I got an email from a reader, Allison, who was worried about a provision supposedly buried in the Treasury bailout proposal.
Countdown just reported that Section 8 of the Bailout Proposal states:Now, I'm sure Allison is a nice person and all, but I have to admit that I saw her email and went "oh God, another conspiracy theory." Then I asked around town, and guess what - Allison's not so crazy. The provision is real, and it's apparently causing some real concern in town. Yes, George Bush hid a little provision in the bailout bill to give his Treasury Secretary powers that are, well, basically like what they did with the Patriot Act, as DailyKos diarist FSL3 (I love these blog pseudonyms) writes. King Paulson to go along with King George. These people really are pathetic."Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."What the hell is going on here? They're saying we need accountability and transparency, but they've written secrecy into the proposal! Am I reading this wrong?
(Okay, Cryptic Title alert. I'd read a story, when I was in grade school, about something called "a Jonah." It was a muffin, or cake, or cookie that you stuffed with pepper or something equally vile, then hid it in a pile of perfectly good muffins. The person who got the jonah, the muffin with the yuk inside, well, I'm not sure I remember what happens next. But I do recall the story, and the term Jonah, and now can't find it anywhere. Am I crazy? Was this just a short story, or, was this some cultural tradition we were learning about (I think it was the latter). Anyone?)
