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Heat of the moment

Thursday, October 02, 2008

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By Bill Kisliuk
From the Editor

November 22nd, 2009

November 15th, 2009

November 8th, 2009

November 1st, 2009

October 25th, 2009

Just when it seemed we’d seen everything we were going to see in President George W. Bush’s eight-year White House run, when the major issues facing the nation seemed to be in focus and the national party conventions set the tone for what many say is the most important presidential campaign in their lifetimes, news breaks out that sets the nation on its ear.

The financial fallout on Wall Street and combustible reaction in Washington, D.C., are changing the political landscape as fast as a wildfire.

Might the Wall Street bailout turn out the most important issue this administration has faced since the terrible day when planes struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon?

So often, major financial news is met with a shrug out here in the real world. Wall Street sharps outhustling other Wall Street sharps makes for good white-collar drama and the occasional taut Hollywood thriller, but it doesn’t much affect us most of the time. Somebody outmaneuvers somebody else for control of a tobacco firm or an investment bank, and if the cigarettes are still on the shelves and our 401(k) statements are unscathed, we move on.

It feels as though we’ve entered different territory here.

On Thursday evening, a small group of demonstrators gathered at Main and Third streets in Napa to protest the notion of the government buying out troubled insurance giant AIG. Over the last few years, at this same corner adjacent to Veteran’s Memorial Park, there have been civil demonstrations against the United States’ military involvement in Iraq. Over on Jefferson Street, abortion protesters have for several years paced with placards outside the Planned Parenthood office.

Now Napans are protesting the ties between government and major U.S. financial institutions? It is astounding.

Here in the journalism business, I find myself thinking back to the newsroom of the weekly paper where I worked in Washington, D.C. We covered lobbying, the business of government and the governing of business.

Right now it must be a zoo back there.

D.C., always aboil with leaks to the media, false leads and gamesmanship — with newsmakers sizing up the press as both pawn and power broker — is in a frenzy.

To be a journalist in that kind of environment is both frustrating and fascinating.

Frustrating: So many journalists pursuing the same stories, and the presence of so few sources with real information compared to the number of people talking. It is hard to see through the smoke, but competition demands that you do your best and add to the mountain of information.

Fascinating: The good stuff is out there, right now. At times like these, fissures appear in the usual barricades to candor and valuable information. Telling details and anecdotes slip out, perhaps to be ignored or dismissed, perhaps to catch flame like an ember that lands on a pile of kindling.

The truth is somewhere in the tumult. It may take awhile for it to emerge.

4 comment(s)

kevin wrote on Sep 28, 2008 9:32 AM:

" Of course taxpayers are disgusted about the Democrat Financial Crisis!

They SHOULD be!

Just like the bankrupt Social Security Sytem, this financial crisis has it's roots back in FDR's New Deal era when he started the government agency known as Fanny Mae.

Democrat President Lyndon Johnson converted it to a "private" corporation. (That everyone "knew" was still backed by the full force of the US government...)

Under the Democrat President Bill Clinton the lending restrictions of Franny Mae and Freddie Mac were "loosened", allowing more loans to people who couldn't pay them back.

When the Republicans tried to improve the oversight in 2003 and 2005 they were prevented by the Democrats. When the Democrats took control of Congress, it was a field day for lobbyists, kickbacks and sweetheart deals from Franny and Freddie and their mortgage company co-conspirators.

Why wouldn't the mortgage companies and banks issue bad mortgages if they knew Franny and Freddie would buy them regardless of what they were actually worth! This "bailout" is nothing more than CONTINUING what Franny and Feddie had been doing for decades!

Thanks to the (few) Conservatives in Congress, it appears that at least SOME taxpayer protections have been included in the latest plan... "

Hear Ye wrote on Sep 28, 2008 5:26 PM:

" Deflect, deflect, and deflect. It's getting predictable yet still remains humorous. "

sickothis wrote on Sep 29, 2008 9:45 AM:

" blah blah blah CLINTON'S FAULT! blah blah blah... "

glenroy wrote on Sep 29, 2008 2:59 PM:

" Of course Democrats are going to deny their polices….they’ve been doing that and getting away with it since they messed up the Vietnam War…..’they can’t help it…what policies can the claim that anything was accomplished?’ And I’m semi-serious…. "

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