PINKO DAILY BRIEFS. Sorry for the sporadic blogging! I'm in San Francisco at a conference (do any of you drink mate? We need to have a talk about this shit. Also how do you put accents on mate on a mac? Guh. I know how to make an umlaut. Sëe?) So are you following what's happening with the bailout? It's completely fucked.  1. We bailed out "Fannie and Freddie" who gave bad mortgages, but now they want/need more. 2. We did the actual "bailout," that whole mess where John McCain needed to go back to DC to have sex with that lobbyist suspended his campaign etc etc. The bailout was $700b to financial/investment firms to stabilize them, followed by a quick shift in course and more money to banks. The idea was that then the banks and investment companies would continue to give people credit so they could keep buying things. This was also where we learned that credit is the entire cornerstone of our economy and that there really isn't any real money ... the point of the bailout was for financial institutions to be able to continue to extend credit and promises of later money. That's why Ron Paul wants all money to be gold bricks. Or something. Following? 3. The banks were all "nahhh dude" and they didn't give anyone credit. And why would they? I wouldn't. Then some of them spent it on bonuses and extravagant travel. (Ed. note: I'm in a fancy hotel in downtown San Francisco in a leopard print robe right now! Rawr!) So now the Treasury Department announced that oops! Actually the bailout money (what's left of it) is going credit card companies and mortgage companies, which means that maybe some of the bailout will help someone because they are bailout out the people who gave out all the actual money. Also auto companies want a bailout, but Thomas Friedman is like nahhh dude, you should have innovated! And the Treasury Department put some other money out there but we don't know for who. Meanwhile everyone is losing jobs, Paul Krugman says it's a depression because normal tactics aren't working, and Time Magazine - fucking Time Magazine - has this amazing cover this week pushing for Obama to be FDR and take bold steps to fix things. Phew. In other but related news, this is a story to follow. There is a growing movement in the House and Senate to make sure that these bailouts and financial stimulus packages (whoa) include health care reform, which is a massive line in the sand. Some see it as their only real chance to get health care reform, kind of a shock doctrine in reverse, or a shock doctrine for good. Also, Hillary Clinton might be Secretary of State. Also, Jennifer Aniston actually, really is pregnant now right? John Mayer sure looks happy about it! Finally, James Bond ... environmentalist?