber to voice discomfort and displeasure with many aspects of the bailout legislation. But they also said said they would vote for it anyway. And nearly 30 who voted against it on Monday said they had changed their minds.

President Bush was ready to sign it into law, and the Dow Jones industrial average on Wall Street was up in early trading in anticipation of the climactic vote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a vote for "Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street."

Schwarzenegger to U.S.: State may need $7-billion loan

In a letter obtained by The Times, the governor warns that tight credit has dried up funds California routinely relies on and it may have to seek emergency aid within weeks.....

bailout

Biden Tells 14 Lies During VP Debate

.... Michael Goldfarb chronicled the 14 lies HERE.

Spread of gangs tied to border-control

Transnational groups found to be mobile and adaptable

A "dangerous side effect" of America's failure to control the Southwest border and the nation's tolerance for high levels of illegal immigration has resulted in the spread of violent transnational gangs across the United States, including Maryland, Virginia and Washington, a report says.

A report written for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) says the gangs represent a "significant menace to the public," with about 80 percent of the members involved in serious crimes in addition to immigration violations and another 40 percent having committed violent crimes.

"The recent emergence and spread of several Hispanic street gangs, most notably MS-13 and 18th Street, has attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies and political leaders nationwide," said Jessica M. Vaughan, an author of the report, which was made public Tuesday. "Many gangs are made up of small-time troublemakers, but others have a reputation for grisly violence.

"They are responsible for virtually the entire spectrum of criminal activity, from nuisance crimes like graffiti to murder. Some are becoming increasingly well-organized and operating as sophisticated crime syndicates across national borders," she said.

Flying Imams try to add FBI agent as defendant

By Robert Spencer

The Flying Imams claim that they were taken off a flight not because they were acting suspiciously, but because they were discriminated against. They tried to sue the passengers who reported them -- which would have ended the reporting of suspicious behavior in airports and airplanes altogether -- and now they're going after an FBI agent who was involved. They're also suing several police officers.

Even if they are completely innocent, abhor terrorism, reject Islamic supremacism, and weren't doing anything but praying on that fateful flight, they should recognize that people will make honest mistakes in trying to prevent terror attacks. But by pursuing this lawsuit, they show that they're unwilling to grant that -- and the result of their suit, whether it is successful or not, will be to make it more difficult to take people off planes even when they are acting suspiciously. The only beneficiaries will be jihad terrorists. And, not coincidentally, their lawyer, Omar Mohammedi, is a CAIR op.

Isn't it funny how CAIR always seems to show up on the opposing side of any and all anti-terror efforts?

"No need to change imam's lawsuit, Metropolitan Airports Commission says: Airport board says FBI agent's role already was disclosed," by David Hanners for the Pioneer Press, October 3 (thanks to Twostellas):

The Metropolitan Airports Commission has told a judge that six Muslim imams who sued after being kicked off a flight almost two years ago shouldn't be allowed to add an FBI agent as a defendant in the case.

Lawyers for the imams claimed last week that they should be allowed to amend their suit because the FBI agent's involvement in the incident was "new evidence," but lawyers for the airports commission said that wasn't the case.

"The FBI's specific role was disclosed in the police report and in court filings, well before the deadline to amend passed," the commission argued in a document filed earlier this week.

Attorneys for both sides will argue their positions in a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

The airports commission's co-defendant, US Airways, said in a motion this week it wasn't taking a position on the imams' request to add the FBI agent as a defendant.

The imams were kicked off a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in November 2006 after a passenger passed a note to a flight attendant saying the men had prayed loudly in Arabic and made "anti-U.S." statements.

The pilot of the Phoenix-bound flight had them removed from the plane. But attorneys for the imams are trying to determine who had the men detained, handcuffed and questioned. Five airport police officers also are named as defendants in the case.

The imams claim they were discriminated against because of their religion and because they are Middle Eastern....

Dear Congress: Put the gun down now

By Michelle Malkin

Ok, it’s back to the beastly bailout business at hand and there is no time to waste. Crap Sandwich 2.0 is coming back to the House — and the MSM is heralding flip-floppers who are being bought off with Lord knows what.

My syndicated column this week tears into Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s Panic Mob and their hostage-taking tactics. You need to light up the switchboards. Every call makes a difference Let me quote Sen. Bob Bennett:

“I think the determinative factor in the House of Representatives will be the phone calls.”

Phone numbers are here. Tell Congress: Hold the line and drop the gun!

***
Dear Congress: Put the gun down now
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008

Will 2008 be the year of the Chicken Little Congress? Or can the House of Representatives show the panic-driven Senate what it really means to be a deliberative body?

On Sept. 19, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson put a gun to America’s head: Pass his $700 billion bailout of the banking industry and give him unfettered new powers to buy up an ocean of privately-held toxic assets or all hell would break loose. Treasury officials warned that the market would lose a third of its value if not passed immediately.

“We could see falls of 3,000 or 4,000 points on the Dow,” a Republican official heaved. “We may not have another day,” Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hyperventilated. “We can’t afford to do nothing,” echoed all the other Democrat Henny Pennys and Republican Goosey Looseys in Paulson’s sway. It’s a “crap sandwich,” House GOP leader John Boehner sighed, but the costs of inaction would be worse.

On Sept. 29, the House refused to bite. The Dow dropped nearly 7 percent – a “record fall” in points (778), but nowhere near the apocalyptic levels predicted by Paulson’s fear-mongers. Half that drop occurred before the bailout rejection. The skies, however gray, did not fall. The world did not end. The dire predictions of Paulson and company did not come to pass. The next day, stocks (their barometer, mind you, not necessarily mine) rebounded. We’re about where we were in 2006. Stock market Armageddon? I think not.

Paulson’s monumental misjudgment is no surprise to those who have paid attention to him over the last year. This is the man who proclaimed the subprime crisis “largely contained” in April 2007; “near the bottom” in May 2007; and “largely contained” again in August 2007. This is the man who pledged that he had “no interest in bailing out lenders or property speculators” in October 2007 and couldn’t “think of any situation where the backdrop of the global economy was as healthy as it is today.”

This is the man who patted himself on the back for refusing to “put taxpayer money on the line” to rescue Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15 – and then turned around the next day and engineered the $85 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of AIG. This is the man who vowed he had “no plans to insert money” into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac –and then turned around and committed $200 billion in capital and credit lines to those corrupt, bloated, crumbling institutions.

This is the man who declared “the worst is likely to be behind us” in May 2008 – and then got down on his knees in front of Nancy Pelosi to pass a Mother of All Bailouts plan whose dollar figure was plucked from thin air. (“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”)

This is a man, in other words, whose crap sandwich should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

On Oct. 1, at the behest of Paulson, the Senate scurried to put Mother of All Bailouts 2.0 on the table. All but 25 members swallowed. The “world’s greatest deliberative body” had no time to hold hearings, consider alternatives, or study the history of similar failed bailouts around the world. The Do Something Now Or Else mob did, however, have time to quadruple the volume of pages and stuff the urgent, emergency package with business-as-usual earmarks, goodies, and sweeteners.

John McCain and Barack Obama both cited credit squeeze scare stories to rationalize the rush. McCain decried: “When small businesses and big businesses like Sonic [Drive-In burger] franchisees can’t borrow…It hurts the entire community.” The rest of the story? Sonic clarified “that during the past year GE Capital provided less than 10% of the lending to its franchisees…in fact, many franchisees maintain access to other diversified sources of financing. Furthermore, Sonic has not received any notification from GE Capital, either directly or indirectly, that it will stop financing new loans to Sonic franchisees.”

Lost in all the End is Nigh frenzy were dozens of local and regional headlines across the country reporting that in fact, the end is not nigh: “Wall Street Credit Crisis Rings Hollow on Main Street;” “No credit freeze on Kern’s Main Street;” “Community banks aren’t yet feeling pinch of Wall Street meltdown;” “Farmers still able to get banks’ loans;” “Small town Main Street doing better than Wall Street.”

Instead, the New York Times obsessed about the drop in auto loan approvals over the last year – from 83 percent in 2007 down to 63 percent. Catastrophe? No. If lenders are finally realizing they shouldn’t give money to bad risks, why is that a bad thing?

Getting credit is not a constitutional right.

Preserving home ownership should not be a government imperative to be pursued at all costs.

The House faces a choice: Put the gun down and give our economic problems the time they deserve to get fixed – or fork over untold billions to a thoroughly debunked Foxy Loxy and his den of wolves.

***

On Wednesday, Politico listed 12 members who might switch their vote from No to Yes: Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), Rep. John B. Shadegg (R-Ariz.), Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.), Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.). House e-mail is not reliable. Make phone calls or send faxes. Call 202-224-3121 for the U.S. House of Representatives switchboard operator. Phone numbers for specific members are listed here.

Updates: Delahunt now says he will oppose the bill. Ramstad says he will vote yes. LaTourette will try to strip pork projects from the bill. Frelinghuysen says he is “encouraged by many of the improvements made” in the Senate.