Pelosi: It's not a bailout, it's a buy-in

Your Congress and your president (I don't want 'em, you can have 'em) have again agreed on a $700-billion bailout, and this time they say they really mean it. Headlines and links first, and then as always I'd like to hear your thoughts. The Los Angeles Times: "Congressional and administration officials unveiled their $700-billion rescue plan for Wall Street today, setting up the largest government intervention in the economy since the Great Depression."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, evidently with a straight face: "This is not about a bailout of Wall Street. It's a buy-in so we can turn our economy around" and protect the assets of ordinary Americans. Well, now I feel so much better about it. I'm buying in! I'm getting a piece of financial products that are so worthless that there's no market for them.The New York Times: "

Congress braced for a difficult vote on a $700 billion rescue of the financial markets after a weekend of tense negotiations produced a plan that Congressional leaders began selling to lawmakers on Sunday as significantly strengthened by new taxpayer safeguards.

"The 106-page bill, intended to ease a growing credit crisis, came after a frenzied week of political twists and turns and still faced some resistance from lawmakers on both the left and right who portrayed it as a dangerous rush to economic judgment.

Bold Bipartisan Leadership for Change department: The New York Times reports, "The two presidential candidates ... both gave guarded endorsements of the bailout plan Sunday."

-- Peter Viles