What’s Going On: Nightly News Roundup
Posted on September 20th, 2008 by ecthompson
Here’s the Saturday night news roundup:
- President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have proposed a $700 billion (that’s billion with a capital “B”) bail out to shore up mortgage assets in the financial field. At the same time, senior administration officials are talking with Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom to enact similar programs. The details are as clear as mud. We don’t know how this would work. We’re not even sure who we are bailing out. Basically, as I see it, we’re offering a huge pot of money to Wall Street with no strings attached.
- I haven’t yet discussed the tragic railway crash outside of Los Angeles that killed 24 people. Preliminary investigations suggest the conductor was at fault. Early reports also suggested that the conductor was sending a text message right before the crash. It seems to me that while the train is in a congested area the conductor needs to be paying attention. Many, many people were hurt. It’s very sad. I hate preventable tragedies. LA Times has the latest.
- Bill Moyers had a great show on Friday. I will try and post some video. He had several guests (Gretchen Morgenson, Floyd Norris — both of the New York Times and Kevin Phillips author of Bad Money) which had some insight into this financial crisis.
- There was a shockingly huge explosion in the capital city Islamabad, Pakistan. Currently, 60 are dead and 250 are wounded.
- Hurricane Ike not only devastated the Houston-Galveston area but also left almost two million in the dark in Ohio.
- ABC news has obtained government documents that seemed to contradict publicly stated allegations about the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. As you recall, Monegan refused to fire Governor Sarah Palin’s brother-in-law who was a state trooper. Palin had suggested, through her attorney, that the commissioner went to DC to seek funds for an anti-sexual violence program. The governor stated that this was not authorized. In fact, it appears that it was authorized. I’m sure there’s more to come in this saga.
- A U.S. District Judge orders Vice President Cheney to preserve his records. Cheney is known for his adherence to the rule of law.
- The first two weeks of the Rachel Maddow show has been well received. Her ratings are excellent. Congratulations Rachel. If you haven’t seen her show on MSNBC, I highly recommend it.
