Remember those compensation limits?

Everybody remembers how the executives at major banks and investment houses were going to be limited in their compensation, right? So they couldn't take home big buckets of money for tanking a company, and then leave with the golden parachute to cash in on their way out? Failing upwards, so to speak. Remember how that was a major part of the bill?

Well, it still is. Kind of. In what amounts to a final middle-finger from the Bush administration (well, OK, with the current pace of things, "final" remains to be seen), those rules only apply to companies that receive bail-out funds by selling assets to the government by auction. This was originally the system the Treasury Department said they planned to use to distribute the money, and why the provision was written that way. Of course, now that the law has been passed, the Treasury Department isn't using that system, and has said there are no plans to use it in the future. So all those limits don't actually apply to any real companies. Handy, that.

Here's the Washington Post story on it.

IOKIYA ... D

In general, political attack ads bother me because I consider the lack of context almost always employed by them to be lying by omission. But this is politics and unfortunately that is a useful strategy for appealing to the low information voter which is admittedly the larger percentage of the population. You learn to live with it and devote a little time to disabusing friends and family of the FUD if necessary. Of course, you don't dispel the FUD surrounding the other guy. You leave that task for that bastard's supporters.

However this election cycle an attack ad so incredibly ballsy in its omission has been running in Georgia since the closing month of the general election and lives on to piss me off in the run-off election. Worse yet, in a mind-wrenching manner of political dissonance, it was paid for by the DSCC.

I am referring to the attack ad 'Saxby Economics' where the DSCC slams Saxby Chambliss for voting yea on H.R. 1424, better known as the Wall Street Bailout. It was a hotly contested bill and I would venture the guess that a majority of Georgians were against it (I was for the bill, a commercial paper stand-still is a serious problem) which is why the DSCC and Martin are blatantly trying to capitalize on the fear and outrage surrounding what was a necessary evil. It really bothered me back then but that's politics.

Since the general election results, the stakes have been raised and this commercial was given a revision. The DSCC, and by complacent extension Martin, air the same ad with an added bit: immediately after slamming Saxby for voting yea for the bailout, they show a picture of Obama, the narrator praises his economic prowess, and says Georgia needs someone (Martin) who will help Obama's agendas in the Senate. Of course, the blatantly ballsy omission that Obama also voted yea for the bailout is nearly enough to make my head explode every time this attack disgraces my television.

So to sum up, attacking one guy for his stance on a bill and then immediately praising and vowing to help another guy who voted the same way: It's OK If You're A Democrat. Mark this down, people; it's not likely to happen again any time soon.