New
York: Even as lawmakers laboured to break the impasse on Bush administration's
$700 billion plan to rescue giant Wall Street firms to solve the financial crisis,
the bailout has spontaneously inspired street protests in the US and outrage
gone viral across the web.
US turmoil and its impact in India | US financial crisis: End or beginning?
Protesters argue that they would want the Congress to protect
millions of ordinary American citizens on the verge of losing their
homes due to poor lending practices of creditors instead of handing out
public money to big investment companies responsible for ruining the economy in the first place.
US bailout battle heading for a showdown
An Indian American, Arun Gupta, too was enraged on learning the
details of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bailout plan with
taxpayer funds. Publisher of an alternative newspaper, The Indypendent,
he sent an e-mail to some politically active friends in New York, which
resulted in protests against the bailout in New York and at scores of
other locations in the country Sep 25.
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"I couldn't sit back while this plan gets rammed through Congress," Gupta was quoted in the media as saying.
Biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression
He now works with the online group, truemajority.org, and is
expecting hundreds to join a novel protest planned near Wall Street in
Manhattan. Protesters intend building a pile of "citizen junk" that the
government should also purchase in front of the iconic bull sculpture.
Buffett and bailout on investor minds
Besides street protests, the Internet is now the site of
numerous petitions, debates bordering on rants, and satire about the
treasury secretary's plan and its potential consequences. Vociferous
critics spanning the political and ideological spectrum in the country
demand that Congress amend, scale back, or scrap the plan altogether.
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Much of online rage takes the form of signatures on petitions
and electronic letters to members of Congress. One Independent Senator,
Bernie Sanders, is circulating a popular one on the left-leaning blog
Huffington Post.
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The 1.9-million member Service Employees International Union is
also circulating a sign-on letter to Congress that says point blank:
"No deal. No blank check." Another website, StopTheHousingBailout.com
argues: "A bailout tells responsible Americans that they are suckers."
A right-wing blogger urges Republicans to vote against the
bailout, since "God himself couldn't have given rank-and-file
Republicans a better opportunity to create political space between
themselves and the administration".
Biting satire is the way of buymyshitpile.com, where users are
posting pictures of their personal junk next to the tagline: "Hey
Washington, can you buy my bad investments,
too?" The total asking price of the "pile" submitted by users-which
includes horse shit, baseball card collection, and an 'Immagrent', has
crossed $7 billion as of Saturday.
Social networking sites are not immune to the new virus. The Facebook group "Just Say No to the Government Bailout" has over 300 members now.
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On YouTube,
there is a bailout-related group called the Young Turks, whose
news-style segment, "This Is How The Bail Out Will Screw You", has had
more than 25,000 page views.
"The public outrage out there is really enormous," said
Independent presidential candidate and populist consumer advocate Ralph
Nader on a TV programme, calling the Bush proposal "a double standard
between the guys at the top and the people who are going to have to pay
the bills".
US bailout fuels protests in streets,
online