Newsclippings of the Day :: I am Very Thankful for Obama

Today over lunch I read two very good pieces that are worthy reads in this day and age.

First, my friend Dawn in Atlanta sent THIS from Judith Warner in the New York Times. It is about how we are at the start of a new era with Obama.

“To those who would tear the world down: we will defeat you. This is our moment. This is our time.”

--From Obama's Victory Speech in Grant Park

Second, THIS from my heroine, Naomi Klein, writing in the Rolling Stone about our so called bailout of Wall Street. Here's a couple of choice quotes:

"See if any of this sounds familiar: As soon as the bailout was announced, it became clear that Treasury officials would hire outsiders to perform their jobs for them — at a profit. Private companies wanting to help manage the bailout were given just two days to apply for massive, multiyear contracts. Since it was such a mad rush — after all, the entire economy was about to implode — there was no time for an open bidding process. Nor was there time to draft rigorous rules to make sure that those applying don't have serious conflicts of interest. Instead, applicants were asked to disclose their conflicts and to explain — and this is not a joke — their "philosophy in fulfilling your duty to the Treasury and the U.S. taxpayer in light of your proprietary interests and those of other clients." In other words, an open invitation to bullshit about how much they love their country and how they can be trusted to regulate themselves."

"...Has the Treasury partially nationalized the private banks, as we have been told? Or is it the other way around? Is it Treasury that has been partially privatized by Wall Street, its massive rescue plan now entirely in the hands of a private bank it is directly subsidizing?"

I hope this financial "crisis" and the ill-conceived solutions aren't going to cripple Obama's ability to deal with our deficit.

Wouldn't it be great if Klein could become an advisor to Obama?