Schoolhouse Rock civics refresher course

Last hour on CNN, anchor Rick Sanchez was trying to explain tonight's congressional gyrations with a video pen, drawing arrows to and from the House and Senate, over the Capitol building, like a football commentator diagramming a play.

It was ridiculous. He would have been better off just taking three minutes to show the Schoolhouse Rock classic, "I'm Just a Bill."



I have been watching and listening to a lot of media this week as I recovered from my illness. I think it was Peggy Noonan who said that the problem with the bailout package as it has been communicated so far is that our leaders are scaring us without educating us about what is going on. I rarely agree with her but I did on this one.

I have to admit that the more I details I learn about the bailout, the more confused I become about what I think is the best way forward. I don't want to bail out the derivatives created from bad debt but I might buy up actual loans and renegotiate the mortgages.

Washington D. C. is suffering a true karmic payback this week. Not only should they have seen this crisis coming from a long way down the road, but since when have we ever seen the government do back-flips like this to act quickly to get things done? They sure haven't done that for regular people as they lost jobs. They haven't gotten paid family leave passed like every other developed nation. They can't even pass Equal Pay legislation to outlaw wage discrimination. Even immediate crisis management like Hurricane Katrina was completely botched. But Wall Street--that really captures their attention. So now is any wonder that regular citizens don't feel motivated to bail out a financial system that seems irrelevant to their lives?

I understand that financial intervention is probably necessary, but it is a crying shame to think about what a $700 billion investment could have done for families, education, infrastructure, the environment...so, so many pressing needs that affect all of us. To real Moms and Dads balancing family budgets, it boggles the mind. We have every right to be angry at the slow-motion financial catastrophe that suddenly explodes into an urgent, rushed response.

A coherent explanation of our financial meltdown

It's just an atrocious day on Wall Street and the close of trading can't come soon enough.

The US House has failed to pass the bailout bill and the Dow is down over 600 points as I type.

I realized I do have something constructive to contribute to this situation. I can recommend that you listen to the This American Life episode called The Giant Pool of Money. This show was produced in conjunction with NPR News last May. It is the most coherent explanation I've heard of the origins of the bubbles that are now popping.

Even if you have never downloaded a show before, you can just listen to it through your computer--no iPod or CD burner necessary. It is definitely worth 55 minutes of your time and attention.

I am so angry at this situation. Unlike an earthquake or tornado, this was a completely predictable disaster given that the core of our financial systems were rotting from the inside out for years.

It is definitely a Mojo Mom topic because we and our children will be paying the consequences for years, one way or the other.