House to Vote on Bailout Fri, Write Your Reps.

[Gwynplaine]

The house is scheduled to vote on the new 700 billion dollar Bailout bill tomorrow. Now that it is festooned with tacked on pork it has a greater chance of passing, but the fact remains that it is massively unpopular among Americans. Many representatives are up for reelection again soon and so opinions of their constituents can make or break their career. If you are as opposed to the government spending your money to pay for the mistakes of others as I am write your representative and pressure them to vote against it. You can find your state representatives easily here:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

Then simply follow their page and find their contact info. Some contact forms require your full 9 digit zip code you can look up here:
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

In my experience their servers seem like they are being hammered by people accessing their pages and many load very slow or not at all. If you reload a few times or try again later you may get through though. Otherwise leaving a brief phone message could work as well. If you want you can check how your rep voted on the last bill here, and tailor your message to either support or chastise their position. In the end the bill will likely pass tomorrow, but considering the pressure they are under from constituents right now it can't hurt, and it's better to have tried.

[Maxxthepenguin]

I'll make sure to write them in support; considering the opposition, they need all the support they can get to get this shit moving.

[Dimmauk]

I like Pork. Bacon FTW! So what did they add on that will make this version pass?

[Maxxthepenguin]

I like Pork. Bacon FTW! So what did they add on that will make this version pass?

All sorts of shit to appease the opposers.
I can't wait to read it in detail.

[Dantrag]

service unavailable'd

[Kwijiboe]

Some pork:

Tax exemptions for race tracks, money given for research on wool, money given to a manufacturer that makes toy wooden arrows for kids, tax cuts on rum production, and another I heard was money given to American-Samoa research.

I'm sure we'll find out soon which states this money will go to, and which representatives requested the pork. It's pretty pathetic.

[Dantrag]

Some pork:

Tax exemptions for race tracks, money given for research on wool, money given to a manufacturer that makes toy wooden arrows for kids, tax cuts on rum production, and another I heard was money given to American-Samoa research.

I'm sure we'll find out soon which states this money will go to, and which representatives requested the pork. It's pretty pathetic.

I honestly...HONESTLY thought you were trolling with some of those comments, but a quick scan onto cnn and i found this in the highlights:

# Senate's financial rescue plan includes incentives that may attract votes
# Proposal would exempt a specific kind of arrow from excise tax
# Rum from Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands would get tax break
# Filmmakers would get a $478 million in incentives to produce movies in U.S.

[Gwynplaine]

If your that interested you can read the entire PDF of the bill here:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/01/news/pdf/index.htm

Including the new additions, the bill is reported to be more around the $850bil mark.

[Dimmauk]

Some pork:

Tax exemptions for race tracks, money given for research on wool, money given to a manufacturer that makes toy wooden arrows for kids, tax cuts on rum production, and another I heard was money given to American-Samoa research.

I'm sure we'll find out soon which states this money will go to, and which representatives requested the pork. It's pretty pathetic.

I'm sure its pork for the swing voters that didnt pass it last time.

[Zosi]

I'm sure its pork for the swing voters that didnt pass it last time.

The people who oppose it don't seem to understand that there's exactly zero chance of it NOT passing eventually, it's just a question of how much more it will cost us, both directly in the bill itself and indirectly as our financial markets continue to nosedive.

[aurik]

Yes $700b is too expensive. Let's make it $850b with exemptions for wooden arrow makers.

Because this guy needs a bail out:
http://www.igniq.com/images/zelda_on...ime_170805.jpg

[Azalee]

I lol'd at the abbreviation "TARP"... I kept thinking, "It's a trap!!"

Our CEO sent out an e-mail today giving us an update on the company, and assuring us that the company will be fine, and even though he disagrees with the Bailout, it will help keep our banks alive.

[Kuya]

That is a lot of random crap. LoLRum

[Tyche]

WOnder how much we could sell Puerto Rico for?

[Kuya]

It would make a fairly nice bombing range, since the people there aren't technically people per say.

[Gwynplaine]

The Write Your Rep internet servers and their websites are barely loading. I'd suggest just calling them and leaving a short but strong and to the point message for them.

[BarthelloSylph]

Fuck the bailout. Let the bad companies die.

[Tyr]

Thank you for the heads up, I was wondering when the bill would reappear before the House and wouldn't have caught it by tomorrow. I sent my e-mail out, and got my roommates who are from different districts to do the same.

[Amarok]

Wow @ some of the comments in this thread.

[TacoTaru]

http://www.alternet.org/images/manag...e_img00195.jpg

Pretty much sums up my thoughts.