In the 1980s Gore Vidal observed of Reagonomics: "The US government prefers that public money go not to the people but to big business. The result is a unique society in which we have free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich." 

The Wall Street financiers and firms whose problems have prompted the $700 billion federal bailout are no strangers to Capitol Hill or to politics.  

Since 2001, eight of the most troubled firms have donated $64.2 million to congressional candidates, presidential candidates and the Republican and Democratic parties, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. 

In June of this year, Andrew Kramer, writing in the New York Times broke the story that the world's oil giants, "Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP ... along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies" were "in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields."  

One of the most senior federal ministers has had his political allegiances, views on police corruption, drinking habits, friendships and other personal details secretly documented by the nation's top criminal intelligence body. 

Cherie Blair has never knowingly avoided saying and doing stupid things, but her latest remark – that her husband Tony is comparable to Sir Winston Churchill, the wartime leader, Nobel prize-winner, soldier and historian – will attract understandable mirth.  

The Tories are under fire after it emerged they have been bankrolled by City 'wolves' who have made a killing from the financial crash.  

The party has received hundreds of thousands of pounds from hedge fund managers who raked in vast sums by short-selling shares in British banks.  

Our buddy from two lifetimes ago, Carl Lavin over at Forbes.com, points out a fascinating paragraph buried in a story on his website late last week by Brian Wingfield and Josh Zumbrun. 

The plan to rescue the US financial industry arrogates virtually unlimited money and power over the financial affairs of the state to the office of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Paulson is a figure with a long history of intimate connections to the political and financial elite. 

Friends,  

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken.  

Turning Olympic Park into a V8 Supercars street circuit would attract between $100 million and $110 million to the NSW economy over the five years of the race, Premier Nathan Rees said today. 

Formally announcing the State Government's support for the event at the site, Mr Rees said that the organisers would be able to use "the best city in the world as a backdrop".

The submissions made on Dr Haneef's behalf contain a detailed analysis of the different factual statements made by government agencies against other documents and the now known facts.  

In carrying out this analysis, we were startled by the degree of factual error that we discovered.  

Once upon a time there lived an emperor who had three sons.  

The emperor was getting old, and began grooming a replacement. He soon concluded that one of the sons, a simpleton called Clever Jorg, could never succeed him.  

You've got to love the banking industry.

As our friends in the financial sector were passing the hat among taxpayers last week for $700 billion in bailouts to cover their crappy mortgage investments, they were simultaneously condemning the House of Representatives' passage of a "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights," which aims to crack down on some of the industry's more troublesome practices.

 

Enraged by the prospect of $700 billion of their taxes going to reimburse Wall Street speculators for their dubious investments, about 500 protesters paraded through Lower Manhattan's financial district Thursday afternoon, their chants of "You broke it, you bought it" reverberating through the narrow office building canyons and off the flag-draped wall of the New York Stock Exchange. 

On Wednesday, the House passed a mammoth defense bill by a 392-39 vote. It's expected to clear the Senate with little difficulty next week. 

It was part of a trillion-dollar stop-gap measure to keep programs running through next March, allowing lawmakers to skip town without passing a final budget.