Here’s the early edition of the Wednesday morning news roundup:

  • Ridiculously, the White House– sensing that there was unrest on Capitol Hill– sent none other than Vice President Dick Cheney to rally congressional Republicans. It is unclear to me why they didn’t laugh in his face, but they didn’t. On the other hand, it is reported that they did rise up en masse and throw tomatoes at the VP (I made up that last part. 🙂 )
  • A gunman in Finland opened fire on a vocational college. This shooting appears to be similar to those that we’ve seen in the United States. The gunman appeared to be randomly shooting students. One day prior to his rampage, he was questioned by Finnish authorities about violent videos he posted on the Internet. It appears the authorities were on to something. The gunman did take his life, just as many of these guys do. My prayers go out to the victims and their families.
  • An interesting development occurred in Baghdad yesterday as Royal Dutch Shell completed a multi-billion dollar deal and opened an office there. Thirty-six years after being kicked out of Iraq, the oil companies are back. This does not prove that we went to war over oil, but it sure is a hell of a suggestion.
  • Rick Davis, one of Senator John McCain’s top advisers, was president of a lobbying firm called Homeownership Alliance whose purpose was to lobby for Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. According to New York Times reporting, Davis received over $2 million as president of the coalition through this firm. Further reports show that that payments continued to flow to Davis as late as August of this year. How can you clean up the culture of corruption in Washington when the same culture exists in your campaign? I’m just asking.
  • The FBIopened an investigation into Lehman Brothers, AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. I have little hope that real crimes have been committed. Instead, I think that these companies used the existing laws to hyper-inflate and bundle securities. Then, they passed the securities from one company to another by repackaging them at every step of the way. They used some fancy– and probably inaccurate– formula to value the securities. Still, I don’t believe any laws were broken. Instead the problem was greed.
  • I’m not exactly sure what we are seeing on Capitol Hill: Our lawmakers pretending to have a backbone and look out for the American people? Both Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate have basically said that they needed to have more details and more oversight. I think both sides agree that something must be done. I also believe that both sides understand a bailout of some sort should happen and will happen but there has to be some conditions. That’s my opinion and, for now, it appears to be the opinion of the United States Congress.
  • During his military trial, Khalid Sheik Mohammed questioned the judges religious affiliation. The judge, a marine colonel, has stated that he is not a Jew. The judge refused to reveal any more of his religious beliefs, ruling that these details are not relevant.
  • Senator John McCain finally held a press conference yesterday. This man was entirely comfortable in front of the press until recently. McCain has been railing against the excesses of Wall Street and their “golden parachutes.” A reporter asked the senator about Carly Fiorina, a McCain spokesperson and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who had been fired. In response, McCain served up a heaping bowl of hypocrisy. He basically said that Fiorina’s golden parachute was fine everybody else’s was bad.
  • As Lehman Brothers goes down the toilet, they are handing out $2.5 billion in bonuses to 10 thousand employees. I would like for someone to pay me lots of money to drive the 156 year-old company into the ground, because I can do that. I thought that you got paid a bonus for a job well done. These 10 thousand employees should pay us (or at least the stockholders)!
  • Bill Moyers had a nice rant at the end of his show this week. He discussed the greed running rampant on Wall Street, making CEOs ask for more and more money. It is this greed which pushed the New York Yankees, one of the wealthiest franchises in professional sports, to ask the people of New York to build them a stadium. A new stadium. So, the House that Ruth Built will be imploded soon. The house that the people built will open in April of 2009. The rich and the well-to-do can rub elbows. Sadly, the people who financed the stadium cannot afford to go in. (See video below.)