I wrot to my Rep., Mary Fallin, and this was the response I got

to my "Why the hell did you vote for this crap?" letter:
The last few weeks have been a very challenging time for our nation and financial markets as we in Congress and on Main Street have debated about what action, if any, is required to stabilize our national financial system. While we have turned the page on the first chapter of this crisis, our economic problems require a long term fix, and there are surely many more challenges ahead.

We've turned the page into a horror novel.

I share the anger and frustration of all Americans over the current financial crisis. The fact that we have been forced to pass a government intervention of this magnitude is a testament to how great the scope of this problem truly is. I am optimistic, however, that the actions taken in Congress and the deliberate and careful process by which the final economic rescue plan was produced will help to eventually stabilize our economy.

'Deliberate and careful process?!? That mess we witnessed with Congress and the White House yelling "The sky is falling! Give us a blank check OR WE'RE DEAD!" ?

The first hastily drafted version of this bill, presented to Congress on September 29 and voted on that same day, was flawed. It did not contain market reforms, nor did it adequately protect the use of taxpayers' money. I opposed it on these grounds. Like many of my colleagues, however, I understood something needed to be done to keep our economy from further market and job losses.

That you opposed that mess was good. However, anymore, when a politician says 'something needed to be done' I want to put a Claymore on my wallet.

As the week following that vote progressed, I joined my colleagues in pushing for the addition of market reforms that were included into a new and improved version of the rescue package. Raising the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000 was an important step in protecting Americans' savings and small business assets. Additionally, the suspension of "mark to market" accounting rules will add a degree of stability to this volatile climate. While these changes in no way made the new bill perfect, they did mark an improvement over what we saw earlier.

Oh, yeah, LOTS of 'market reforms'. With Chris Countrywide Dodd and Barney Fannie Mae Frank leading the way instead of being the targets of FBI investigations. Real confidence-builders, those. And anyone who thinks this abortion that came out of the Senate was 'more carefully crafted'(I'm assuming that's what she means by 'new and improved version') than the original House version... unless, of course, overlooking all the additional looting added into it makes it look 'new and improved'.

These improvements, combined with a clear need to act decisively, convinced me to offer my support for this new bill. Inaction was not a choice. Although Oklahoma has been fortunate to have a stronger economy than the rest of the nation, the implications of an economic collapse and its potential impact on every American family could not be ignored.

How about 'action to strip out all the pork'? How about 'action to strip out all the bribes to businesses and politicians'? Why couldn't we see THAT action in this mess? THAT kind of 'acting decisively'?

The calls I got from the Fifth District only reinforced that notion. Many in business and banking called to discuss the tightening of credit for business expansion. Families called, worried about the difficulty of getting car and home loans during a credit crisis. Municipalities and universities were concerned over the lack of sale of bond issues to finish or begin new projects. Oklahoma's State Treasurer expressed his concern for teacher pensions, which he estimated would suffer a $42 million loss, along with over $15 million in expected losses to the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement Fund.

Which means you had to vote for something that would loot billions out of our pockets to pay off the aforementioned politicians and their supporters? Wonderful solution, that is.

If the instability in our markets is not aggressively addressed, it will affect the economic security of almost every family and business in Oklahoma. It is for that reason that I decided, in what is surely one of the most difficult decisions I have made while in office, to support the revised economic rescue package.

Therefore deciding that the aforementioned looting of our pockets was worth it. Instability that could have been addressed WITHOUT all the payoffs and bribes. As if all the money taken out of our pockets to pay bribes and buy votes WON'T affect our economic security. As if the Treasury Secretary being given all kinds of neat authority won't screw with things. Yeah. How about 'aggressively addressing' this crap, dammit?

This plan is the first step towards economic recovery, but it is hardly the last. Looking forward, we must seek additional measures to ensure the taxpayers are never placed in this position again. Congress will retain oversight of the process, and I will work to make sure new safeguards are put in place to prevent future problems. Fixing things is not enough. We have to permanently end the bad practices that caused this mess in the first place and punish the bad players in the marketplace.

Yeah, we're hearing about all the 'next steps'. Like the treasury secretary and all the new powers he's been given to play with, and the increased socialization of our nation. And more and more screwing with our lives by corrupt politicians.

And I do not use 'corrupt' lightly. As Scalzi wrote the other day, all those 'sweeteners' written into the Senate bill are properly called 'bribes'. Which means every Senator or Rep. who changed their vote based on them is properly called corrupt, as they were bribed to change their vote. I have no idea if there was something there that helped change Fallin's vote; I'm speaking in general. If she did change it based on one of these 'sweeteners', then she's a corrupt as the rest.

More and more, either a meteor or the rope stand seems like a real good idea.