Wednesday morning news Roundup -- early edition

Let's start with the ridiculous this morning, the White House sensing that there was odd rest on Capitol Hill sent none other than Vice President Dick Cheney to rally congressional Republicans. It is unclear to me why they didn't laugh in his face but they didn't. On the other hand, it is reported that they did rise up en masse and throw tomatoes at the VP (I made up that last part. :-) )

Overseas, a gunman in Finland opens fire on a vocational college. This shooting appears to be similar to those that we've seen in the United States. The gunman appeared to be randomly shooting students. One day prior to his rampage he was questioned by Finnish authorities about violent videos he posted on the Internet. It appears the authorities were on to something. The gunman dead take his life as many of these guys do. My prayers go out to the victims and their families.

Staying overseas, an interesting development in Baghdad yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell has completed a multibillion-dollar deal and has opened an office in Baghdad. 36 years after being kicked out of Iraq, the oil companies are back. This does not prove that we went to war over oil but it sure is a hell of a suggestion.

Rick Davis, one of John McCain's top advisers, was president of a lobbying firm called Homeownership Alliance. Through this firm, Rick Davis, as reported in the New York Times, received over $2 million as president of the coalition. The purpose of this coalition was to lobby for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that payments continue to flow to Rick Davis as late as August of this year. How can you clean up the culture of corruption in Washington when the same culture exists in your campaign? I'm just asking?

The FBI has opened an investigation into Lehman Brothers, AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. I have little hope that real crimes have been committed. Instead, I think that these companies used the existing laws to hyper inflate and bundle securities. Then they passed the securities from one company to another repackaging them at every step of the way. They used some fancy and probably inaccurate formula to value the securities but I don't believe any laws were broken. Instead the problem was greed.

I'm not exactly sure what we are seeing on Capitol Hill. Our lawmakers pretending to have a backbone and look out for the American people? Both Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate have basically said that they needed to have more details and more oversight. I think both sides agree that something must be done. I also believe that both sides understand a bailout of some sort should happen and will happen but there has to be some conditions. That's my opinion, for now, it appears to be the opinion of the United States Congress.

In his military trial, Khalid Sheik Mohammed has questioned the judges religious affiliation. The judge, a Marine colonel, has stated that he is not a Jew. The judge has refused to reveal any more of his religious beliefs. He is ruled that it is not relevant.

John McCain finally held a press conference yesterday. This is a man who is entirely comfortable in front of the press until recently. Senator McCain has been railing against the excesses of Wall Street and their "golden parachutes." A reporter asked the senator about Carly Fiorina, a McCain spokesperson and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard before she was fired. John McCain served up a large heaping bowl of hypocrisy. He basically said her golden parachute was fine everybody else's was bad.

As Lehman Brothers goes down the toilet, they are handing out $2.5 billion in bonuses to 10,000 employees. I would like for someone to pay me lots of money to drive the 156-year-old company into the ground because I can do that. I thought that you got paid a bonus for a job well done. These 10,000 employees should pay us (or at least the stockholders)!

Bill Moyers has a nice rant at the end of his show, this week. He discusses the greed that has run rampant on Wall Street. The greed that makes CEOs asks for more and more money. It is this greed which pushed the New York Yankees, one of the wealthiest franchises in professional sports, to ask the people of New York to build them a stadium. A new stadium. So, the House that Ruth built will be imploded soon. The House that the people built will open in April of 2009. The rich and the well-to-do can rub elbows. Sadly, the people who financed the stadium cannot afford to go in.