Scuttling the ship

Faced with the prospect of their ship or cargo being captured, sailors and pirates throughout history have at times made the decision to quite literally go down with their ship. Depending on the context, some would call it noble (or insane) but it is, at its core, an act of pure nihilism. Nihilism is not IMHO a philosophy that ought to be well represented in government.

So when the Senate Republican killed the $14 billion auto bailout yesterday, I fear they may have turned their cannons into the proverbial deck of our flagging economy and let fly. Their basic argument seems to be that if you don’t let us destroy the United Auto Workers union with this bill, we will let the Big Three do it in Chapter 11 and we don’t give a fuck about the consequences. It is unbelievably irresponsible and a giant middle finger to people who don’t go to work in a suit, especially after showering Wall Street in cash with almost no strings attached. We are in for nearly $100 billion on AIG alone and we are BUYING that piece of shit. But these assholes can’t get over the ideological hump and fund a pittance of what we blew on the bankers to keep a couple million people and the heart of our manufacturing sector at work in the middle of the worst employment environment in a generation. The last hope appears to be the Administration stepping in with some funding from the money allocated to the financial sector, a move that they have previously discarded.

Dick Cheney is reported to have said that with the failure of the bailout bill, it is “Hebert Hoover” time. The markets open in a few minutes. Let’s see if he is right.